Scent of Rain

Friday, September 24, 2010

Cure to the Common Cold?


Udon topped with crunchy bits, shredded cabbage, kim chi, green onion and a poached egg. All served in dashi broth.

Last night I had gone to sleep with a pounding headache, my neck and shoulders tense. So this morning I woke up to another day with the cold. Needless to say, when you're ill with anything you don't really have the motivation to cook! Especially if you're craving something delicious, you can't bring yourself to execute such complicated tasks. I can't even stand waiting for the water to boil in order to have a cup of tea. Here it is, cooking for the cold.

Ingredients:
-1 pack of udon (comes with soup mix and crunchy bits)
You may not want to use the soup package that comes with the udon because it contains MSG and a lot of salt. A nice alternative is a healthy spoonful of miso paste. A can of msg-free chicken broth is also delicious.
-1 egg, poached
-Add your favorite things. I had half a head of cabbage in the fridge, I shredded about 1/2 cup into my soup. I always have a jar of kim chi in the fridge too, put 1/4 cup that in the soup.
-optional: top your soup with dried nori, green onion, crunchy bits (comes with the udon pack), chili, tempura, bean sprouts, etc..

Boil about 2 cups of water. Add the soup mix, udon and any vegetables. The udon untangles as it boils, but you don't want to break it when separating the strands. Also, you are only warming the udon up, once it untangles, it is done! Do not cook it any longer than that or you're gonna have very mushy glutenous noodles.

I love kim chi! I eat it by it self, with my rice dishes, in salads, and also in soup noodles! I turned off the heat then added the shredded cabbage and kim chi.

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Hearty Broccoli & Cheese Soup

Warning: I wanted one bowl of soup... this batch made at least 10 servings.

Firstly, start off with 1 head of fresh broccoli, or 3-4 cups of frozen. Chop the broccoli from tops, and peel away the fibrous stalk and chop that up too! I used 2 chicken bouillon cubes to make about 5 cups of chicken broth, you can use 3 cans of broth.

Boil the chopped broccoli in chicken broth for 15 minutes.
Get busy!

Chop up about 1lb/16 ounces/2 cups of cheese..
Mind you, I found this amount to be overwhelmingly cheesy. Chop up 1 medium onion.

Saute onion in 3 ounces margarine for 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Add in 1/2 cup of flour to onions. Gradually pour in 2 cups of milk and stir until well mixed and thick. (sorry, didn't take many photos) Pour the onion mixture into the broccoli chicken broth. Then the cheese. Turn down to medium low.

Don't let the soup boil or else the cheese will denature. You just want to leave the heat on long enough for the cheese to melt. Serve with ground pepper.

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Mother Tongue.

My Salad Rolls

Growing up, we just knew when mom was going to made salad rolls after school. She had them ready before you could even crave them. Traditionally gỏi cuốn are made with pork belly, shrimp, vermicelli,

hẹ, and various different herbs all wrapped in rice paper. It is then eaten with a dip anywhere from hoisin sauce to peanut sauce, usually a mix in between.

I made mine with more veggies and instead of a hearty brown dip, I used prepared fish sauce.

-3 vermicelli clusters (there's like 6-8 in a pack)

-8 sheets of rice paper

-16 shrimp

-1 cup of julienne carrots (mine were pickled, delicious!)

-1 cup of julienne cucumbers (mine were organically grown by my great uncle...) seedless English are the best because of the thin skin.

-a few leaves of lettuce

-some chives

-assorted herbs (optional)

In a pot of boiling water, put in your rice vermicelli and boil for about ~7 minutes, checking to see if it's softened.

Drain your noodles in a colander over cold running water. This washes more of the starch out and prevents sticking.

Then boil some more water to cook your shrimp, 2 minutes at the most. You don't want tough shrimp.

These are some greens that I used. Cucumber (I think it looked and tasted like zucchini though), lettuce, some of my homegrown herbs: Houttuynia also known as fish mint (my favorite!), Vietnamese coriander (which for some reason can be found growing along sidewalks), and mint, lastly chives.

Cut the cucumbers into thin strips about 3 inches long.

When the shrimp have finished cooking, slice them in half lengthwise. You should have two similar looking sides.

Rice paper, very thin and fragile, even more delicate when wet. In a large bowl pour in hot water (doesn't have to be boiling).

Very quick and swiftly, dip and rotate your rice paper in the hot water. Your paper should NOT get soft in the water. It should feel a little stiff and glutinous. Put the damp rice paper on a working surface.

I made this dish in the downstairs kitchen because that's where most of the ingredients were.. so the chopping board is a little ugly. Now the fun part! Place 3-4 shrimp on the paper. Then put a piece of lettuce on top. Then your veggies and noodles. I don't have any more pictures of me rolling.