Noodles

[digitS']

AppleGate, I had almost the same a few days ago.

... Sea Shells Salmon Casserole ...

That dang autocorrect! "AppleGate" ... ? I wonder why it would even know Applegate! I grew up near the Applegate River in Oregon. Maybe, it is a subconscious thing.

Anyway, I'm back here trying to figure out my "pumpkin & pasta" casserole recipe I tried about a month ago ... I thought that there was a chance I mentioned it here but it was the salmon recipe.

I think someone used Williams Sonoma pumpkin pasta sauce and I modified it. And, I didn't write it down. Shoot! Guess I may have to wing it again ... plenty of people using that commercial sauce for lasagna but that's not what I did. AppleGate, do you have any ideas ..?

Steve

[applestar]

AppleGate, PumpkinGate.... PropaGate.... (I figured you meant me )

I get the W-S e-mail promos on one of my accounts, but I've been systematically deleting without reading for quite a while so as not to be tempted to spend money. Had not heard of this sauce, which apparently they don't sell any more.

Williams-Sonoma Pumpkin Parmesan Pasta Sauce
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SUMMARY
INGREDIENTS
Pumpkin, cream, butternut squash, onion, parmesan cheese (milk, cheese culture, salt, enzymes, cellulose), butter, water, salt, garlic, roasted chicken glaze (chicken stock, mirepoix stock [carrot stock, celery stock, onion stock], roasted chicken stock, dried chicken stock, modified food starch, water, gelatin, salt, white wine, chicken fat), lemon juice, sugar, sage, chicken stock, pepper.
SHIPPING

Looks very interesting. Mostly picturing thicker, more condensed version of pumpkin soup though?

Before looking up the sauce ingredients, I was imagining something else....

- At first I Misread your description and thought you were going to make home made pasta with puréed pumpkin... Puréed food milled pumpkin, eggs, and semolina flour? But thought there might be too much moisture and was even beginning to wonder if dehydrating or roasting would eliminate some of the extra moisture....
- then I thought you were making something like lasagna with thinly sliced or mandolined ribbons of squash as pasta substitute or in layers with lasagna noodles....

If you can described the finished dish, I might have better ideas?

[digitS']

Actually, I did't know about the sauce! Completely caught me offguard that there would be lasagna or any other pasta dish with pumpkin in it.

I think I used the same little pasta sea shells as with the salmon but macaroni should have been about the same.

Not writing it down was probably because I was so unsure if it would be any good. It was simple with few ingredients, about that, I'm sure.

Somehow, it wouldn't surprise me if pumpkin was used as a pasta ingredient quite as much as learning it is/was used as a sauce. BTW, DW had no idea that there was pumpkin in my casserole .

Steve

[BirdLover]

Thank you for the 'Ramen Hacks' link, Steve. I saved that link for exploration later. I have been thinking about experimenting with noodles anyway. I can buy the packages of noodles that come with the instant powdered broth, but it seems like it would be easy to just make something like it from scratch. And it would be an improvement over the instant packaged stuff.

I'm having some 'Wild Chanterelle Mushroom Ravioli' again. And once again, I'm not sharing.

[imafan26]

I wanted to make gun lo mein with gravy but I never went shopping and it is getting close to dinner time so I raided the frig. I found some roast beef from New Year's dinner, char siu. I know I threw some yaki soba in the freezer last week and I know I saw some bean sprouts yesterday (which is why I wanted to make gun lo mein anyway.) So I winged it with a shorter version of the recipe, minus a few ingredients and no won tun.

I cut the roast beef into thin strips, sliced an onion, I could have put some garlic and ginger in but I was lazy and left it out. I would have been better with it. I fried up some bacon and I boiled a package of ramen noodles since I did not have enough yaki soba. To the bacon, I added the roast beef and half moon sliced onions and sauteed until the onions were transluscent.

