Archive for January, 2010

Basic Udon with Pan-Fried Tofu

Tuesday, January 26th, 2010

When I worked at a Japanese restaurant, not many people realize that Japanese food isn’t all miso soup, teriyaki, tempura, and sushi.  Though they are some of my favorite parts of Japanese cuisine, there is so much more.  Yakisoba, agedashi tofu, tamago, and whole baked eel with decadent sauce spread over beds of rice are just a few of the delicious inventions the Japanese have bestowed on us.  Within a couple weeks, I had to know menu, many of the dishes foreign to me at the time, down to the type of broth and/or oil the chef used to prepare.  By the last of my two years, though I had the information at the top of my head, I found myself leaning on a favorite dish.  Many conversations with customers intimidated by the raw fish would go as follows:

Customer: “I don’t want raw fish.”

Christine: “Ok, well, what are you in the mood for?  Have you had Japanese before?”

Customer: “Yeah, I was going to go for teriyaki, but I always get teriyaki.”

Christine: “Well, do you want to try one of the best kept secrets of Japanese cuisines?”

Then I would introduce the customer to udon.  It was served in a small, cast iron bowl, steaming and pungent.  The thick flour noodles, if cooked right are perfect for slurping.  The slightly salty and sweet broth fills up the coldest day or add a nice end to a cool summer night.  At Mobo, we often served it with tempura.

The other day I was tired from a long week at work and feeling slightly homesick for Colorado.  On my way home I picked up three ingredients, coming to less than five dollars and made a make shift Udon.  I’d like to note that Rasa Malaysia and La Fuji Mama have great recipes for dashi from scratch.  I didn’t make the broth from scratch simply because I have limited freezer space (keep in mind I share my house with three people) and adding to my broth collection is silly at this point.

Udon

Four cups of dashi
2 T of soy sauce
1 T of mirin
2 tsp sugar
2 scallions, chopped
2 cups of fresh udon (anything less than fresh can be a little too floury and dry)
1 T of dried seaweed

Bring dashi soy sauce, mirin, sugar, and scallions to a boil.  Add fresh udon and seaweed until floppy and warm.

Pan-Fried Tofu

1 block of extra firm tofu
1/2 cup of panko flakes
1-2 eggs (start with one, but have another just in case you need more)

1.  Take the tofu from the container and cut into one inch cubes and dry off as best as you can.
2.  One at a time, coat the tofu cubes with egg then roll in panko flakes.  Put to side.
3.  Once all the cubes are coated, heat pan  with oil in it until nice and hot.
4.  Fry each side of the tofu for 30 seconds or until golden brown.  Once all sides are golden brown take from heat.  Put the tofu on a paper towel to absorb any extra oil.

Now do the noodle dance.

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One Chicken and Whatever and Whoever: I’m Sick of Chicken Thursday (Late Post!)

Wednesday, January 20th, 2010


So, I caught up on some things and I double checked my blog and realized that what posted was the unfinished version of the post.  I really took a while to re-do this post, because I had some other things that were more pressing.  Though, my blog should be much higher on the priority list.

I’m happy to mention for the first time I’ll be transferring the blog to its own domain with a better set up.

Anyway, on the fourth day I made a few pot pies with the leftover chicken.

Here’s where I’m going to tell you right now what a food blogger I am not.  Since I lost the previous post, I also lost my recipe…

I barely had a recipe to begin with since I know all I needed was a pie crust and filling.  I’ve been reading “Ratio” by Michael Ruhlman and splurged and bought the $4.99 app for the iPhone.  I’ve used it to make many things and I really like the liberation it give me.

Anyway, I grabbed my handy dandy Ratio app on my iPhone and plugged away.  I made enough pie dough for a 9inch pie and threw it in the fridge.  Physically.  It made a thud.  Just kidding.

