Category: noodles

Categories
burger curry food noodles pizza

recent rumblings: a round up

It’s been a while since I rolled up the latest stuff I’ve been up to, so here goes!

Weird Ingredients

I couldn’t resist rounding up 12 weird things Heston has cooked with and listed them over at Buzzfeed here. Includes Devil’s Penis. Go check it out!

Five Guys UK

five guys UK bacon cheeeseburger all the way

Oh lordy. This was a burger. Five Guys invited me to their first UK restaurant outside of London, based in Essex Mecca Lakeside. Their menu is purposefully simple, offering not a lot beyond burger, hot dog and fries, but by simplifying things they can really focus on what they’re doing.

I opted for a bacon cheeseburger ‘all the way’ which is as you can see a burger with lettuce, tomatoes, mushrooms and a bunch of sauces I can’t remember. And it was good. It smelled of grilled beef and tasted juicy and satisfying, packed with meaty goodness. By the way, you don’t ask for a double patty; it just comes like that. Also when you ask for a portion of fries it serves two. They like to make sure you get fed. The burger costs £8.25 but we compared it to a recent Frankie and Benny’s burger which costs c. £11 with fries and was decidedly frozen, limp and tasteless. This was night and day. You watch the guy grab a ball of meat over the counter, squish it then grill it.

Mrs. Spud and I were also really taken with the drinks machine, which boasts over 100 drinks from a single vending machine. I giggled like a child using it.

Chatting with the manager they’re looking to introduce milkshakes to the UK soon, which for me would set it off perfectly. If you like a burger, go find a Five Guys near you and try one.

Chinatown Walking Tour with Meemalee

I’m a noodle numpty so was keen to have an expert show me round Chinatown. Step forward noodle cookbook author MiMi Aye. It was a lot of fun! Read more about it here.

Kavey Meets the Bloggers

Speaking of other awesome bloggers, for some reason Kavey interviewed me about my blog. Find out a bit more about me here.

Peafs

I want to give a shout out to my local farm shop, Peafs. It’s exactly what I want; a knowledegable butcher (who told me he was out of ham because it needs another week to cure yet), great pies, fresh local veg and preserves by the bucket. I can’t believe I hadn’t seen it before, but I love it. It’s handy located next door to my daughter’s ballet class so I have a weekly excuse to browse there.

If you’re in the mid-Essex area, check out Peafs on Hullbridge Road, Rayleigh.

Curriza

I was asked to try some curry pizzas the other day – Currizzas, if you will. Combining two takeaway favourites, pizza and curry, what could go wrong?

I tried each of the varieties: Chicken Madras, Chicken Korma, Chicken Tikka Masala, and Spinach & Sweet Potato (pictured above). My son loves spicy food – he has a far higher tolerance of it than I do – and woofed down the Madras which I found outrageously hot. I was much happier with the Korma and Tikka Masala pizzas, which were gentle and enjoyable. These really do taste exactly as they sound so if you want a compromise between ordering Italian (!) or Indian, this would be a good one.  I will say that the £3 per pizza price tag puts them at the pricier end of the supermarket fresh pizza range.

Read an alternative review of Currizzas here. Find out more about Curry Dave and his Currizas here.

Pizza Express Christmas

Yes, more pizza. I went to Pizza Express’s unveiling of their Autumn and Winter menus. The Christmas fare included things like ‘Anatra’ (Peking duck) pizza which did taste like a duck pancake and ‘Festiva’ pizza which was a play on brie and cranberry.

But what stole the show for me and my fellow diner was the Mare Rossa.

Chunks of smoked salmon, prawn and tenderstem broccoli on a perfectly crisp base. The fish flavours on the tomato sauce was completely perfect. Loved it.

We were offered festive desserts such as mince pie cheesecake and chocolate tartufo but happily we were too stuffed on mare rossa pizza.

Check out the new Autumn menu at Pizza Express from 7th October, with the Christmas menu following on 11th November.

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Many thanks to Pizza Express, Curry Dave and Five Guys UK for their invites and samples. No-one asked for favourable reviews and I definitely don’t give them out lightly.

Categories
fish sauce noodles

chinatown, noodles and me

While I’m a self-confessed expert on the subject of potatoes, there’s another carbohydrate I’m fairly clueless on: noodles. I know about the dried egg ones from Sharwoods, the soft ones from Amoy, and I’m aware there’s such a thing as flat ribbon noodles, Udon (the chunky ones) and soba. Beyond that my knowledge is really sketchy.

