Indonesian Fried Noodles

I made this dish out of a yearning for the noodles we had in Bali during our honeymoon.  Let me backtrack a little and set the scene: we spent the first part of the honeymoon at Jimbaran Bay, which is mostly resorts. Great. Except when the food sucks, and the food at our resort certainly did suck. Big time. I mean, it was tears-welling-up worth, especially for the prices.  And if you're at a resort, you're a bit (or a lot) isolated from  local restaurants and establishments.


We had heard about a farmers' market in the area. Hooray, you would think. But to get there, we had to walk about 20 minutes, with temperatures hovering around 100 degrees, a brutal equatorial sun, and, if it's possible, 50000 degree humidity.  These are conditions I do not like--ask anybody.  I will talk incessantly about how hot and disgusting I feel, and then groan as if in mortal pain and say something like "I'm meeellltttiiinngg..."


I think we both lost weight during the first few days, because we refused to subject ourselves to the food at the resort (you see, we are very principled people with a strict moral code), and it wasn't easy to get to the farmers' market. When we did get to the market, we bought scary amounts of fruit to gorge on to tide us over.  But eating even 5 lbs of fruit a day was not going to cut it.


Out of desperation, we asked one of the staff for a recommendation for somewhere we could eat outside the resort.  We were told about a little restaurant, a hole in the wall kind of place, that had your everyday Indonesian food.  Oh thank heavens.  Oh I could have shoved my face in those piles of noodles.


So I found an Indonesian Fried Noodles recipe on Epicurious. I won't pretend that my dish was as good or authentic as the ones in Bali, but who cares. You're getting the recipe anyway.



Adapted from Epicurious

• 1/2 cup reduced-sodium chicken broth or water
• 3 tablespoons ketjap manis (Indonesian sweet soy sauce), or if you're like me and can't find that, 1 1/2 TBS oyster sauce and 1 1/2 TBS soy sauce (or even 3 TBS soy sauce with about a tsp of sugar)
• 1 1/2 tablespoons Asian fish sauce
• 1 tablespoon sambal oelek or Sriracha (Southeast Asian chile sauce), or to taste
• 3 large shallots
• 1/2 cup peanut, vegetable oil or other high smoke point oil
• 8 oz dried...noodles (okay this was weird because the recipe called for 1 pound fresh flat Chinese stir-fry egg noodles, which I couldn't find, and so I used an 8 oz package of something called "Chinese Plain Noodles". I know. There's a picture of it later on to give you an idea of what to get, although you could really use any noodle, including angel hair pasta)
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 (14- to 16-ounce) package firm tofu
• 4 large eggs
• 2 large onions, halved lengthwise, then cut crosswise into 1/2-inch slices (4 cups)
• 2 teaspoons finely chopped garlic
• 1/4 teaspoon minced fresh red or green Thai or serrano chile, with or without seeds (with seeds if you want the dish spicier)
• about 3 cups green veggie of your choice, cut into 1-inch pieces--I used Chinese broccoli, but you could use any or combo of green beans, snow peas, bok choy, etc.
• 2 scallions, cut diagonally into very thin slices

Prep all your components beforehand.  Use your second refrigerator to store your ingredients until ready to use. What? You don't have one? Here's mine:

Which is basically our back patio, which we share with neighbors.

Mix together the chicken broth, Indonesian sweet soy sauce (or the alternatives mentioned above), fish sauce, and sambal oelek (or Sriracha) in a small bowl.

Bottles of umami standing at attention.

Heat the oil in a large saute pan over medium high heat.  Add the shallot and cook, stirring, until golden brown, about 8 to 12 minutes.  From this:

To this:

Remove shallots with tongs or slotted spoon.  Pour shallot-infused oil into a small bowl.

Looks innocent, but oh so fragrant.

Cook your noodles according to instructions.  Drain, run under cold water to stop cooking, and toss with 2 tsp of shallot oil.

In a small bowl, beat the eggs together with a fork and a pinch of salt.  Heat 1 TBS shallot oil in the saute pan over medium heat.  Pour beaten eggs into pan and cook until barely set, about 2 to 4 minutes.

This was the part of the recipe that said to gently slide out the egg onto a cutting board and slice into 1/2 inch strips.  Since I was using a saute pan and due to my amazing culiinary skills, this is what I ended up with:

Whatever, roll it up best you can and slice away.

Heat 2 TBS shallot oil (I moved to a bigger pot at this point, but it could fit in the saute pan if you're neat and careful, which I'm not) over medium high heat and saute the onions with about 1/4 tsp salt until golden brown, about 8 to 10 minutes.

Add garlic and chili.

Cook for about 1 minute, then add the diced tofu and cook for 3 more minutes.

