Posted January 19th, 2010 in Food | No Comments »
Yakisoba (stir-fried noodle) with chili and pepper fried fish. Add more chili if you like it spicier 
<Spicy Fish Yakisoba>
- 1 white fish fillet
- 1 tbs corn flour
- 2 potion yakisoba noodle ( or Singapore noodle)
- 1 cup fresh bean sprouts
- 1/4 large carrot
- 1/8 large onion
- 1/2 clove garlic
- 2 tbs oyster sauce
- 1 tsp sake (cooking wine)
- 1 tsp soy sauce
- 1 tsp Worcester sauce
- chili, salt, pepper, coriander leaves
- Chop garlic and chili. Slice carrot into Julienne. Slice onion. Combine all the sauce. Place noodle in a colander and briefly loosen up under running water. Drain and set aside.
- Slice fish fillet. Dust lightly with corn flour, and shallow-fry both side until crispy and golden. Remove from the pan and drain oil. Set aside.
- In another pan, heat 1 tbs oil and saute garlic and chili until fragrant. Add onion and carrot and stir-fry.
- Add noodle and bean sprouts, stir-fry, then add the sauce mixture. Season well.
- Arrange on a serving plate, top with fish, extra cut chili and coriander leaves. Crack black pepper on the fish and serve immediately.
Posted January 11th, 2010 in Food | No Comments »
The other day I arranged dinner at friend’s house. My friend (Japanese) is renting a room in my another friend (Chinese)’s house which she (Chinese) recently purchased with her fiance. I’ve been to the house once before and I fell in love with the design and interior. Stylish furniture, cute kitchenware, clean and tidy environment… Living with the friends in the house sounds really fun, we can have girls’ night everyday :)
It was still 5 pm so we started with a glass of wine and some otsumami. We were going to make dinner soon but ended up talking about stuff until 9 pm. Friend’s fiance came home and we finally moved our body from sofa to the kitchen.
Because of the wine and otsumami I wasn’t actually hungry, but everyone else was. I brought some vegetables, so we made udon salad dish with steamed chicken and Japanese sesame dressing. I love sesame dressing (goma dressing). It’s nutty, rich and creamy. You can purchase from any Asian grocery shops. I like Mizkan brand 
<Chicken Udon with Sesame Dressing> for one
- 1 portion udon noodle
- 50g chicken breast
- some salad - lettuce, cucumber, tomato
- sesame dressing (also called “goma dressing”, “goma dare”)
- Boil water in two sauce pans. Cook udon noodle in one sauce pan, and chicken breast in another pan.
- Drain udon noodle and set aside.
- Remove chicken breast from water and shred the meat. Be careful not to burn your hand!
- * you can chill the chicken and udon in the fridge if you want to serve it cold.
- Slice cucumber and tomato. Rip lettuce with hand.
- On a serving plate, arrange udon noodle topped with salad and shredded chicken. Drizzle dressing and serve immediately.
Posted December 11th, 2009 in Food | No Comments »
Summer food! This cold udon noodle chills you out… Enjoy with lots of ice cubes
<Chilled Salad Udon>
- 1 pack udon noodle
- 5 tbs soy sauce
- 2 tbs mirin
- 1 tbs dashi powder (fish stock)
- 1~2 inari sushi skin
- salad (lettuce, tomatoes etc)
- Shredded nori (kizami nori)
- Prepare tsuyu sauce - Bring 400cc water, soy sauce, mirin and dashi powder to boil in a sauce pan. Stir, and simmer for 1,2 minutes. Remove from the heat and let it cool down. You can keep this sauce in the fridge until needed.
- <Frozen udon> Boil frozen udon in a sauce pan. Drain into a bowl of cold water. Drain the noodle. <Dry udon> Boil water in a sauce pan. Drop dry udon noodle into the water, and cook until the noodle is done. Stir consistently. Drain into a bowl of cold water. Drain the noodle.
- Prepare salad - Shred lettuce, slice tomatoes .. Shred inari skin.
- In a serving bowl, arrange drained noodle, salad and inari skin. Drop few ice cubes and top with shredded nori. You can pour tsuyu sauce over, or serve separately as a dipping sauce.
Posted November 4th, 2009 in Food | No Comments »
I often cook cold soba noodle for dinner during summer. It’s very easy, and refreshing to eat in a hot day.
Here is a proper way to cook soba noodle:
- Boil sufficient amount of water in a pot.
- Place soba noodle (dry) into the boiling water. Stir often with chopsticks until the water start to boil again. (Do not leave the pot at this point)
- Once the water start to raise and reach the top of the pot, pour 1/2 cups of cold water into it. Water will then go back to steady.
- Keep stirling, and once the water start to reach the top of the pan again, turn off the heat.
- Drain soba in a colander, and rinse under running cold water. Drain well.
- Serve with your favorite condiments.
Tempura, fresh seaweed, and
sansai are great to be eaten with cold soba noodle. Ummm writing this post makes me feel hungry…
Posted September 4th, 2009 in Food | No Comments »
Crispy squid tempura with udon noodle. As you can just buy the sauce from Asian grocery shops, it’s very easy to make.
What you need is ….
- udon noodle
- goma-shabu sauce / goma-shabu dressing
- squid tubes
- tempura flour
- red ginger (beni shouga)
- spring onion and black sesame for garnish
Goma-dare is available at Asian grocery shop (in Japanese food section). It’s light brown color thick sauce in bottles. ”Goma-dare” “Goma-shabu” … they all taste similar.
For udon noodles, you can buy either dried or frozen. I don’t recommend to buy vacuumed fresh udon noodles though… they taste quite bad :p
<Udon Noodle>
Boil plenty amount of water in a wide sauce pan. Drop udon into water, and cook until it’s al dente. If you are using frozen udon you don’t need to cook in hot water for long.
Drain, set aside.
<Squid Tempura>
If you don’t have tempura flour, or you want to make it from scratch, here is the recipe :
- 1 cup cold water
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 cup plain flour
Don’t mix the batter too much! Place all ingredients in a bowl, and move a pair of chopsticks around just to combine lightly.
Dip squid tubes (cut into the size you want) into the batter, and deep-fry in oil 165~170℃.
To serve:
Arrange udon noodle on a plate. Top with crispy squid tempura, red ginger and chopped spring onion, and sprinkle black sesame.
You can either serve goma-dare sauce separately in an another small bowl as a dipping sauce, or can drizzle goma-dare sauce over the udon noodles. It’s up to you.
Udon noodles and sauce can be served cold or room temperature. (except for the squid tempura: tempura should be hot and crispy!)
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