Chinese Curried Noodles

Need a recipe using the Fresh Chinese Noodles from a couple of days ago? Here you go! This is an easy stir fry that becomes a delicious saucy dish. Comes together in no time. If you have some fresh noodles stashed in the freezer, you can make dinner appear in about 15 minutes. It will taste better than anything you could find in a box or jar.

There are a couple of important general cooking facts in here:

1. Cook the curry in oil to release its fragrance. If you add it with a bunch of liquid, this won't happen and the flavor won't be as good.
2. Cornstarch needs to boil to activate the starches that do the thickening, so make sure you boil your sauce. Good to know for any cornstarch thickened sauce.

Chinese Curried Noodles
(serves 4 to 6)

1 pound ground meat (beef, pork, lamb, chicken, or turkey)
2 Tablespoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon + 1 ½ Tablespoons vegetable oil
1 onion, chopped
2 Tablespoons curry powder

Sauce
2 cups no or low salt chicken stock
3 ½ Tablespoons soy sauce
1 ½ teaspoons sugar
¼ teaspoon black pepper
1 ½ Tablespoons cornstarch

1 8 oz. can sliced water chestnuts, drained
1 ½ cups frozen peas or shelled edamame, thawed

1 pound fresh Chinese noodles (or ¾ pound dried fettuccine or linguine pasta)

Bring a large pot of salted water to boil.

While it's heating up, combine the ground meat with the 2 Tablespoons soy sauce. Combine all the sauce ingredients in a medium bowl and set aside.

Heat a wok or deep skillet over medium-high heat. Add 1 teaspoon of oil. Add the meat and stir fry until it is no longer pink, stirring to break up big lumps. Remove the meat to a clean bowl using a slotted spoon. If there is a lot of fat in the pan, pour it off and discard. If you are using chicken or turkey, there will be almost none.

Return the pan to high heat. Add 1 ½ Tablespoons vegetable oil. Add the onions and stir fry for 4 minutes until soft. Add the curry powder and stir fry until you can smell the curry, about 10 seconds. Stir the sauce to dissolve the cornstarch (it settles to the bottom on standing) and add to the pan. Add the water chestnuts and peas. Stir. Bring to a boil, add the meat, and reduce to a simmer. Add more salt if needed.

Cook the fresh noodles for 1-2 minutes (7-9 if using dried) until just done. Drain and add to the sauce. To serve, put noodles in a bowl with some of the sauce spooned on top.

Reheats well in the microwave.

Adapted from Asian Noodles by Nina Simonds, William Morrow and Company, Inc., 1997.

Sesame Spinach

Now that we have pre-washed spinach in most every supermarket, spinach is a quick and easy vegetable side dish. This dish is similar to many Asian dishes, lots of garlic, soy, and that powerhouse of flavor, Asian sesame oil. You can eat it cold too. Add a pound of stir-fried tofu cubes, serve over rice, and you have a super-quick vegetarian dinner for 4.

Sesame Spinach
(serves 4)

3 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon sugar
1 Tablespoon vegetable oil
1 pound pre-washed spinach

½ Tablespoon sesame oil

¼ teaspoon salt
1 ½ Tablespoons sesame seeds (optional)

Combine the soy sauce and sugar in a small bowl and mix to dissolve the sugar. Heat the oil in a large skillet or wok until smoking hot. Add garlic, stir for 10 seconds, then add the spinach and toss. Continue to toss until spinach is wilted. Add soy-sugar mixture and toss again. Remove from heat. Add sesame oil, salt, and sesame seeds (if using) and toss. Serve hot, room temperature, or cold as a salad.

Spicy Stir-fried Cucumber

Americans don't usually eat cooked cucumber. But, it's very tasty cooked, holding onto its crunch and absorbing flavors readily, like stir-fried zucchini. It cooks in a flash - just enough time to heat it up is enough.

Spicy Stir-Fried Cucumber
(serves 4, costs $2.40)

2 cucumbers
1 Tablespoon oil
½ red pepper, diced (optional; it adds nice color)
2 large cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon minced or grated ginger
1-2 Tablespoons minced Jalapeño chile
1 Tablespoon low-sodium soy sauce
¼ teaspoon sugar
¼ teaspoon salt

Peel the cucumbers. Cut off the very ends; they tend to be bitter. Cut the cucumber in half lengthwise and scoop out the seeds using a spoon. Cut them into 1/8's lengthwise (so cut in half again, then once more). Cut the strips into 1-1½" pieces.