Add your greens and cook until wilted or crisp tender, about 5 minutes.

Add sauce and bring to a boil.  Add noodles, scallions and reserved shallots and toss until warm.


Serve. And have a big big big beer.  

Ta-da!


A note: I'm not sure I'll make this dish again, but it was decent enough that I posted about it anyway. It was tasty, but was a bit more work than this lazy-ass likes to do.

As opposed to other stir-fries that I've made, this one seemed more...complicated. It might have been because I was trying to watch the Super Bowl at the same time, but there were a lot of ingredients added one at a time so it was a minute here, 5 minutes here, make this component, make that component--I was a frantic sweaty mess after making this.  Here's wishing you have a more arid experience.

Ma Po-ish Tofu

A long time ago, I moved from Washington, DC to San Francisco.  I was the first of 3 college friends to move into an apartment on the outskirts of the city (Outer Sunset, for those of you familiar with the city).  I was sleeping on a mattress and playing a lot of music to keep myself company while I waited for various bits of furniture to trickle in, along with my roommates.

Ack I just realized that this was 2000. More than 10 years ago. Where has the time gone.

Anyway, besides playing music on a JVC stereo, I read a copious number of issues of Gourmet magazine (now, sadly, defunct). I was beyond mesmerized with an article written by a woman who traveled to China and wrote about her eating adventures, including downing live scorpions. But the real draw of this issue in particular was a recipe for ma po tofu, a dish that I enjoyed many a time growing up.  Although I had always enjoyed it as takeout, and was BLOWN AWAY by the fact that I could make it at home.  

I'm not sure what I did wrong, but the dish never turned out exactly quite savory enough, so I left the recipe by the wayside.  I didn't have the dish for many years, and when I did it was from places that did a sorry job of it.  That's how 10 years flew by.

But then a few weeks ago a Szechuan restaurant opened up nearby, and I ordered the ma po tofu.  And my love was reborn.  I have a very sentimental and emotional attachment to this dish.  I remember the excitement of my dad bringing home containers of takeout from our favorite Chinese restaurant, eagerly awaiting what I now consider the gold standard for ma po tofu.  And now I remember it as the first dish I made in my new apartment in San Francisco, when I was alone and figuring out how to flex my adulthood and identity in a new life.

I found a different recipe to use this time (I decided to evolve)--all the reviews said it was very salty, so I cut down on the amount of salty ingredients. Even so, I could have cut down by another TBS or so.  Also, since we're trying to go light on meat, I went quasi-vegetarian.  If you want to see the version with meat, just click on the link.

Adapted from Epicurious and Shirley Cheng

• 1 TBS Sichuan peppercorns (use regular black peppercorns if you can't find Sichuan)
• Two 14-oz packages of soft tofu, cute into 1-inch cubes (the original recipe called for 1 1/2 lb tofu, but since I wasn't using meat and the tofu packages in my grocery store don't come in 1 1/2 increments, I used two 14-oz packages)
• 2 TBS Chinese black-bean paste or sauce (the original recipe calls for a combo of black bean paste and hot bean paste, the latter of which I do not have) (you could go lighter than 2 TBS)
• 2 TBS oyster sauce (or a bit more black bean paste with a pinch of sugar if you want to be veggie)
• 2 tablespoons Asian chili powder (I used Korean chili flakes, which is not too hot and kind of sweet--you could use red pepper flakes or cayenne, but use very little, like a tsp or so)
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 3 TBS water
• 1/4 cup peanut oil
• 1 tsp ginger, minced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 scallions (white and green parts), thinly sliced on diagonal
• 1/4 cup Shaohsing rice wine (I didn't have this, so I used medium dry Sherry)
• 1/2 cup chicken stock or low-sodium chicken broth
• 1 tablespoon dark soy sauce 

Serves about 6. 

It's a long list of ingredients, but it's more simple than it looks. The actual cooking part goes pretty fast, so the name of the game is to prep all your ingredients beforehand.

Place the Sichuan peppercorns in a small skillet or sauce pan and toast over low heat until fragrant--about 2-3 minutes.  Place in spice/coffee grinder and whir away.

Smells so deelishous.

Dice your tofu. (okay, well, actually there was this whole step about placing the tofu into boiling water, turning off the heat, and letting it sit for 5 minutes before draining and patting dry with paper towels, but I'm realizing that this recipe is actually a bit complicated so if you want to skip it I won't tell.)

Hurrah

Mix the black bean paste, oyster sauce, and chili powder in a small bowl.

Savory and spicy. Behold.

In a small bowl, whisk together the cornstarch and water. I did take a picture, but it was the world's most boring picture, so I'm leaving it out.

Mince your ginger and garlic, and place in a bowl with half of the thinly sliced scallions (the other half will be added later).

