Category: noodles

Categories
chicken lime noodles peanut butter

chicken skewers, satay sauce and noodle salad

chicken skewers with satay sauce and noodle salad

This recipe is adapted from one of Jamie’s 30-Minute Meals. If you’ve browsed around this blog in the last couple of months, you’ll have noticed that I’ve gone through quite a lot of them, and they’ve all been pretty fantastic. This is the first one that felt like a lot of fuss for okay results. I’m sure it could be simplified to a more straight-forward stir fry style recipe. I’ll be back with this one.

Chicken skewers, satay sauce and noodle salad (serves 2):

For the satay sauce:

½ a bunch of fresh coriander

A few slices of red chilli

1 clove garlic

3 tablespoons crunchy peanut butter

1 tablespoon tahini

Soy sauce

2cm ginger

Zest and juice of 1 lime

For the chicken:

2 chicken breasts, diced

Runny honey

For the noodles:

1 nest per person

50g unsalted cashews

½ red onion

½ bunch fresh coriander

Soy sauce

1 lime

1 teaspoon sesame oil

1 teaspoon fish suace

1 teaspoon honey

1 teaspoon sesame seeds

To serve:

More fresh coriander

2 little gem lettuces, shredded

  1. Get a grill on screaming hot. Whizz together all the satay sauce ingredients in a food processor. Taste and check – more lime? More soy?
  2. Skewer the chicken breasts and baste with half the satay sauce. Drizzle with olive oil and pop under the grill for 10 minutes on each side, or until golden and cooked through. When you stop to turn them over, drizzle over the honey.
  3. Put the noodles in a bowl, pour boiling water over and cover for 5 minutes. Bash the cashew nuts to pieces and add to a frying pan and heat gently – make sure they don’t burn.
  4. Peel the red onion and pulse with coriander. Mix with the soy, lime juice, sesame oil and fish sauce. Taste and check for seasoning. By this time the noodles are probably ready drain, wash them under cold water and toss with the red onion salad.
  5. Back to the cashews, adding honey and sesame seeds to coat. Once golden, tip into the bowl with noodles and combine well.
  6. Serve the skewers on top of the noodle salad with lettuce, more coriander and the remaining satay to dip.
Categories
beef egg food noodles onion peppers spinach steak

jap chae

Following my first brush with Korean BBQ, subsequent egging on from gourmet traveller, and inspiration from Judy Joo, I knew my second dish had to be Jap Chae.

I took a good look at Judy Joo’s recipe, and dived into the challenge. Being a forthright so-and-so, I made a few adjustments. I understand they are at the heart of the dish but I had no chance of finding dangmyeon, or sweet potato vermicelli, in my corner of Essex. It’s hard enough finding an Asian store of any description, so I hope the panel will forgive me substituting fine egg noodles (if I ever see some on my travels, I will grab them and give ’em a try). On a more personal level, I love it when beef has that black-brown seared crust on, and worried that this recipe might lose it. So I chose to sear the beef very quickly over very high heat, then leave it to rest alongside the omelette before adding back at the end. By resting it here, those lovely steak juices would wander off and get leeched by the egg, so double win there.

All told, it was a lovely plate of noodles. Dark and rich, with plenty of fresh vegetable crunch. The omelette and beef were nice little nuggets of treasure hidden away amongst it all. Thanks guys! So what’s next?

Jap chae (serves 2):

200g rump steak, thinly sliced

For the marinade:

1 teaspoon sugar

1 tablespoon soy sauce

2 tablespoons mirin

1 teaspoon sesame oil

1 teaspoon sesame seeds

For the noodles:

2 nests fine egg noodles, broken up

2 tbsp soy sauce

Everything else:

2 eggs, beaten

1 large onion, sliced

4 cloves garlic, crushed

1 small red onion, sliced

1 small carrot, julienned

12 oyster mushrooms, sliced

½ red pepper, julienned

Handful baby spinach leaves

1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds, crushed

3 tablespoons sesame oil

2 tablespoons soy sauce

  1. Mix the marinade ingredients together, pour over the steak and leave for at least half an hour.
  2. Boil the noodles as per packet instructions, drain and rinse through with plenty of cold water. When cool to the touch pour over the soy and let it soak in.
  3. Get a pan on medium low and spread the egg thinly over the base of the pan. When it sets flip it over, cook briefly, roll it up and put to one side.
  4. Get the pan up to ferocious heat and add a splash of oil. Sear the beef quickly for about 45 seconds on either side and remove to the same plate as the omelette to rest while you get on with everything else. (I couldn’t bear to lose that leftover marinade so poured it over the resting noodles).
  5. Keep the heat high and add the onion and garlic and cook for 3 minutes. Keep it moving the whole time and it shouldn’t catch. Add the red onion, carrot, mushrooms and pepper and continue stir-frying at pace. Fry for 3 – 4 minutes more until they vegetables start to go tender, then add the spinach and beef. Slice the omelette into strips and add those too along with the noodles and the rest of the ingredients.
  6. Cook for another minute or two until everything has been warmed through and the noodles take on a glossy appearance.
Categories
cashew nuts food noodles prawns

soy, ginger and garlic prawns with cashews and noodles

I found myself in the rare event of travelling home knowing I was going to cook for myself and not having a clue what to do. As luck would have it, I step through the door and Pureety have sent me a clutch of marinades. So why not.