Heat a wok or skillet until very hot. Add oil, ginger, garlic, and chile. Stir fry for 10 seconds, then add cucumber and red pepper. Stir fry for 1 minute. Sprinkle on soy sauce, sugar, and salt. Stir fry for 3 minutes. Serve immediately.

Note: Other spicy things - Chinese chile sauce with garlic, Siracha sauce, serranos - can be used instead if you want more spicy punch. Jalapeños are fairly tame, by chilehead standards.

Beef and Onion Stir Fry

Here's a stir fry that proves that you don't have to use Asian flavors to make a stir fry. Stir fry is a technique. Though usually associated with Chinese cuisine, who says it always has to include garlic-ginger-soy sauce in the ingredient list?

I didn't feel like Asian but I had thinly sliced beef and leeks. Huh, that sounds kind of French. OK, let's see how this turns out. Not bad!

I used eye of round that was sliced in the supermarket. Eye of round is It's not really expensive nor really cheap. The recipe only uses half a pound, so the total price stays moderate. But, you get some good beefy flavor. I added shelled soybeans (now available in the frozen food case in many supermarkets) to make up for the small portion of beef. You can use frozen green peas, which are definitely more French than soybeans. Also not French is the thickener. I use a cornstarch slurry.

Leeks can hide a lot of sand in their layers. The best way to clean them is to cut off the root end, cut off the long dark green leaves, then slice them lengthwise, and put them in a bowl of cold water. After a few minutes of soaking, swish them around a bit and rub out any dirt hiding between the layers. Then you are ready to slice them.

Beef and Onion Stir Fry
(serves 4, costs $5.50)

2 medium leeks, white and light green parts, sliced
1 medium onion, sliced
3 Tablespoons vegetable oil
1 ½ cups shelled soybeans, thawed if frozen
½ pound eye of round, sliced thinly and cut into 1" wide strips
salt and pepper
2 teaspoons cornstarch for sprinkling on beef
2 teaspoons cornstarch dissolved in 1 Tablespoon cold water
½ teaspoon dried thyme leaves, crushed
1 cup low sodium beef broth
minced chives or minced parsley, for garnish

Heat up 1 Tablespoon of oil in a large skillet or wok over medium-high heat. Add leeks and onions. Stir-fry until onions are soft and brown on the edges. Stir often to keep them from burning. Add soybeans and cook for another minute. Season with salt and pepper and remove to a bowl. Sprinkle beef with salt, pepper, and 2 teaspoons cornstarch. Wipe out the wok, and add remaining oil. Heat until smoking hot. Add beef and stir fry until browned, only takes a couple of minutes. Remove beef, leaving behind the oil, to bowl with onions. Pour off most of the oil from the wok. Return the wok to medium-high heat. Add beef broth and crushed thyme. Stir to loosen any bits sticking to the bottom of the wok. Add back onions, soybeans, and beef. Stir in cornstarch/water slurry and cook until slightly thickened. Season with salt and pepper - if using regular beef broth, taste it first. You may not need any salt. Serve with rice or noodles and garnish with fresh chives or parsley, if desired.

Noodles with Mushroom Sauce

Cleaning out the fridge: added sauteed shrimp, roasted asparagus, kimchi, and crispy fried serrano ham

This is a very adaptable recipe. You can eat it as is, noodles with a rich Asian mushroom sauce. Or you can start adding stuff: a fried egg, some kimchi, sauteed shrimp, cubed fried tofu, bamboo shoots, cooked asparagus. Whatever you have in your fridge that you think goes nicely with Asian noodles and mushrooms. That's a pretty wide open category!

The shiitakes are more expensive than button mushrooms, but they have such a meaty texture and flavor that they are a fantastic meat substitute. Look for bargains at your local Asian supermarket, if there are any in your town. Shiitakes are often on sale for the same price as button mushrooms and there are great deals on all sorts of Asian produce. It's always an adventure, going to the big Asian market near me. Not only did I discover the cheap shiitakes last time I was there, I also found their sensational store-made kimchi.

