Noodles

[imafan26]

There is buckwheat soba noodles which are grey-brown and there are somen soba noodles which are thin and white. I use both kinds. Both can be used for soba salad
This recipe uses the buckwheat soba and it is the kind I usually have with seaweed, sesame, and soba tsuru which is a soba noodle base. (fish stock also makes a good soba base)
http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2015 ... ecipe.html
This uses the thin white somen noodles. I don't know the origin but I think it is a modern salad. It is good for parties and can be the whole meal.

https://www.quora.com/Japanese-Food-2/W ... -and-somen
http://kapalama.ksbe.edu/foodservices/r ... salad.html
Yaki soba really is literally fried noodles. The yaki soba I buy is an egg noodle, but can be made with ramen, chow mein, or any kind of wheat noodle including the buckwheat noodle. You might be able to fry spaghetti noodles but the texture is different and might break up more.
http://www.japanesecooking101.com/yakisoba-recipe/
This is what the sun noodles looks like when I buy it.
http://www.theramenrater.com/2013/02/08 ... red-sauce/

Apple pie sounds good too.

[HoneyBerry]

Thank you for all this great information and recipes, imafan26.
I love trying new recipes. Japanese recipes are new for me, so it will be an adventure.

[imafan26]

If you haven't had seaweed, it might be an acquired taste. You could use other toppings.
http://justhungry.com/basics-cold-soba- ... ping-sauce

[webmaster]

Egg noodles are what I put in soups. They're rich and hearty and stand up well against the chicken.

My kid is a carb junky so stir fries and ramen for dinner are always met with smiles!

Anybody ever do a bone broth? I use beef marrow bones, pig trotters, leftover chicken bones from a roast chicken, even lamb necks. Takes hours but it yields a rich and soul-comforting broth that melds perfectly with good noodles.

[imafan26]

Yeah, that is usually the way saimin broth was made. I accidentally made a good pork broth when I boiled the ribs before finishing them off in the oven or on the grill.

The marrow bones are the best. Roasting the bones first brings out more flavor but it makes a darker broth. Whole celery, carrots, onions with skins added to the broth; simmered and strained makes it very tasty. Especially the next day.

Saimin broth is usually made with bonito shavings or shrimp shells but chicken broth works too.

Most of the time, I am not planning that far ahead so I use dashi no moto or a portion of the packet in the dried ramen noodle. Ramen noodles are handy to have around since they are quick to fix and really nice on a cold day or night with some garnishes (fishcake, char siu, green onions, sliced ham).

[applestar]

Yeah, tastes a-MAZING when some of the bones are so de-calcified they crumble.

[webmaster]

LOL! I've boiled my bones as much as 24 hours. The taste is indeed amazing and so is the creamy nature of it. I had never really explored ramen when I lived in San Francisco. So I came late to it. The revelation happened about a year ago when I had Japanese ramen in midtown east in NYC. It's called Hide Chan. Apparently this place is fairly authentic, the founder's father opened his first ramen shop fifty years ago in Japan. I wasn't expecting anything but after the first sip I was astounded and made a pig of myself! Needless to say I returned the next day and later that summer I brought my wife and afterward returned again with my wife and daughter!

So yeah, I had to learn how to make this stuff! Here is the recipe I used as a reference. Let me know what you think!

http://norecipes.com/tonkotsu-ramen-recipe

[HoneyBerry]

The packaged soba noodles that I have in my pantry are tan, or grey-brown would work to describe the color. They are Eden brand, and are 100% buckwheat. I just noticed on the back of the package that these soba noodles are made in Japan and then imported by Eden Foods in Michigan. I am trying to eliminate wheat from my diet so I was glad to discover these noodles. I need to practice cooking them. They turned out mushy the last time I made them. The directions say 'don't overcook'. That's probably what I did. Sometime I'd like to try rolling them up in nori sheets to make soba sushi. When I have some spare time. It doesn't sound too complicated.

[digitS']

I was thinking, "now you are making it too complicated." Maybe not.

Barbequed pork by another name ... Garlic flavored oil ... I'm sure I over-simplify but I need to start somewhere and it can't be in the fast lane .

