Japanese Noodle Soup, the end

This is just the kind of recipe I hate. I’ve been cooking for 3 days. Now granted you could do it in one day, if you had nothing else to do. I felt it would work out wonderfully as I wanted to work on my painting on Friday and go to the Baltimore Craft Show on Saturday. So you have read phases 1 and 2 to see the parts I did each of those days. Today, I went to a Pampered Chef Party. It’s the new Tupperware party. It is also the end of the month so I had bills to pay before leaving.


I arrived back home at about 4:30 PM. I pealed and organized all the vegetables and fed the dog. Here is the finale of the dish.

2C, 1/2” cubes, peeled yam

5 oz. snow peas

4C, ½” wide crosswise slices cored Napa cabbage

5 oz. slender carrots

10 oz. Udon noodles

1C sliced green onions

¼ C matchstick-sized strips peeled fresh ginger

6 oz.firm Tofu, cut into 1/2 “cubes

Bring a pot of boiling salted water to a boil. Have bowls ready for each of the 4 vegetables and also the noodles. Remember the sliced mushrooms from last night and get them out of the refrigerator. After the salted water comes to a boil, cook the yams, 5 min. Remove and place in a bowl each veg. as you cook it. (Next the snow peas, 30 sec; cabbage, 1 ½ min., and the carrots 2 minutes) Bring the reserved cooking liquid to a simmer and add the green onions, matchstick ginger, salt and pepper. Finally cook the Udon noodles in the salted cooking water. Drain and place in a bowl.

When ready to serve, place 1/4th of all the ingredients in a bowl and spoon the hot broth over. If you need more salt, add soy sauce. I thought it needed some pizzazz. I added Sambal Oelek which is a hot sauce; very wrong. We used chop sticks, Chinese soup spoons and bowls to make it more festive.

Bottom line, if you want to make a Japanese Noodle dish, uses a Japanese Cookbook. Jim ate it and said he liked it, but felt it took a lot of work to eat. That is his way of saying, don’t make this again. I would attach the word boring. Unfortunately we have left over’s.  I am going to look through a hot pot book that I have to figure out a way to make it better.  It seemed the perfect vegetarian meal or for meatless lent days.  I will nto be serving it tomorrow, but stay tuned to see how I fix it. 

A 2007 Robert Mondavi Pinot Noir was a good accompaniment to this dinner assuming you did not put hot sauce on the dish. Jim did not use the hot sauce.

Japanese style noodle soup, day 2

Day 2 of the Japanese-style noodle dish. Last night Jim and I went out to dinner at the Olive Garden. We had a gift certificate. I remember going there a long time ago in IN. Talk about supersized portions. I ordered tomato brochette and Jim ordered Calamari. We were served about 10 loaves of bread prior to the appetizer arriving. When the appetizers came we just looked at each other. Jim said to the waiter, can you hold the main course; this is a lot of food. I had 2 brochette and knew not to eat more which was about enough to have as an appetizer for a party. My individual pizza arrived; easily pizza for 2. Jim had a huge bowl of Chicken Alfrado. He ate it all. We took most of my meal home and about ¼ of Jim’s appetizer. We went to the Baltimore Craft Show today and had leftovers for dinner tonight as we didn’t get back until 7:00 PM. McDonald’s has nothing on the Olive Garden in terms of the word, supersized.


After dinner I started phase 2 of dinner tomorrow.

10 C Light Vegetable Broth (They said you should get 11 to 12 cups, I only got 10)

3C water

1 ½ C coarsely chopped fresh cilantro

1 ½ oz. dried shitake mushrooms

¾ C thinly sliced fresh ginger

2 lemon grass stalks, outer dark layers removed, 4” of the large bulb end used.

2 6” strips dried kombu seaweed, rinsed

2t. tamari soy sauce

1t. unseasoned rice vinegar

Put the first 6 ingredients in the pot and bring to a simmer for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes add the kombu for a minute. Just an aside it will grow and look like that stuff on the beach. Strain the broth again and save the mushrooms. Toss the rest. Add the soy sauce and rice vinegar to the strained broth. Cut out the stems of the mushrooms and cut each in 3 to 4 slices.

Japanese-style noodle soup

February’s Bon Appétit has an Udon with Mushroom Broth, Cabbage and Yams recipe that is a Japanese-style noodle soup. I am starting the process today by making the Light Vegetable Broth. I am using all organic vegetables so the carrots and parsnips, I just washed and did not peel. The ingredients are simmering now and smell heavenly.