Noodles with Mushroom Sauce
(serves 4; costs $9.70)

2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
12 cloves garlic, sliced thin
½ pound fresh shiitake mushrooms, rinsed, stemmed, and sliced thinly
½ pound white button mushrooms, rinsed, and sliced thinly
3 ½ Tablespoons sake or Chinese rice wine
1 bunch of scallions, thinly sliced
12 oz. noodles such as Chinese egg noodles, soba noodles, or whole wheat spaghetti, cooked al dente
3 ½ Tablespoons soy sauce
salt to taste

Heat oil in a large skillet until hot. Add garlic and stir-fry until the garlic is fragrant, about 15 seconds.

Add the shiitakes and button mushrooms and stir-fry for about 2 minutes. Lower the heat to medium-high and add the sake. Cover the pan and cook for another 3-4 minutes until mushrooms are tender. Uncover, add the scallions and any other additions you want and cook for another minute until most of the liquid has cooked off.

Add the noodles and soy sauce and toss to coat. Season with a pinch of salt if needed. The soy sauce is salty but the pasta can soak up quite a bit of salt. Serve. Good with a fried egg on top or with a garnish of kimchi.

Notes: You can cook the mushrooms and toss with the soy sauce but not the noodles if you won't be serving all the noodles at once. Mix ¼ of the cooked noodles with ¼ the mushrooms for each serving. You can mix them all together and eat them over a few meals, but the texture of the noodles is better if you mix them with the mushrooms just before you eat them.

Adapted from Asian Noodles by Nina Simonds.

It's cabbage time...

But, only for a very short time. Every year just before St. Patrick's Day, cabbage goes on sale for unbelievably low prices. The lowest price I've seen is 19¢, for organic cabbage no less!

Like Brussels sprouts, cabbage gets a bad rap. If you cook it to death, it can exude eau du stinky vegetable. Fortunately, there are lots and lots of ways to cook cabbage that are  delicious and not stinky.

This hot salad recipe - really a stir fry - is not Irish. Unfortunately, the Irish have a habit of cooking their cabbage until dead, dead, dead. This recipe comes from Southeast Asia. It's fresh. It's light. It's very spicy (you can reduce the chile if you don't like spicy). Like Southeast Asia, about as far away from Ireland as you can get.

[Just for the record, I'll be eating corned beef and long-cooked cabbage this weekend because I like cabbage that much.]

Hot and Sour Cabbage
(serves 6, costs $1.10)

1 pound of cabbage, (about ¼ of a medium head), shredded
2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
½ - 1 teaspoon Siracha sauce or Sambal Oelek (fresh ground chile paste)
1 Tablespoon brown sugar
½ teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon soy sauce
2 Tablespoons rice vinegar
½ teaspoon sesame oil

Heat a large skillet or wok over high heat. Add oil and swirl around pan. Add chile sauce. Careful! It will spit and spatter. Immediately, add cabbage. Stir fry for about 1 minute. Add brown sugar and salt. Stir fry for another minute. Add soy sauce, rice vinegar, and sesame oil, toss to mix, and serve.

Adapted from Healthy Salads From Southeast Asia by Vatcharin Bhumichitr

Meatless Monday Fried Rice. Or Maybe Not Meatless. You Decide.

Basic Vegetarian Fried Rice

Our last class of the academic year is coming up on Tuesday. We are doing home interpretations of take-out Chinese. Two of the recipes have already appeared on the blog: Chinese-Style Minced Meat Lettuce Wraps and Mu Shu Tofu.

The third recipe is an old stand-by: Fried Rice. It's a great way to use up leftover rice, either rice you made at home or extra from your last take-out buy. It's important to use cold rice. Freshly made rice is too sticky and the rice will clump together.

This can be vegetarian if you like. Or not. Another great way to use up some diced cooked chicken, thawed teeny cocktail shrimp or some leftover pork. Fried rice is a recipe that can take a lot of improvisation.

The fried rice at some Chinese restaurants is quite dark, suggesting they use a lot of soy sauce to flavor it up. This isn't true. The color comes from a browning agent like Kitchen Bouquet or Chinese Brown Gravy Sauce. In this recipe, we add a small bit of soy sauce for seasoning and then use table salt to add the salt, so the rice isn't very brown.

But speaking of brown rice, you can use cooked cold brown rice in place of white rice. Delicious change of pace.

"Make it Your Way" Fried Rice

(serves 4 as an entree, 8 as a side dish, costs $1.60 with 4 eggs, no optional ingredients)

If serving this as an entree, use 4 eggs. If serving as a side dish, use 2.