I put the whole bag of bean sprouts in the pan and realized it was too small, so I tranferred it all to the Dutch oven. This happens to me a lot. I seasoned the noodles with about 2 tsp of hoi sin, 2 tsp of soy sauce, 1 tablespoon of mirin, a tablespoon of sweet chili sauce, a generous sprinkling of pepper, 1 tablespoon of oyster sauce ( I love oyster sauce.)

I added the drained noodles but the color was still kind of bland so I went out into the yard and decided it was a good time to try the komatsuna. I discarded the 2 ft outer leaves and I used the 18-24 inch inner leaves. I know the stems are edible but I did not want to deal with them so I opted just for the green parts. I chopped them up and blanched them in the water I used to boil the noodles and drained them. I added 3 packets of splenda and 1/2 the packet of chicken bullion from the ramen package. I probably could have used less sugar. I was expecting the komatsuna to be bitter since it is part mustard cabbage but the flavor was more like Swiss chard or spinach and a lot less earthy.

I added about a cup of water and then I made a slurry of cornstarch and water and thickened the gravy. I wish I had some shrimp to go with this, but I don't and I probably could have gotten away with one packet of sugar and maybe more heat. But considering I dreamed this up on the fly and I am a person who likes to have a recipe to follow this was pretty good. I did not add salt. The bouillon, hoi sin, oyster sauce, and sweet chili sauce already have salt and I rarely add salt to my food. Other people may want to add some salt.

Besides the garlic and ginger, a sprinkling of green onions and cilantro would probably have kicked up the flavor more.

[digitS']

And, the bacon and mirin also had salt? I guess the mirin sometimes does not.

I like growing komatsuna really early. Am I missing out not having it in the late garden? It's really a good grower in cool weather but, yeah, I have no interest in using the stems.

Yes, a little sprinkle of pepper flakes ... All those different sauces and you didn't bother with a little garlic to cook with the onions . Probably okay. I bet we could find garlic in that bullion packet, for one. It all sounds good! No bean sprouts but we have a few snow peas from the market in the fridge ...

Steve

[imafan26]

I actually don't like garlic or chopping them. I don't like the smell. Ginger, I have pickling in sake in the fridge, I just am lazy fishing it out to grate it. I wish I had snow peas. Mine are just 8 inches tall. There was a lot of salt in the ingredients and for most recipes I leave any optional salt out. This still probably had more salt that I should have. I also forgot to mention, shitake mushrooms would have boosted the flavor here too. I ended up saving the char siu for another day, so I had a little bit of salt savings there.
I was pleasantly surprised by the flavor of the komatsuna and it looks like it will cut and come again a few more times. I put the older leaves and the stems back in the garden to decompose. I would give them to my worms, but I think my worms are gone. I need to get more and start the bin again.

[applestar]

I'm getting all kinds of ideas Looks like noodles for lunch today!

[digitS']

I often don't eat something I have put into noodles. Basil is an example. I want it in there, but no way do I want a mouthful of it! Big sprig for my bowl - push it outta the way .

Ginger would be in that group, too. Okay, I like ginger bread and cookies . I'll often substitute ginger for another spice I don't have. Big slice in my noodles - push it outta the way!

Sound like a spoiled first worlder, eh? Okay, shiitake mushrooms, any mushroom, I think is too special to not eat! Dried shiitake usually have great flavor. I slice them really, really thin so that they aren't so difficult to chew! Chew, swallow .

I've done marinades quite awhile. You can actually toughen fish if you leave it too long in a marinade ... May as well slice it real thin to start with so that the risk is lower ... I'm guessing ... or, will it just toughen quicker? Yeah, I'm afraid it's the latter . Better just carry the fish in marinade around for 20 minutes so that I don't forget it .

Steve

[imafan26]

I marinade fish which I don't have often for 4 hours but they were o.k. The main thing with fish is not to over cook it.

