Tuesday, November 3, 2015

Crunchy Yakisoba/かた焼きそば

With Seafood

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Dishes like this make me homesick…quite resemble to Nagasaki’s sara (pronunce sa-ra)-udon (皿うどん), seafood plus thick sauce over crunchy noodles. Nagasaki Japan’s food scene was influenced by Dutch, Portuguese and Chinese because import business thrived there in the mid 1500s.

Nagasaki’s local cuisine, champon(ちゃんぽん)…don’t call it champion though sometime I feel like champon is champion…I am a champion and you’re gonna hear me roar!…(oops, some words trigger me to burst out singing and dancing)…anyway, other popular noodle dish sara-udon is not really udon. One source says that a noodle shop owner had trouble home delivering champon because of spilling of soup (mind you, this is pre-Tupperware era), and Nagasaki is famous for having hundreds of slopes everywhere… so that the jelly like, sauce was invented…this is more like urban legend to me but…. I see it all, I see it now…

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This revised recipe is from Miki Fujiwara, a mega blogger whose blog ‘Fujiwara family’s everyday home cooking’ has a neighborhood of 120.000 people (mind boggling, right?) who access her blog every day.

Ingredients and Instructions for Crunchy Yakisoba - 4 servings (Print Recipe Here)

For sauce

  • 4 cups of water
  • 1/2 teaspoon grated ginger root  Note: I used fresh but you could use tubed grated ginger.
  • 5 Tablespoons soy sauce
  • 2 Tablespoons sugar
  • 2 Tablespoons oyster sauce
  • 1 Tablespoon Chinese chicken soup base (granule)
  • 4 Tablespoons potato starch (片栗粉)

Mix sauce ingredients except potato starch in a 4 cup glass measuring cup for easy pouring or in a medium bowl. Whisk to combine well. Put potato starch in a small bowl and add about 1/4 cup of just mixed sauce and dissolve starch with fork or chopstick. Put the whole thing back in the sauce mixture and stir well. Set aside.

  • 8-10 cut dried shiitake, if the shiitake comes in whole then you need only 3 (cut in 4-6)
  • 4-5 dried kikurage (black fungus/黒木耳) optional, tear in small pieces…skip it if you don’t like this stuff.
  • 10 Tablespoons vegetable oil divided.
  • 450g (roughly) fresh yakisoba noodle, divided in three bundles 
  • 1 carrot peeled and cut in 2 inch lengths about 1/8 inch thick
  • 1/4 of small cabbage roughly chopped
  • 1/2 of onion thinly sliced
  • Seafood of your choice or approximately 2 cups of frozen seafood mix, available at Korean market for reasonable price, defrosted if frozen.  I used shrimp, octopus, baby scallop
  • 4 young corn from can, drain and rinsed, cut in half…I don’t care for it but I included it for the sake of my blog.
  • 12 hard boiled quail eggs from can, drained and rinsed…next time I will hard boil them myself.
  • White pepper, salt
  • 1-2 teaspoons sesame oilDSC_7496 
  1. Soak dried shitake and kikurage (if using) in a prepared sauce. Set aside.DSC_7479
  2. Heat 3 Tablespoons  of oil in a large non-stick frying pan at medium heat. Loosen –up the first bundle of yakisoba noodles and spread onto the pan. When the bottom turns light brown, flip over and cook the other side until brown. Using tongs, lift and turn the noodle several times until the noodles get crunchy and golden brown. Place onto a plate with paper towel to absorb oil. Do the same for other two bundles. Set aside. DSC_7486DSC_7489DSC_7493
  3. Quickly clean the same pan with a paper towel. Add the last Tablespoon of oil and heat at medium heat. Sauté the onion and carrot until soft. Add cabbage, continue to sauté until cabbage is limp, then add seafood.DSC_7503DSC_7504
  4. Mix one more time (make sure that sauce is not separated) the prepared sauce before adding to the pan (step# 3). Cook until it thickens.
  5. Add young corn and quail eggs, pepper and salt to taste. cook for 1-2 minutes stirring often. Pour sesame oil around the edge and stir to combine. DSC_7508
  6. Place the yakisoba noodle on a large platter and pour the sauce over the noodles. Serve immediately to enjoy the crunchiness of the noodles. DSC_7513

I bought a large can of quail eggs, then put the leftovers in the dill pickle jar…this would be nice snack. DSC_7527

Guess what I found? My husband brought a yellow rose still alive in all the rain we had in our tiny rose garden. He made a olive bread, cleaned the gutters, carved the pumpkin and got ready for Trick-or-Treaters, it was busy day…thanks honey!DSC_7526

Last Saturday was very gloomy due to heavy rain. There was no good light to take the Today’s Tapas (#todaystapas) picture. This is just a ham and cheese sandwich but Halloween style. I made the face with pickled grapes and avocado. IMG_5821

I made this Mango and Avocado salad with Pomegranate and Dukkah from Angie’s Recipe. Guilt free and refreshing!IMG_5853

Can you believe it’s November already?  Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh…don’t you love this song by Katy Perry?