3 Tablespoons vegetable oil

2 - 4 eggs, lightly beaten

¼ cup diced cooked chicken, shrimp, or pork (optional)

4 cups cold cooked rice

2 teaspoons soy sauce

1 teaspoon curry powder (optional)

½ teaspoon salt

¼ cup thawed frozen peas (optional)
2 scallions, minced

Heat 2 Tablespoons of the oil in a large skillet over high heat. Add the eggs and scramble. Remove the scrambled eggs to a clean bowl. Add remaining tablespoon oil and add meat, if using. Reduce heat to medium, add rice, and stir fry until rice is soft and heated through. Add scrambled eggs, soy sauce, curry powder (if using), and salt. Toss to mix well. Add peas and scallions, give it one last toss, and serve.

Meatless Monday: Mu Shu Tofu

Mu Shu "Something" is a staple when we head out for Chinese food. There are a few speciality ingredients in the typical restaurant Mu Shu: dried shiitake mushrooms, dried lily buds, tree ear mushrooms, and Hoisin sauce. We substituted more common vegetables - cabbage, carrots, and bamboo shoots - but kept the seasoning the same. The Hoisin sauce and toasted sesame oil are important flavors here, so don't leave them out. You can find both of them at most supermarkets in the Asian ingredient section. They last a very long time (Hoisin sauce in the fridge, sesame oil in a dark, cool cabinet) so you'll have them for the next time you break out the wok.

Tofu isn't as dense as pork or chicken but it does a great job of blending in with the other ingredients. Frozen and thawed tofu is a little drier and absorbs flavors better. You can freeze it in a block and cut it after it thaws, but we recommend you slice it, then freeze it on a cookie sheet. It will freeze and thaw a bit faster this way.

Though the prep takes a bit of time, the dish comes together fast.

Flour tortillas are the usual easy-to-find substitution for the Chinese flour pancakes. Rice paper wrappers are hardly traditional, but they are a lighter alternative to the tortillas. If you can find them - look in Asian markets and some supermarkets - they are quite economical, and a delicious change from the flour pancakes.

Mu Shu Tofu
(serves 4-6; costs $7.90)

Tofu and Marinade
14-16 oz. firm or extra-firm tofu, drained and sliced ½" thick, frozen, and thawed
2 teaspoon soy sauce
½ teaspoon cornstarch

4 Tablespoon vegetable oil, divided
2 eggs, beaten
2 scallions, white part minced and green part cut into 1" lengths
1 5 oz. can sliced bamboo shoots, drained
¼ medium head green cabbage, shredded
1 carrot, julienned

Seasoning Mix
2 Tablespoons soy sauce
½ teaspoon sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon black pepper

1 teaspoon sesame oil
about 6 Tablespoons Hoisin Sauce
12 6" flour tortillas or 12 rice paper wrappers (8" size)

Lay tofu slices on paper towels, cover with more paper towels, and blot up some of the moisture by gently squeezing down on the slices. Cut tofu slices into ½" sticks. Toss with 2 teaspoons soy sauce, and cornstarch in a bowl. Get all the other ingredients prepped and ready to go. This is a stir fry and it goes fast.

If you are using flour tortillas, warm them and keep them warm until the stir fry is complete.

Heat a large wok or skillet until very hot. Add 1 Tablespoons oil. Add the egg and quickly scramble it. Remove the egg to a bowl. Add another tablespoon of oil. Add tofu. Stir fry tofu for 3 minutes. Remove to bowl with egg. Add the remaining 2 Tablespoons oil. Add the minced white part of the scallions, bamboo shoots, cabbage, and carrot. Stir fry until the cabbage is starting to wilt but still crunchy, about 5 minutes. Stir in the green scallion pieces, egg, tofu, and seasoning mix ingredients. Cook for another minute. Remove from heat and stir in sesame oil.

If using flour tortillas, smear a tortilla with ½ Tablespoon Hoisin sauce, put in about ½ cup of the stir fry, and roll up.

If using rice paper wrappers, dip a wrapper in hot tap water to soften (see Note), lay out flat, smear on ½ Tablespoon Hoisin sauce, add about ½ cup of the stir fry, and roll up.

Note: Rice paper wrappers can be a little tricky. Once they soften up, they stick to themselves like glue. To prevent this, don't leave them in the water too long. Dip in the water, flip it over and pull it out of the water just as it starts to get pliable. At this point, it will be easy to lay it out flat. The wrapper will continue to soften after that, making it easy to roll up.