Enter noodle pro MiMi Aye. I’ve known MiMi since I started blogging; she’s one of the first people I remember connecting with in the early days of scribbling up my recipes. She’s of Burmese descent and has an encyclopaedic knowledge across Asian cuisines. When I heard she was writing a book on the subject of noodles I knew (a) I was going to get a copy immediately (b) it was going to be fantastic.

And how right I was. Featuring 100 recipes with noodles as the star ingredient, Noodle! is a culinary tour compiling the best recipes and techniques. There’s familiar faces like Pad Thai and chicken chow mein, and more unsung heroes like Mandalay Meeshay and Kuay Teow Rua. There’s stir-fries, salads, soups and more and each one is enticing. I reckon I’ve cooked about fifteen of them so far and I’ve not been disappointed yet.

bun cha
ants climbing a tree
shanghai beef noodles
singapore noodles
beef chow fun
yaki soba
japchae
1 / 7

It’s an excellent reference and perfect to put some noodley variety in your meal planner. You can buy Noodle! from Amazon here.

As you might expect from a book concentrating on Asia, to cook a number of them you will require certain items in your larder. While many are available in your larger supermarkets there are some specialty ingredients that you just don’t find in the Rayleigh Asda. I don’t have Asian markets round my corner of Essex so sourcing some of this stuff is tricky. Of course the UK mecca of Asian produce is London’s Chinatown. And who better to guide me round it than the author of Noodle! herself, MiMi. One warm, sunny evening in July we met up so she could give me the tour.

It began with a slightly shameful look when I confessed I only had a debit card on me, and cash is very much the currency of the neighbourhood. I should’ve guessed really. Luckily the shops I went into did take cards, but I’d get cash out next time to be sure. Our first stop was for some bubble tea, something I was only vaguely aware of and certainly hadn’t tried before; for those not in the know it’s flavoured ice tea garnished with tapioca ‘bubbles’. As they shoot up the straw you get slightly squishy snacks to accompany your drink. An unusual one but wins you over in the end.

bubble tea

We then embarked on an exhaustive tour of MiMi’s favourite shops and cafes, taking in racks upon racks of – what else – noodles, but also meats, fish, tofu, condiments, vegetables, seasonings, sauces, canned produce, spices… all crammed into tiny shops bursting with people.

The array of noodles available is frankly mind-boggling. Flat, round, vermicelli, Thai, Vietnamese, dried, fresh, wholewheat, sweet potato, egg… without a guide I would’ve shrugged and moved on, but MiMi steered me through the choices and recommended suitable varieties.

Culminating in a browse round SeeWoo, with advice on the best ingredients to get a lot of use out of, I picked up some great items. My final haul was a weighty bag packed with Noodle varieties, fish sauce, palm sugar, flours, chilli oil and many other bits.

This little lot set me back about £20

Wandering around Chinatown I wouldn’t know where to start on my own, but going with a wily pro was eye-opening. MiMi kept a running commentary going, explaining the history of items, the uses of these types of dried fish, the origin of these particular delicacies. I wished I’d written it all down! It was an inspiring, enlightening and fun evening.

So two bits of advice then: take cash, and bring your own favourite sturdy shopping bag.

MiMi offers Chinatown walking tours for small groups or individuals. Sign up for a Noodle Tour here. You find MiMi at Meemalee.com or find her on Twitter @meemalee.

Want more noodlage? Check out these recipes from around the blogs: goi chay, warm dressed noodle salad, tuna & mango with lime noodles, and pork aubergine noodle salad with ginger.

Categories
beef food noodles

kinda beef pho

Let’s get this out of the way: this is an inauthentic beef pho. It’s beef and noodles in a strong broth of Asian flavours. But pho tells you the general direction we’re heading in for this one.

So why this dish? Well not only is a great way to use up leftovers (in this instance, specifically roast beef) but it was inspired by a brilliant little cooking demo from Jun Tanaka. As a guest of Sainsbury’s myself along with a bunch of other foodie peeps watched Chef Tanaka prepare a selection of Asian / fusion dishes. He described his food backgrounds: with a Japanese – American heritage, combined with years in England, French classical training and many holidays in Thailand he has a lot of experiences to draw from. I was chuffed to see Kavey there so we could joint-coo over the excellently rare miso salmon, roll eyes at professional food writers assuming umami is a new invention, and debate the dislocated origins of rack of lamb with roasted peppers and chickpea pancakes. She also got a giggle when a bird’s eye chilli from a Tom Yum soup got stuck in my throat, causing me to cough uncontrollably and one of my eyes to stream. Luckily it moved on soon enough, but not before I’d turned bright pink.