I took the left over chicken, a quarter of a bag frozen veggies, and the leftover broth I had from the soup the night before and kept it handy.  I made some hot roux (three parts flour, two parts fat) and slowly poured the leftover broth in until I got about the desired thickness.  I like a thick sauce for pot pie, so it was quite a bit.  Add the veggies and chicken.  Heat for ten minutes or so, until everything is warm.  While the filling is heating, take the pie dough from the fridge (should be in the fridge at least half an hour) and fill the pie pan.  I used ramekins and muffin tins to make little, portable pies.  Fill each tin/ramekin/pan, and top.  Bake at 400 for about 30 minutes (until the crust is a nice golden brown.)

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Bacon Potato Leek Soup Update

Thursday, January 14th, 2010

I realized after I posted the recipe that I didn’t do a great job at specifying how much broccoli to put in the recipe and how many it serves.  I updated it (4oz/a quarter of a pound of broccoli and about four if served as an appetizer), but in case you subscribe via RSS, I wanted to give the update.

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Bacon Potato Leek Soup – Wednesday

Thursday, January 14th, 2010

I’m on Day Three of Chickenpalooza and after two days of broth-making, it’s time to make this broth work for us.

This recipe started out as a vegan broccoli and potato puree, but as I rummaged through my fridge, I found some lonely looking ingredients and… well, it’s clearly not vegan anymore.  Nonetheless, I am not a vegan, so to me this is a delicious creation.  You can skin the potatoes, I left mine on, because once my mother told me the skins have a lot of vitamins.  Another tip— take it easy on the salt.  Whenever I work with cured pork, I try to use very little salt since as the pork heats up, it releases salt.

I’ve made this soup twice in the last week with slight variations.  I’m posting both pictures.  The only difference is the greener version has double the broccoli.

Serves two as a meal, four as a soup course
4 oz of bacon, chopped into one inch pieces
1 medium onion, chopped
2 large leek, chopped
3 cloves of garlic, chopped
2 cups of chicken broth
2 cups of water
1 pound of potatoes, cut into one inch cubes
3 sprigs of fresh parsley
2 bay leaves
2 teaspoon of dried thyme
1/2 of an 8oz bag/ 1/4 of a pound of frozen broccolli, cut into small pieces.
Pepper & salt to taste

1.   Heat the bacon in a large pot.  Once a little bacon grease gets going, put the chopped up onion, leek, and garlic.  When the onion, leek, and garlic, get aromatic and soften, add the broth, water, potatoes, and seasonings.

2.   Bring the broth to a boil and simmer for about thirty minutes or so.  Add the broccoli and heat for about ten more minutes (until everything is heated thoroughly.)

3.  Remove the parsley and bay leaves.  The soup should still have quite a bit of liquid, drain about a cup or more of the broth.  (I kept mine and put it aside for tomorrow’s recipe)

4.  Puree the soup.  Serve.

Top with a little bit of sour cream and a fresh sprig of parsley.  Teh E Marl (Elizabeth) put some dried red pepper flecks on hers.

Also, here’s a cheddar biscuits recipe:

(makes 10 biscuits)
2 cups flour
1/2 cup unsalted butter
3/4 cup of water
1/2 cup of cheddar cheese diced
2 tsp baking powder

1. Combine flour and butter until butter is in pea-sized.  Stir in the cheese.  Slowly add water until the dough is comes together.

2.  You can either do drop biscuits from here or roll them out and cut them into shapes.

To make them super flaky, roll out the dough, re-roll, then repeat a couple more times.  It was awesome.

3.  Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes (or until edges are golden brown).

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One Chicken Week: Broth and Tuesday (RIP Blue Bowl)

Wednesday, January 13th, 2010

I think the universe wants Chickenmania to die.  Elizabeth and I thought our fridge light had kicked the bucket on Monday night, not worried, we continued on our kitchen travels.  In the morning, she called up the stairs, “The meat is defrosting.”  Turns out, one of us (probably Clumsy McClumserson— me) hit the power switch and the fridge turned off… eep. 

Ok, as stated in Monday, I had about 120g of chicken leftover from the chicken, so I threw together some chicken salad.  I like to make things from scratch, but I didn’t feel like messing with mayonnaise as last time it did not end well.  Anyway, that’s just my “I won’t judge you if you won’t judge me” disclaimer.