Heat the oil in a large skillet or saute pan over moderate heat.  Place in the ginger-garlic-scallion mixture and saute for about 1 minute.  Add the sherry/Madeira and cook until most of the liquid evaporates, about 2 minutes.

Madeira.  How Chinese!

This mixture gave off the most wonderful scent ever.

Put the bean paste sauce into the pan, and cook for about 2 minutes.

Pour in the broth, soy sauce, and the remaining scallions.

Add the tofu. Bring to a boil.  Rewhisk the cornstarch mixture and add into the pan, cooking until juices thicken, about 1 minute.

Pre-cornstarch.

Post-cornstarch

Stir in peppercorn powder.  Serve over rice.  I also lightly braised some celery in a bit of chicken broth (5-7 minutes), and added a few tsp of soy sauce and a pinch of five spice powder.

Apparently it was midnight and very dark by the time I ate this.

Ta-da!

Stir Fried Lamb with Cumin

Mark Bittman, the popular author of The Minimalist column in the New York Times and various cookbooks (and one food manifesto, which seems to be de rigeur these days), recently said goodbye to the column.  As he was walking out the door, he took a moment to recap his 25 most favorite recipes.


A few of them appealed to me, including this recipe for Stir Fried Lamb with Cumin, Chili and Garlic.  Maybe it's because I've recently had lamb noodle dishes at X'ian Famous Foods, but I had a serious love at first sight moment with this recipe.


Adapted from Mark Bittman/New York Times

• 1 1/2 pounds lamb shoulder, cut into 1/2 inch cubes (pretty small)
• 1 TBS cumin seeds
• 1 TBS Szechuan peppercorns (optional)
• 1/2 tsp crushed chili pepper
• 1 TBS chopped garlic
• 1 TBS soy sauce
• peanut or high smoke point oil, like peanut or grapeseed or safflower or what have you
• about 1 lb broccolini (or broccoli, or string beans, or snow peas, or whatever), trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces
• 1 slivered garlic clove
• about 1/2 cup of chicken broth or water
• 1 c roughly chopped scallions

Place the cumin seeds and Szechuan peppercorns (if using), into a small saucepan or saute pan (or skillet--whatever, use a cooking vessel) and toast over low heat until fragrant, about 3 minutes. 

In a bowl, combine the lamb, toasted cumin, Szechuan peppercorns (if using), garlic, chili flakes, and soy sauce.  

Toss to coat well.  If you have time, let it marinate in the fridge for up to 24 hours.


Prep your broccolini.  

Cook in a similar fashion to this recipe, which is basically to heat about a TBS of oil in a skillet over medium high heat, add a slivered garlic clove, let the garlic lightly brown, throw in the broccolini, toss to coat, add the broth or water, cover and simmer for a few minutes until it becomes crisp tender, about 5 minutes.


Remove broccolini from skillet and wipe the skillet dry with a paper towel.

Heat about 2 to 3 TBS of oil over high heat in the skillet you just used (okay, I used a saute pan, you got me).  Place the lamb in the skillet, and cook for about a minute without disturbing. Take that minute to enjoy the aroma.

After you're done enjoying the aroma, stir the lamb a bit and then cook for another minute.  Add in the scallions.

Give another stir, and cook until scallions are wilted and lamb is about medium, which should only take 1 to 2 minutes top.


Serve over rice.

Ta-da!

Szechuan Shrimp Stir Fry

I had a major hankering for stir-fry the other week.  It happens. My mouth starts involuntarily salivating thinking about stir-fry and I just want to lap up a bowl of soy sauce. No not really.  Maybe.  

Actually when I was a little kid, my mom had served a big platter of some meat dish that had a lot of soy sauce.  At the end of the meal, when all that was left on the platter was a pool of soy saucey goodness, I literally lifted the platter and tipped it towards my mouth, poised to drink down that delicious salty liquid.  My mom was, needless to say, horrified. 

Maybe only rivaled by that time she caught me with fistfuls of peeled garlic stashed away in my pockets, after I had pilfered the lovely odorific cloves from her when she was making kimchi.

Back to stir-fry.  I didn't want to go beef/chicken/pork because I had had a good bit of that over the holidays, so I decided to use shrimp.  My poor shrimp came all the way from Indonesia.  I'm a planet-killer. I just needed to get that confession off my chest.

This recipe for Szechuan style shrimp stir fry on got uniformly rave reviews from Epicurious readers.  If they all like it, why not me.  I added broccolini to the recipe to round out the meal.

