Crunchy Yakisoba/かた焼きそば

With Seafood

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…

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 oil 

1. Soak dried shitake and kikurage (if using) in a prepared sauce. Set aside.
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.
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.
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.
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.

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

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!

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.

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

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

Sunlartan/酸辣湯

Chinese Sour Soup

We’re officially in autumn, I see some leaves are turning colors. The cooler temperature calls for warm soup that should not be complicated.  I made this mostly from what’s in the refrigerator.

Ingredients and Instruction for two servings (Print Recipe Here)

• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• 1/2 pounds pork cut into small pieces  You may substitute with chicken
• 1 stalk green onion minced
• 2 inch ginger root, skinned and minced
• 2 Tablespoons sake
• 1-1/2 cup water
• 1 bok choy separate green and white parts then sliced thinly
• 1 small bag enoki mushrooms, discard bottom dark ends, cut in 2 inches length
• salt, white pepper
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 3 Tablespoons rice vinegar

1. Heat sesame oil in skillet at low heat. Add pork and cook until the meat just turns white.
   
2. Add green onions and ginger to the skillet. Sauté for 1 minute.
3. Turn the heat up to medium. Pour sake, water and sprinkle about 1/2 teaspoon salt and pepper when the liquids boil,  turn heat to low, put the lid on and cook for 5 minutes.
   
4. Add bok choy’s white parts and enoki mushroom, put the lid back on and cook for a few minutes.
   
5. Add green parts of sliced bok choy, sugar and vinegar. Stir few times and it’s done! Take taste test, if you like more zing then add more vinegar
   

We drove to a hill to see the Super Moon last Sunday…wondered what it is like to see the moon form the airplane.

Still we had quite good spot to observed beautiful blood moon.

Goodnight Moon…

Porcupine Meatballs

Sweet rice Shumai / もち米の焼売

Our plane landed at the tail end of summer. The sun setting in the west is rather spectacular, I let out a sigh of relief… but we also felt somewhat blue.
Getting back into my routine is a bit of a task and slow. I inspect things we purchased during our journey…ahhh…the wappa (輪っぱ) bento box…such a nice find!

What I could fill the box with? I dunno…two thirds of our vegetables were wilted, some liquidized in the refrigerator and the milk had a sour taste…Darling, I think this has gone bad…he grabbed the car keys, and headed off to the store for fresh milk. His supper – the peanut butter sandwich -  would not be complete without it. Anything else you want me to get? he asked…completely jet lagged…thinking is way too hard.

This popular Chinese dim-sum requires no wrapper. Quick and satisfying recipe from Seattle pastry maker Setsuko. Her fabulous looking confections you can order through her website.

Ingredients and Instruction for 10 to 15 Shumais (Print recipe here)

Necessary equipment – Steamer (I used bamboo steamer)

• 1/2 cup sweet rice
• 1 pound ground pork
• 1/2 of medium size onion finely minced
• 2 teaspoons ginger finely grated or juice  Note: I like to grate skin and all first then wrap in paper towel to squeeze juice out.
  Here, my husband demonstrating
  .
• 2 teaspoons each of sake, soy sauce, oyster sauce, sesame oil
• 2 Tablespoons potato starch or corn starch
• Salt and Pepper
• Vegetable oil

1. Wash sweet rice quickly, perhaps 2-3 rinses changing water each time – sweet rice absorbs water fast so do not soak in water. Leave washed rice in sieve until needed. Get steamer ready with at least 2 inches of water at the bottom of steamer pan.
   .
2. Put ground pork, finely minced onion, grated ginger (or juice) in a medium bowl and combine well.
   
3. Add seasoning – sake, soy sauce, oyster sauce and sesame oil and mix well.
4. Add cornstarch and knead until it comes together. Salt and pepper to taste.
5. Make balls (approximately 1 and 1/2 inch in size). Roll in sweet rice.
6. Brush the steamer bottom with vegetable oil to prevent the meat balls from sticking  Lay the meat balls without crowding, put the lid on, steam for 12 to 15 minutes. Watch out for the hot steam when you remove the lid. Serve with gyoza sauce if you like.

Also great is to put in Chinese soup. I short cut by using Chinese soup granule base, with soy sauce and vinegar to adjust flavor. See, easy does it!

Here are some photos we took in Japan in random order…Amazing Kyoto Tower view from our hotel room.
My  husband loves ‘drinking yogurt’. The bakery in town of Akitsuki (秋月/Autumn Moon), Fukuoka called Pan (Japanese name for bread)…that works.
We indulged in many good eats! Even bad for you foods but tasted so good!

We flew from Narita Airpot to Fukuoka

The first thing we ate in Fukuoka is Hakata ramen – famous for rich, pork based soup at Ippudo (一風堂) for about 10 bucks. On contraire, we had the most expensive 5 course lunch at a French restaurant near Matsumoto Castle.

…by accident. 1st course is red turnip soup...Wow!

Pose with samurai warrior at well preserved Matsumoto Castle. The peek –a-boo view from tiny opening. I think that is the coolest castle ever!

Took over an hour but we made to the top of Happo Peak in Hakuba.   In fact, we walked most everywhere, a little break at Kanazawa’s samurai residence.

Hakuba rice field

HairJam..yummy?!              We loved the museum and the artist, this in Azumino, there is a Tokyo museum also.

My son and his wife Joined us to Karuizawa. We love Karaoke!

Sacred Lotus flower in Toji temple in Kyoto.

Kuzu noodle with real gold syrup at Kanazawa.
Blueberry soft serve ice cream, reward for climbing Happo Peak (八方家根) – A Japanese blogger Mnoru posted beautiful photos of the area. It was a pleasure to meet him and his wife in person in Tokyo…honey, where is the photo we took with them?

Kiso Bridge (木曽の大橋) In Narai and near by Café Miyama for the famous 100 years old curry (not really, just the recipe) for lunch. 

Asakusa, Kaminarimon in Tokyo, the young rickshaw driver who studied at San Jose University for 2 years, speaks fluent English.

World’s 2nd tallest building – Tokyo Skytree ….saw this view.

Enjoy the famous fire works at Lake Suwa.