Chicken Salad 
(makes two sandwiches)

3/4 cup of cooked, diced chicken
2 T of mayo
1/4 tsp of dijon mustard
1 T of green onions
1 T of parsley
1/2 tsp of sugar (optional, to taste)
1/4 tsp of salt (optional, to taste)
1/4 tsp of pepper (optional, to taste)

Combine all the ingredients well.  Add whatever else looks good.  Put it in a sandwich or avacado or eat it plain.  See, I give you SO many options.

Sorry for not posting this ON Tuesday.  I didn’t really establish rules, so you can’t be THAT mad, can you?  I really was feeling loopy all day and out of it.

*This post is dedicated to my blue bowl that died a couple weeks ago, just because I’m feeling silly.*

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One Chicken. One Week: Girl Versus Chicken Monday.

Tuesday, January 12th, 2010

Day One of Chick-Chick Week, almost caused this whole week to come to a screeching halt.  See, I forgot a piece of advice my mother told me.  ”Be careful buying a whole chicken from the Asian market.”  Just to let you know, when the label says, whole chicken, it doesn’t mean just the breast, thighs, and wings.  It doesn’t mean most of the body parts and the giblets.  It means WHOLE chicken.

Right down to the beak and feet.

Because I am admittedly a lame ass, I almost gave up on Chicken-o-Rama right there.  Jeon women are very sensitive to dismembering parts of animals.  It was why my mother wouldn’t eat chicken and red meat in Korea.  It was why I (remember I’m a lame ass) didn’t eat anything other than boneless meat up until a few years ago.

Then I remembered how I’m supposed to be a tough modern-day meets traditional lady and I can’t be afraid of looking my food in the face… But seriously, tip people, don’t name it.  Then you’ll be thinking of Jimmy the chicken from Brooklyn’s sad face as you eat your delicious taco.  I couldn’t even take a picture.  I’m a lameass, I know.

Well, I roasted this baby at 400 degrees for about an hour and threw in some garlic and shallots.

Salt, pepper, and some olive oil.  At the end I put some fresh parsley on the top of it.  Doing this, I realized I should have put together a grocery list yesterday so that all two readers could cook this with me.

I was going to eat just the chicken but I ended up making a taco salad:

Once everything was cool, I split the leftover chicken into two piles.  Tuesday and Thursday will have chicken in them, Wednesday I’m going to use the the broth I started tonight.  Friday I’ll be eating leftovers or maybe out.  I only plan my meals for Monday-Thursday.  I should have said that…

Anyway, I took the bones, free from as much meat as possible, I threw some scraps from Wednesday’s Recipe (I tried it last week!), parsley, thyme, salt, and peppercorns and some water in the pot then put it on the lowest heat on the burner and left it for a couple hours while I cleaned the kitchen, caught up on e-mails, etc.  When I get home tomorrow, I’ll skim it some more, and put it on very low heat again.  Then I will have some broth for Wednesday (then some!)  Yay for trying to use all parts of the chicken!

Except… I didn’t even try to find a use for the head and legs.  I’m a wasteful person.  Sorry, Jimmy.

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One Chicken. One(ish) Person. One Week. Preparation Sunday.

Sunday, January 10th, 2010

This is the state of my desk right now.

Beautiful, eh?  I cleared the desk for a special occasion.  A very special occasion.  See, I’m hungry and I really want a nice salmon for dinner.  Or maybe a fabulous London Broil.  Hrm, maybe I’ll go out for some sushi, but like many people, I’m on a budget.  Those lovely little extras are saved for special occasions.  I want more wiggle room in my budget for those.

This is well timed with my fascination with chicken.  Is that weird?

There are many parts to a chicken and by no surprise, all useable, but I find myself buying a couple chicken breasts or thighs.  Reading books like Ratio by Michael Ruhlman and How to Eat by Nigella Lawson, I’ve found there are too many creative uses for chicken to limit just pieces.

This week, I’m grabbing my pen, paper, and books to plan out my menu and test my theory that one chicken can last me a week.  If one chicken can last me a week, I can buy a whole, better quality chicken.  I’ll be blogging my progress during the week.

P.S. I have an even bigger obsession with post-its and lists, so this is clearly a fun project for me.

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