Adapted from Epicurious

For the broccolini:

• 1 pound broccolini (or other green veggie of your choice)
• 2 tsp peanut oil (or other high smoke point oil)
• 2 to 3 TBS water
• 2 tsp soy sauce

For the sauce: 

• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 2 teaspoons chili bean sauce (I used something like garlic black bean sauce or something)
• 2 teaspoons Chinese black vinegar or balsamic (I used balsamic)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 2 teaspoons sesame oil

For the shrimp: 

• 1 1/2 tablespoons peanut oil (or other high smoke point oil)
• 2 teaspoons finely chopped fresh ginger
• 1 tablespoon coarsely chopped garlic
• 2 tablespoon finely chopped scallions
• 1 lb raw shrimp, shelled and deveined

Wash and trim the broccolini, and cut into 1-inch pieces.

Heat 2 tsp vegetable oil (or canola or grapeseed or safflower, basically anything with a high smoke point) in a skillet over medium high heat.  Throw in the broccolini, toss to coat with oil, and add 2 to 3 TBS of water.  Let broccolini simmer for about a minute, then mix in the soy sauce.

Simmer about 3-5 minutes or until broccolini reaches your desired consistency, then remove broccolini to a bowl/plate and set aside.  Remove excess moisture from the skillet with a paper towel.

Moving onto the sauce: mix together all the sauce ingredients in a small bowl and set aside.

Moving onto the shrimp.  Prep your scallions, ginger and garlic.

Very good. Heat the oil in your skillet over high heat until shimmering (a wisp of smoke is okay but if it starts to smoke too much, just take the pan off the heat for a minute to cool things down, otherwise you will burn your aromatics).  Add in the scallions, ginger and garlic.

Stir *just for 20 seconds*, then add in the shrimp.  Cook for about 1 minute, continuing to stir and move around.  Add in the sauce and continue to stir fry for about 3 minutes, until shrimp is just cooked.

Lower heat, add in the reserved broccolini and cook until warmed through.

Serve with steamed rice.  Take a picture with bad lighting. Sue me.

That is such a random picture.  Guess I was super hungry.

Ta-da!

Beef and Broccoli Stir Fry

I bought beef.  Woohoo!  I don't buy beef that much anymore because responsibly raised beef is pretty expensive.  But I miss it. Nothing can replace its savoriness. I do love beef.

Feeling a little fatigued from racking my brain for vegetarian recipes and a few unhappy results in the last few weeks, I developed a hankering for beef stir-fry.  Relatively quick and oh so delicious.  Soy sauce and beef? The umami abounds.

I am boring myself.  Let's move onto the recipe. 

Adapted from Epicurious

For the sauce:

• 1 TBS cornstarch
• 1 1/2 TBS soy sauce
• 1 TBS black bean paste (optional)
• 1 TBS medium-dry Sherry or rice wine
• 1/4 cup chicken or beef stock or water
• 1 tsp sugar
• 2 tsp sesame oil

For the beef:

• 3/4 pound sirloin, cut against grain into 1/4" strips
• 2 tsp soy sauce
• 1/4 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp sesame oil 

For the other shtuff:

• 4 TBS vegetable, safflower or peanut oil (something that can handle high heat) 
• 1 TBS minced garlic
• 1 TBS minced ginger
• 1/2 tsp dried red pepper flakes
• 1 lb broccoli, head cut into florets; stems peeled and cut into 1/2" chunks
• 1 medium onion, halved and sliced into 1/4" half-moons

Mix together sauce ingredients in small bowl and set aside.

Mix beef with soy sauce, sugar and sesame oil.  Let marinate for 20 minutes at room temperature, or up to about 45 minutes in the fridge.

Heat 2 TBS oil in large skillet or wok over high heat.  Add marinated beef with juices and cook, stirring, just until no longer pink, about 1-2 minutes (you can do this in batches, which I didn't).  Remove beef with slotted spoon to a bowl or plate.  Or in my case, a pig bowl.

A pig bowl with a missing ear, that is.

Sad.

Heat 1 TBS oil in pan.  Add in sliced onion, and cook until crisp tender, about 4 minutes.

Remove onion with tongs or slotted spoon to a bowl and set aside.

No pig bowl for you.

Heat remaining 1 TBS oil in pan.  Add ginger, garlic and red pepper flakes.

These are going to cook very quickly--better to err on the lesser side, about 30 seconds.

Add in the broccoli, stir to coat.

Pour in about 1/3 cup water and lower heat.  Cover pan and let broccoli cook until just crisp tender, about 2 minutes.  I don't have a cover for my skillet, so I improvised.

Stir sauce mixture that had been set aside to incorporate the cornstarch again, which will have settled by now.  Pour into pan.  Let sauce come to a gentle boil to cook the cornstarch.

Toss in beef with any juices, and onion.  Serve over rice.

Here again I go with my lovely Tupperware presentation. 

Ta-da!