Garlic bok choy and udon with fried bean paste

17 Thursday Apr 2014

Posted by Zoli in Chinese, healthy, pasta, pasta sauce, quick and awesome, Sauces, Street food, udon noodles, vegan, Vegetarian

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bak choy, Chinese vegetables, fried bean paste, jajangmyun, soy bean paste, stir fried bak choy, udon noodles, zha jiang mian

Normally when I cook bok choy I stir fry it a little with garlic, ginger, maybe some chilies, some soy sauce… or I might throw it into a bowl of ramen. I never put any thought into it. A couple days ago I asked my husband to pick me up some bok choy and so of course he brought back a mammoth-sized bunch of it. He rarely under-does things. So this stuff needed to be eaten pronto. Out of respect for the mass of fresh greenery, I decided to concentrate a little and do it right. A simple recipe, but done with care. All some fresh green produce needs. I made some udon noodles with fried bean paste sauce to go with it and this shall be our lunch and this shall be our dinner too.

Bak choy stir fried with garlic

2 large bunches of bok choy or 6 bunches baby bok choy
3-6 cloves garlic, minced
a light oil such as rapeseed
sea salt

1) Wash the bok choy thoroughly and cut into large pieces. Separate the white stalk pieces from the leafy greener pieces as they have different cooking times.
2) Heat up oil in a wok and then gently fry the garlic for a minute (do not brown) to flavor the oil.
3) Add in the white stalks first and fry on medium heat, stirring, until they are beginning to turn translucent.
4) Add in the leafy greens, sea salt and stir fry another couple minutes, till just cooked. Do not add soy sauce as it will make the vegetables a little mushy. Salt and garlic alone are delicious.

Udon noodles with fried bean paste sauce
serves 2
2 rolls of dried udon noodles (or fresh noodles would be best)
2 tsp soy bean or black bean paste
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp fresh chopped ginger
1/2 cup chopped shitake mushrooms
3-4 tbs of Chinese cooking wine or 1/4 cup of light beer
1 tsp sugar
2 tbs chopped peanuts
light oil, such as rapeseed oil
julienned carrot, cucumber and spring onion for garnish

This is a quick noodle dish similar to Korean jajangmyun or Chinese zha jiang mian. I pretty much tried to make zha jiang mian but didn’t have exactly everything to hand so came up with this tasty version. Seriously, my husband and I were fighting over the chopsticks to eat it straight out of the wok.

1) Cook the noodles according to package instructions. Rinse with cold water, drain and set aside.
2) Heat up oil in a wok and gently fry the garlic and ginger for a minute. Add the mushrooms and cook for another minute.
3) Add in the Chinese cooking wine, sugar and the soy bean paste and fry for a few more minutes on medium heat.
4) Add in the chopped nuts. If the sauce is too thick, it can be thinned with a little water.
5) Turn off the heat. Add in the cold noodles and mix or serve on top of noodles with the vegetable garnishes such as cucumber, carrot and spring onion.

Homemade flour tortillas

19 Wednesday Mar 2014

Posted by Zoli in bread, flatbread, healthy, kids, kids lunchbox ideas, Mexican, quick and awesome, Street food, tacos, tex mex, the basics, vegan, Vegetarian

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flatbread, flour tortillas, homemade tortillas, tortillas de harina, white flour

We’re all brainwashed in various ways until some stimulus comes along and opens our eyes. Sometimes we fight change and sometimes a lightbulb just turns on above our heads.
I make an Indian-style dinner about once a week and usually include a homemade bread such as naan, chapatis or puris. I plan the kneading, rolling out and frying into my mealtime cooking and it’s never any trouble. So why then have I only been making tacos when I have tortillas from Trader Joes? Tortillas are just as easy to make as chapatis. I’d just never thought of making them by hand before. And now I feel like a dunce. But no time like the present to break a bad habit. Also check out the strangely lengthy ingredient list on a store-bought packet of tortillas. Especially those El Paso brand ones. Yuck.
I tried a few recipes before I landed on this one. Simple, tasty and easy to make—especially if you’re not precious about perfect circles. Sure a tortilla press would be handy but once you get into the rhythm of rolling out and frying it’s kind of fun (especially with good music or a cool podcast to listen to).

Ingredients
makes about 12 flour tortillas
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 or 1 1/2 cup hot water
1/4 cup olive oil
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt

1) Mix the flour with the baking powder and salt.
2) Pour in the olive oil and mix with your fingers until the flour has a crumbly texture. This is the fun part. The flour feels velvety soft.
3) Add in the water (I heated up water in a kettle and poured it in after it boiled). Start with 1 and 1/4 cups and add in another 1/4 cup if you need it.
4) Mix the dough until it comes together and then dump onto a floured work surfaced and knead for a few minutes.
5) Pinch off pieces of dough and roll into about 12 dough balls. Flatten them slightly with your fingers (not your palm) so they are like little thick discs. Cover with kitchen towel or tea towel so they don’t dry out and leave to rest for 15 minutes.
6) To cook, heat up a cast iron skillet if you have one or a heavy bottomed frying pan like me. Roll a dough ball out as thin as you can (paper thin) and as evenly circular as you can. I find that roll, turn, roll, turn, etc. works well.
7) Place the thin tortilla in the hot frying pan (no need to oil the pan) and push down gently on any big air bubbles. Cook for about 30 seconds, then flip over and cook the other side. Flip again and cook the first side a little more if you need to. Place the cooked tortilla under a tea towel so that it stays soft and doesn’t get dried out.
8) While it is cooking, start rolling out the second tortilla. Continue piling the cooked tortillas under a tea towel.
9) Serve straightaway or store in a ziploc bag when they have cooled down. Reheat gently in a frying pan just as you would store-bought tortillas.