3 ½ qts. Water

2 whole large leeks, halved lengthwise and sliced (Wash in a colander after chopping before adding to the water)

1# carrots sliced

2 medium potatoes scrubbed and cut in cubes

2 large unpeeled onions cut in l” cubes

3 large celery stalks, sliced

2 large parsnips, sliced

1 C fennel stalks and fronds. (Reserve the bulb for another use)I added all the fronds as they smelled wonderful.

1C coarsely chopped parsley

6 garlic cloves, peeled

1 bay leaf

1t dried thyme

1 t. sea salt

1t. whole black peppercorns

Mint (optional) I did not have any so I added a portion of a left over yellow hot pepper

Basically put it all in a pot and bring to a boil. Simmer for 45 minutes or until the vegetables are very soft and the broth is pale golden. Stain roughly in a colander and then again through a fine-mesh strainer. Discard the vegetables.

Tomorrow I will make the mushroom broth before we go to the Baltimore Craft Show.

Cheesy Chicken Enchiladas from Cooking Light May 2009. I think it is from a reader from TX who wanted to lighten up a favorite recipe of theirs. I served it with a salad and vinaigrette dressing. Unfortunately I put too much salt in the dressing for me. No one else objected, but I seem to be very salt sensitive. It says that each serving is 454 calories per serving. Mine might be a little different. I only had 4 8” tortillas but I had 8 6” ones. The last ½ cup of cheddar cheese was real, not reduced fat. I had a very good one called Beemster from Holland. Notice there is no salt in the recipe as they used canned soup. I stopped taking Cooking Light as they tend to use a lot of what I call plastic food. There is a saying that you should not put anything in your body that your Grandmother would not recognize as food. For my nephew, I would extend this to his great-grandmother as my Mother actually embraced TV dinners. Also because I used smaller tortillas, I used a 7.5” x 13” pan. I have very unusual sizes of Pyrex pans that I got from my Mother’s house when I cleaned it out. I would advise you to just make sure you have the 8” tortillas if you make it. My neighbor is coming for dinner. We went to the movie this afternoon. I made this in the AM through the first cooking before we left.


2 ½ C chopped cooked chicken breast (I defrosted and used 1# uncooked. I did not measure it in cups)

8oz. preshredded reduced-fat-4 cheese Mexican blend cheese; I have always wondered what this blend of cheese was for.

1 2/3 C plain low-fat yogurt I used Greek non-fat as it tastes better. I’ll save you some measuring; it is most of a 16 oz container of yogurt. I would have just added it all but Max has yogurt on his food every evening, so I saved some for him.

1/3 C melted butter

¼ C chopped onion

1t minced garlic

¼ t black pepper

1 10 ¾ oz can condensed reduced-fat, reduced sodium cream of chicken soup. Don’t you wonder what it is made of? I was afraid to read the can.

1 4.5 oz. can chopped green chilies, drained

8 (8”) flour tortillas

Spray oil

½ C finely shredded reduced-fat sharp cheddar cheese

¼ C chopped green onions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees

Combine the first 9 ingredients. Remove 1C chicken mixture and set aside.

I heated a grill pan and cooked the tortillas one at a time putting nice grille marks on them.

Spray your pan. I put the mixture in the tortillas. I did not measure ½ C per the recipe, just divided equally, and folded and put in the pan. You then spread the reserved chicken mixture on the top. I then covered it and placed in the refrigerator until we were ready to eat. I also precut the green onions and shredded the cheese getting it ready to go.

Cover and bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Let the mixture warm to room temperature before you start baking it. After 20 minutes, uncover and sprinkle with the cheddar cheese and green onions. Bake an additional 5 minutes or until the cheese melts. I actually thought it was too creamy, oozy, gooey. I have made enchiladas’ there were more meat with green sauce and some cheese that I liked better. But I have to remember this was a reduced calorie version of a family favorite. The magazine recommended a Chardonnay and Jim served a Fox Run Vineyards from the Finger Lakes. It was very good.

Do you remember the scene in Julie and Julia where Julia is having her first French meal and is going on and on about the fish? That is exactly what will happen to you if you fix this dish. Tonight I made Sole with Spinach from My French Kitchen. Unfortunately I could not find sole, so I substituted Tilapia. I bought 3 and cut them in half to be able to do the twisting. The twisting just adds looks to the dish. As it was only Jim and I, I just made half the following recipe. I would definitely serve this to company.


