Cold Noodle with Meat Dipping Sauce

つけ冷麺

Summer is here! ‘School’s out’ I can almost hear the memorable Alice Cooper (my husband’s favorite song) singing…not so excited about summer break now that we don’t have school age children at home…on the other hand I’m glad that that stage of our life is gone too. Aging comes with some sadness and definitely relief.

The sadness comes from usual ‘should have, would have, could have blah blah  blah’ Regrets, I’ve had a few…But then again, too few to mention…I did it My Way (this is not on my list of top 10 favorite songs but perhaps in the top 100… perhaps). I got a little melancholy  because of Father’s Day last Sunday thinking about my late father and father-in-law…sob…I hope you had a fabulous Father’s Day!

Factoring in the rising temperature outside, the evening meal gets cool treatment too. The perfect summer dish recipe…I saw in a Japanese magazine…was it Today’s Cooking?… forgetful as you age?…oh no, oh no not me!…I did it my way.

Ingredients and Instruction for 2 servings (Print Recipe Here)

For dipping sauce -

• 1 teaspoon Chinese soup base (comes in granule or powder form) dissolved in 1/2 cup hot water and cooled.
• 5 Tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 Tablespoons rice vinegar
• 1 Tablespoons sesame oil
• 6-10 shiso leaves chopped small 
• 1 stalk of green onion minced

Whisk Chinese soup base, soy sauce, vinegar and sesame oil. Add shiso leaves and green onion. Chill it in the refrigerator. Set aside.

For Seasoning sauce -

• 1 and 1/2 Tablespoon red miso paste
• 1 to 2 teaspoons tobanjan (豆板醤)
• 2 teaspoons soy sauce
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 1 Tablespoon minced ginger
• 1/4 cup water

Mix all of the above ingredients in a small bowl. Set aside.

For meat –

• Approximately 1/2 pounds of thinly sliced pork belly, cut in 1 inch strips.
• 1 Tablespoon vegetable oil
• Seasoning sauce (see recipe above)

1. Heat oil in a large non-stick skillet at medium heat, add meat and sauté until it is a little crisp and nicely browned. I used paper towel to remove excess oil(optional).
   
2. Turn down the heat to low. Mix in seasoning sauce and continually sauté until liquid is mostly evaporated. If it’s too salty for you, add water and cook for few minutes. Set aside.

For noodle – 2 packages of instant ramen noodle, cook noodle in plenty of water, pour in 1/4 cup of water 2-3 times during cooking…this gives the noodles a nice chewy, firm texture. Cook slightly shorter than the package directions. Drain the water through colander, rinse the noodle well under cold running water. Shake off excess water, plate (cut noodle in 2-3 sections with kitchen shear for easy consumption if you like) I used green noodle( made with moroheiya  leaves) as well as regular instant noodle. Somen noodle or udon noodle is another good choice.

Assembly – divide dipping sauce into two individual bowls. Mound the meat in the middle. Dip the noodle in the sauce to eat!

 I love cherry pie!…Homemade by our neighbor…mmmm good!

On Father’s Day, I made my husband Frazier (French style strawberry short cake). It was good but there were so many steps to this recipe…I don’t know why I didn’t go the ice cream sundae route?

Today’s TAPAS, the Instagram post (#todaystapas) is on-going still. I think I’m getting better with filtering app on iPhone…plating leaves much to be desired though. The below picture is cheesy stuffed shiitake mushroom.

And someday, Tapas is not actually tapas…carrot smoothie for cleansing…phew…that’s a lot of beta carotene………………..that……………………I…

(ate it up and) spit it out…  I must say, excellent lyrics to the song ‘My Way’ don’t you agree?