I probably won't be boiling bones for 24 hours. Maybe, I'm trying to make better use of our slow cooker. Still, 90 minutes on top the stove is enough to ask of me when I have things to do. A broth is made!

My policy is that no bone leaves the house un-boiled. Whatever the bone and however large or small, broth is plenty important since my from-scratch cooking relies on it. A good deal of broth is used in my kitchen for soups, casseroles, and even stir-fries. Ingredients may not vary much , just the amount of broth and cooking technique.

Steve

[applestar]

These are not "noodles" so maybe wrong place to post...

Canned salmon and spiral pasta salad (Almost gone now.... )




Started with a bit of EVOO in the bottom of the bowl, cooked organic whole wheat spirals, fresh from my garden torn red russian kale, chopped celery leaves and stalk, frozen organic peas from Denmark via Trader Joes, ... More EVOO, lime juice, minced onions, rice vinegar, not too much -- maybe 3 Tbs. -- Safflower mayonnaise, pink himalayan sea salt....

... Amost reached for canned tuna, but the Wild Alaskan Pink Salmon cans caught my eye. Drained the liquid into kitty's bowl, then de-skinned (VERY easy to scrape and pinch off using rough bamboo chopsticks)... soft bones left in.

...just happened to have four hardboiled quail eggs left in the fridge, so they went in, peeled and quartered.

I like my pasta salad to have hidden surprises of intense flavor in every bite so --
• Marjoram from upstairs bedroom window (since the downstairs one was harvested to give to MIL for Christmas), finely minced
• fresh from the garden parsley leaves, torn into big pieces rather than minced
• a couple of soft dried apricots, diced into 1/4" bits to add sweetness (this could have been dried cranberries or blueberries)
• freshly toasted pine nuts
• a little bit of grainy Dijon mustard
• one fresh from the garden shiitake, diced and briefly roasted in toaster oven with EVOO

Then added torn pieces of maroon Cardinal chard leaves for extra punch of color.

[imafan26]

Yeah soba and somen noodles cook really fast they only need 2-3 minutes in boiling water. As soon as you can cut them, they are done. Rinse and cool. If you try to cook them like spaghetti they will be mushy and pasty.

The dried ramen noodles can be boiled longer because they have already been fried before they were packaged. It is one of the reasons that while I have ramen in the house for a quick noodle fix, I keep the soba and somen noodles around too. and if I made them more often, I'd go to Chinatown and get fresh noodles and freeze them. I would rather the other noodles instead.

Most of the people here will boil the ramen noodles in water. The water turns white from the oil from the ramen. That water is thrown away; fresh water and the dashi broth are used in the final cooking of ramen. Some people here like miso ramen, but I find it too salty for me.

[applestar]

Yep. Very fast and you HAVE to stand by the stove and watch them as they cook because they boil over.

The way I cook soba is to have a large glass of water ready by the stove. When the pot is boiling, add the soba, then when the water starts to rise and foam, hold the glass over the pot and the moment the foam reaches the top of the pot, pour 1/3 of the water in the middle. This will settle the foam back down.

I do this the second time when it starts to boil over, then taste for doneness.

If done, then turn off, remove from heat and drain. -- actually I usually lift out of the pot with tongs into a large bowl of ice water because I use filtered water from the fridge -- THEN drain.

If on tasting/testing, they need to cook a little more, then let the pot boil up one more time and use the last 1/3 glass of the water. Most of the time I don't need the third.

[digitS']

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

We had both beef and salmon as main courses at Christmas. What to do with leftover baked salmon after using it in omelets ..?

If you google Sea Shells Salmon Casserole, I think it will be about the same recipe. A Seven Seas casserole is what occurred to me but with pasta instead of rice .

Steve

[HoneyBerry]

Having some Wild Chanterelle Ravioli today. It is soooo good. I'm not sharing.

[digitS']

Oh!

That sounds ..

. good!

Steve

[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
0 Reviews Be the first to Write a Review
No Longer Available
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

[HoneyBerry]

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.