[digitS']

Honestly, this is the way I usually prepare fish:

I should have included the bottles of Mrs Dash and onion salt. Variety is the spice of my life ! The marinade is the next step for variety and one I have tried only a few times.

There is nothing new about me using marinades for beef, however. Beef for a stir-fry especially spends time in a marinade, almost always.

I'm planning on getting away from using cured meats as a stir-fry choice. Smoky is what I need! This winter I intend to learn how much smoked pepper in marinades might limit my interest in (craving for?) bacon and sausage.

Maybe, a smoked pepper marinade
even for tilapia, like in the picture but we are going just with the Zatarains and garlic salt for today's lunch.

I find marinades as very useful and requiring little of me beyond remembering to get the meat in there at the right time !

Steve

[applestar]

I had shucked oysters to make something with, so I drained and reserved the liquid, dusted oysters with seasoned (sea salt, freshly ground black pepper, my own chili powder, dried thyme, dried oregano) potato starch, then quickly pan-fried with diced bacon rendered in butter-olive oil-sunflower oil, added chopped onions, then the oyster liquor fortified with tangueray and sake then strained. Added about half jar of marinara sauce and when bubbling, added cooked linguini, then finished with dried celery.

This whipped up together on the fly pasta turned out to be yummy — even my DD#2 liked it — but what was even more special is I found a teeny tiny pearl in a mouthful — I nearly crunched it down but realized this “grit” was perfectly spherical. Maybe not even 1/8”

[Gary350]

There are 100s of things you can do with noodles. Yesterday just for fun I made a batch of my grandmothers egg noodles. Scramble 2 eggs with 1 teaspoon of salt then add enough all purpose flour to make a dough. Roll out like a pie crust thin as you can flour both sides very well. My grandmother and mother both rolled the dough up like a jelly roll then cut into very thin slicks. I like to cut flat dough into 2" wide strips. Stack all the strips on top of each other then start at 1 end cutting the stack off in very thin slices. Stir the sliced in with flour so they have a nice coating and do not stick together then sprinkle noodles all over the kitchen counter top to dry. Every 30 minutes stir the noodles with flour for about 4 hours. Sift out the extra flour noodles are ready to cook. They get about 5 times larger when they cook. Extra noodles can be frozen until needed.

I bought a quart of vegetable stock at the grocery store, when it came to a boil I started stirring in the home made noodles. Wife made a recipe of chicken pot pie filling we put the filling over the home made noodles. Beef Stroganoff is good over noodles too but I have not made that in 40 years I don't eat much beef anymore. Noodles are good in salads, spaghetti, lasagna, and lots of oriental dishes.

Roman Noodles are good too they come with several different flavor packs.

Here is my favorite Oriental Soup recipe.

Boil 2 cups of chicken broth in a pot, stir fast to get it spinning like a tornado then slowly pour in 1 scrambled egg and keep stirring for 30 seconds more.

Mix 2 tablespoons of corn starch with 2 tablespoons white vinegar then 2 tablespoons soy sauce, 1/2 teaspoon Tabasco sauce then add this mix to the chicken broth.

Stir in 1 tablespoon of cooked rice, 1 tablespoon noodles, 1 tablespoon thin sliced carrots, 1 tablespoon peas, 1 tablespoon chopped broccoli, and some sliced mushrooms, boil about 3 minutes it is ready to eat.

Serve hot garnish with chopped green onions.

Someone mentioned fish. I hate the fishy taste of fish but after a guy from Alaska showed me how to cook fish now I love fish. Put a sheet of aluminum foil on the counter top for each piece of fish. Cut 2 or 3 slices of onion place them on the aluminum foil then place the fish on top of the onion slices. Next slice a lemon in about 10 thin slices cover the top of each fish with lemon slices. Put a tablespoon of soft butter on the foil then wrap the foil around each fish. Place the fish in the hot oven bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. If fish is thicker than 3/4" cook 20 minutes. Time to eat. WOW this is good.