Errant chillies aside, Jun’s food was fabulous, and I will definitely be giving the salmon a whirl.

The true meaning of the night was to draw attention to the speciality ingredients range. A kinda Vietnamese-style beef pho seemed a good way to get inspired by some of these. Here I’ve used some Sainsbury’s Mirin to add a dash of seasoning to this humble dish, along with dried mixed mushrooms to up the umami quotient. It’s warming and wholesome, and adaptable enough to take pretty much any meat or veg you care to throw at it.

Print

kinda beef pho

Author Gary @ BigSpud

Ingredients

  • 2 litres beef stock
  • 1 red onion sliced
  • 3 cm piece of ginger sliced
  • 2 cloves
  • 1 cinnamon stick
  • 2 cloves garlic peeled
  • 1 teaspoon black peppercorns
  • Pinch dried chillies
  • 25 g pack mixed dried mushrooms
  • 1 carrot peeled and thinly sliced
  • 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
  • 1 teaspoon mirin
  • 2 tablespoons fish sauce
  • 2 packs of dried noodles
  • 250 g sliced roast beef
  • 1 lime cut into wedges

Instructions

  • Add a dash of oil to a large saucepan. Over a high heat add the garlic, ginger, ginger, peppercorns, chillies and cinnamon and stir fry for a minute or two until they start to smell aromatic. Add the stock, cover and simmer for an hour.
  • Meanwhile cover the dried mushrooms in boiling water and steep for the same time.
  • Strain the stock and add the noodles, carrots and onions. When the noodles are tender add the oyster sauce, mirin, fish sauce and beef. Simmer for a couple of minutes until everything is piping hot and serve, with lime wedges on the side to each to add fresh zing.
Categories
breadcrumbs broccoli chicken coriander cumin food noodles oyster sauce

chicken katsu with oyster noodles

I do love panko breadcrumbs. The ridiculous extra crunch the Japanese breadcrumbs give is so satisfying. So I was really looking forward to chicken coated in panko when I got home.

Until I realised I didn’t have any eggs. The typical pane station is flour, egg, breadcrumb. But with no eggs what was I going to do? I figure all it needed was something for the breadcrumbs to stick to. So why not the chef’s friend cornflour? My only problem was avoiding that gluey taste that cornflour can give, so I added some ground spices to mask the flavour. Seemed to work pretty well. To the point in fact where I don’t see the need to waste an egg on breadcrumbing again!

This is an easy to rustle-up, easy to multiply dinner that is a great combo of crunchy chicken and slurpy noodles. You could use any sauce you like with the noodles – even a splash of soy would do.

Chicken katsu with oyster noodles (serves 2):

2 chicken breasts

1 teaspoon cornflour

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon ground coriander

Milk

A little plain flour

Panko breadcrumbs

4 noodle nests

1 litre chicken stock

Large handful of broccoli florets, cut into bite-size pieces

A pinch of chilli flakes

1 carrot

A pinch of sesame seeds

  1. Get a large pan with shallow oil over a medium heat, and a saucepan for your noodles over a high heat.
  2. Lay out a sheet of cling film and dust with salt and pepper. Put the chicken on this and lay another piece of chicken on top. Using a rolling pin, bash the chicken to approx 1cm thin.
  3. In a bowl combine the cornflour, cumin and coriander. Add milk until you get a thick, sludgy paste. Set up a breading station, with one bowl of plain flour, your cornflour sludge, and the breadcrumbs. Dust the chicken with flour, dip in the cornflour paste and then in the breadcrumbs. Make sure they are well coated.
  4. Lower the chicken into the oil gently. When done on one side flip over until done, then drain on kitchen paper.
  5. Get the chicken stock on to boil in the saucepan and add the noodles. After 3 minutes or when the noodles are done, drain them and rinse well with cold water.
  6. Add the broccoli back to the noodle saucepan, add the chilli along with a splash of water. Peel the carrot and use the peeler to shave into strips into the broccoli. Jam the lid on and cook fast. After about 3 minutes the broccoli should be tender, so add the oyster sauce and toss well. Cook for a further minute and then add the noodles back to the pan, tossing well to mix. Serve in a bowl topped with sesame seeds, and top with the sliced chicken.
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