Serves 6

8T butter

4 shallots

Drizzle of olive oil (for the broiler rack. I used non-stick aluminum foil)

12 sole fillets

2 # spinach

1/3 C heavy cream

Salt and pepper to taste

Lemon for serving

I did not use a broiler pan as the recipe directed. I covered a flat pan with non-stick foil and put it under the broiler for a few minutes to heat. I chopped the shallots and with 1T butter cooked them slowly for 10 minutes. Do not burn or brown, just soften. Twist the fillets and place on the hot pan. Place under the broiler for 5 minutes. Mine took 6 minutes to get done. Place the spinach in a pot with 3T of water, sprayed to prevent sticking. Cook for 3 minutes. Place the spinach in a lightly buttered baking dish and arrange the sole fillets on top. Place them under the turned off broiler to keep warm.

To the shallots add the cream, salt and pepper and bring to a simmer. Cut the remaining butter into small pieces and whisk a few pieces at a time into the simmering cream. Pour the sauce over the fish and spinach and finish with a squeeze of lemon.

We had a 2007 Bourgogne Chardonnay by Pierre Andre au Chateau de Corton Andre, a Vin de Bourgogne. This crisp, dry chardonnay is a great way to experience a white Burgundy at a reasonable price. This was a Wine of the Month selection by the Opera House Gourmet in Manassas, VA.

Meryl Streep was not acting if they really served her a meal like this. It was a natural reaction to the food.

Celery Soup with Apples and Blue Cheese (Sunset Magazine, Feb. 2010)


Serves: 4

This soup was excellent and very filling. Jim needed some meat so we had Nathan’s hot dogs with it.

1 ½ # celery, stalks separated and cut in 1” chunks

½ small onion, chopped

1 qt. Chicken or Vegetable broth (I used the broth that I made Saturday)

2T butter

1 Granny Smith Apple, peeled and finely chopped

½ C half and half

¼ t salt and pepper. (I used about 1t each)

¼ C chopped flat leaf parsley

¼ C crumbled blue cheese.

Put the celery, onion and broth in a pan on the stove with a cover. The recipe said cook for 25 min. My celery needed about 45 minutes. I used an immersion blender to then purée. In a small skillet cook the butter and apple to caramelize the apple. This for me took about 15 minutes.

After puréeing the soups add the half and half.

Ladle the soup in the bowl and top with the parsley, apple and cheese.

I really liked this soup and Jim did not complain.

Mussels

We went grocery shopping late and upon returning home, I decided after smelling the soup I was making, that it did not go with my mussel dish. We had the mussels and the soup is stored for later.


I made Beer-Steamed Mussels with Salted Black Beans from Williams Sonoma’s Eat Well Cookbook. In our market, mussels come in 2# packages so I doubled the recipe. The recipe says 2 main or 4 starter servings. So four main is just what I need with Jim. I would describe this dish as piquant and hot. It is definitely different from Moules Mariniere as we experienced in Brussels. Jim really liked this dish. I hope he also likes Chinese lager beer (Tsingtao) as we had to buy a six pack for the bottle to do the dish.

Mussels, 1#

Red Fresno chilies-2-3 (They were called red cherry peppers in our market. There is a picture in the cookbook so I knew they were the same)

Chinese salted black beans, 1 ½ T

Peanut Oil, 1T

Fresh ginger, 1T minced

Garlic, 2 cloves minced

Chinese lager-style beer, 1C

Lime juice, 2T

Salt

Cilantro sprigs for garnish

Heat the oil in a sauté pan with a tight fitting lid. Add the ginger and garlic, cook stirring for a minute, Add chilies and black beans stir for another minute. Add the beer and the mussels and cover the pan. Cook for 4-8 minutes shaking the pan occasionally. Mine took about 6 minutes. Stir in the lime juice and salt. Top with cilantro sprigs. I served this with the Cinco de Mayo bread that I gave you the recipe earlier.

I brought the mussels home on ice. Before cooking I scrubbed the mussels and put in ice water with a little corn meal. They will eat it and expel the beards. These were exceptionally clean mussels.

Jim served a 2008 Kim Crawford Sauvignon Blanc, Marlborough, NZ. If we had cooled the Chinese beer, we could have served that.