I go for a Soy, Garlic and Ginger marinade and chuck it over some prawns I have knocking about, and then knock up a stir fry. It worked pretty well – sweet prawns and savoury notes, backed with the aniseedy tang of fennel and celery finishing with the crunch of cashews. Not bad for an improv.

A couple of tips: keep the pan mega, mega hot, and keep everything moving. For this reason, stir-fries are all in the prep, or mise en place if you prefer. Get everything chopped, assembled and to hand so you can just stand round the pan throwing stuff in and stirring. Makes all the difference.

Soy, ginger and garlic prawns with cashews and noodles (serves 2):

1 sachet Pureety soy, garlic and ginger marinade

A handful of cooked, peeled prawns

½ teaspoon fennel seeds

1 tablespoon rapeseed oil

1 celery stick, chopped

1 red onion, sliced

½ red pepper, chopped

5 baby sweetcorn, sliced

1 tablespoon chilli dipping sauce

1 pack of straight to wok flat noodles

1 tablespoon coriander, chopped

1 egg, beaten

Handful of cashew nuts, toasted and slightly crushed

  1. Pour the marinade over the prawns and leave while you prep the veg.
  2. In a dry pan, toast the fennel seeds for 1 minute or until they start to pop. Add oil and fry the celery and onion for 1 minute.
  3. Add the pepper and sweetcorn and fry for another minute or two until tender. Chuck in the prawns, noodles and chilli sauce and continue to stir until the noodles are ready. You may need to add just a splash of hot water to loosen everything up a bit.
  4. Add the egg and coriander and stir continuously for 45 seconds so the egg never sets – it will pick up the stray liquids and make a silky sauce. Serve immediately, topped with toasted cashews.
Categories
chicken food noodles peppers

chicken on crispy noodles

chicken on crispy noodles

The irrepressible Ken Hom popped up on Saturday Kitchen this week to show off a dish for Chinese New Year. He made a platter of crispy noodles topped with velveteen chicken in a savoury sauce. Three of us saw it being made and we immediately decided that it was what we were having for Sunday lunch.

My only change was to add some red pepper; it seemed odd that it would be lacking a vegetable element (ignoring the spring onions). With that, it was a very satisfying dinner and went down extremely well. Beautifully soft chicken, fresh fruity peppers, a tangy and glutinous coating sauce, but the real revelation were the crispy noodles. After a quick parboiling I laid them flat in the frying pan and allowed them to crisp. A risky toss later and the other side was also browned. This gave a delicious contrast of crispy and chewy, and hoovered up the sauce perfectly.

The only slight downer was Ken served his perfect circle of noodles on one platter, allowing people to share. That wasn’t going to work for me so I had to carve them up in a hacking fashion! Tasted just as good though.

Gung hee fatt choi!

Chicken on crispy noodles:

300g chicken breast diced very small

1 egg white

2 teaspoons cornflour

Pinch of salt

½ teaspoon white pepper

1 red pepper, diced

4 egg noodle nests

2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar

1½ tablespoons oyster sauce

1 tablespoon light soy sauce

300ml chicken stock

1 tablespoon cornflour, mixed with 1½ tablespoon water

Spring onions, chopped

  1. Mix the egg white, cornflour, salt and pepper and toss in the chicken breast, coating thoroughly.
  2. Boil the noodles briefly, drain and add to a hot pan spreading them out evenly. After 5 minutes a crust should have formed; turn the noodles over.
  3. While the noodles cook, mix the stock, vinegar, and oyster sauce together.
  4. After another 5 minutes put the noodles on kitchen paper to drain off the excess oil.
  5. Over a high heat in a little oil fry the chicken and peppers, stirring quickly, until the chicken is white on all sides. Remove from the pan and leave to one side.
  6. Add the wet ingredients and bubble for a minute, add the cornflour and allow to thicken. Put the chicken and peppers back in the pan with the spring onion and stir fry to allow the sauce to coat the meat and veg. After a minute or two turn out on to the noodles and serve.

The original recipe can be seen here.

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