25 comments:

  1. かた焼きそば、私が好きなの知ってらっしゃんですか~~!?
    最寄の駅ビルのなかに四川中華料理店があって、出かけて遅くなった時によって食べるのは,かた焼きそばなんです。あのカリカリ感ととろみのついた野菜あんかけが大好きです。お料理の本も持ってますけど、家で作るのはあきらめてました。Nippon Ninさんのレシピをコピーして作ってみますね。四川のより具が多いです!
    慣れて素早く作れるようになったら嬉しいな!昨日義理妹が母を預かってくれ、夫も友人とハイキングにでかけたので、私は奈良公園で披露された舞楽を見に行きました。公園内も歩き回り疲れたので、四川に寄ってかた焼きそば食べました。

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    1. ほんと、ほんとカリカリととろとろの相性がたまらないですよね。 介護は肉体的にもそうですけど、精神的にも疲れますから、息抜きが出来て良かったですね。
      最近、冷えて来ました。暖かいハーブティーが良い感じの雨日和が続いています。 風邪に気をつけてください。

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  2. It looks really good, and lovely presentations! :)

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    1. Thank you very much Linda. I copied one of quote in your blog...inspirational! Grateful for you post!

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  3. Mmm, the kata-yakisoba looks delicious!I didn't know about the theory of how sauce was created. That sounds interesting! And Mango & Avocado salad -- two of the things I love. Never had a dish of them together, but that must be super yummy!
    Your husband is so nice and helpful. I hope you had fun Halloween :-)

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    1. Thank you Tamago chan. Did you find the ring yet? It was very charming post. I didn't know you speak Cat language,ha ha ha.

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  4. Oh gracious! This sounds so wonderful. I just returned from over a month away in Chicago, Pennsylvania and Maryland. Dead tired and sick, I'm afraid, but seeing your post made me smile. Actually I would like some chazuke and ume right now.

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    1. Thank you Kay. Welcome back and I hope you had a great time. I have been to Hershey Pennsylvania...chocolate factory was fun! I hope you are getting better. Take Care.

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  5. looks like an Oriental style noodles.
    time flies, it is almost the end of the year..it's a season to be jolly..

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    1. Thank you Agnes for stopping by. Have a nice week!

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  6. So delicious with all the seafood! It looks just like the one I used to order from a Cantonese restaurant. I am so glad that you have tried the salad. Looks so beautiful and thanks for the shout-out too!

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    1. Thank you Angie! You're so kind!. We enjoyed your mango and avocado salad.

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  7. Looks absolutely deeeelicious! Your husband is such a gem.

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    1. Thank you Jalna. You're so generous and awesome!

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  8. I love yakisoba, but I only had very humble versions of it. Yours looks extraordinary and so rich of different flavours! I bookmark it! (By the way, I remember the first time I ordered yakisoba and was surprised to see it was not with soba noodles ;-) ).
    Thank you so much for sharing the famous Japanese blog with us. I will practice my Japanese on it ;-) (Recipes are the only Japanese texts I understand more or less...).
    The salad looks lovely and so sunny!

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    1. Thank you very much Sissi! Your tzatziki looks amazing!

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  9. this looks amazing always order at Japanese restaurants must try making it

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    1. Thank you Rebecca! Thank you for introducing fantastic other bloggers/recipes at your site. I always have great time there.

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  10. What a delicious dish! I particularly enjoyed the story behind it!

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    1. Thank you Katerina. Thank you for the Chestnut chocolate Mousse Torte recipe. Looks fantastic!

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  11. スクロールダウンしながら長い間訪問していなかったことに気が付きました。Time is fleeting です。太めのそばと具たっぷりのとろとろあんが我が家の中華そばですが、かた焼きそばを家でつくるには長崎ちゃんぽんなどに使う市販のぱりぱり麺を使ってました。ここまで手をかけてそばを用意するとおいしいでしょうね。

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