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…

Noodle Road

Tan Tan Noodle (坦坦麺)

Have you seen the movie ‘Antarctica Cook (南極料理人)’?  The story of a sou-chef in the Defense Military in Japan who is sent as a cook to the South Pole for a quirky, eccentric sometimes bizarre group of researchers and scientists? I love the scene where the chef had to create ramen noodle for delusional ramen crazed people. The movie line from one in particular, “My body is made of ramen, I can’t survive without ramen”…right, I feel like that sometimes.

I wish to make ramen for a long while yet this is unknown territory. I really don’t know if I want to venture out the far. My daughter even sent me a copy of Ivan Ramen for my birthday. A Journey of Jewish guy pioneered into ramen world in Japan, he earned fame and opened a ramen shop or two in Japan also in New York, it’s part biography and recipe book…. it was interesting and the recipe was desirable.

Then I found this recipe from a very old magazine clip which was in  my fancy ‘like it then tear it’ filing system. I would like to try Ivan’s recipe, home made noodle and all someday when I have plenty of time to fail…obliviously not in sprinting December. This is way simplified, approachable and was good.

Ingredients and instructions for two bowls of ramen

• Green onion - white parts only 3-4 stalks about 2 Tablespoons finely minced
• Red miso paste 2 Tablespoons
• Sugar 1Tablespoon
• Soy sauce #1, 2 Tablespoons
• Thinly sliced pork belly meat approximately 1/2 pound.
• Bok Choy 2 bunches, wash well between the leaves without separating.
• Chinese chicken stock 1 Tablespoon
• Soy sauce #2, 4 Tablespoons
• Rice vinegar 2 Teaspoons
• La-yu 1 Tablespoon
• Ramen noodle 2 packages. Dry or fresh. I used several kinds of instant ramen noodles.
• Sesame oil, salt to taste

1. Minced green onion, divide in half and put in two bowls. Set aside.
2. Make miso sauce by combining red miso paste, sugar and soy sauce #1 in a small bowl. Set aside.
   
3. Prepare pork - chopping and pounding meat with knife till it resembles ground pork.
   
4. Heat non-stick pan at medium heat. Put chopped meat in and sauté, break up meat with turner until meat appears dry and start to render juice.
5. Pour miso past mixture, sauté meat until well coated with sauce. Now that meat miso (肉みそ) is done. Set aside.
6. Prepare ice bath in large bowl and set aside. Boil about 2 cups of water. Cook bok choy’s stem by holding leaf top and cook for 1 minute then lay the flat in the pan to cook for 30 second or so. Immediately transfer into icy bath. When it’s completely cooled then receive onto paper towel to dry. Squeeze gently to remove excess water. Set aside. .
7. Rinse the same pan and add 3 cups of water and boil. Dissolve Chinese chicken stock and keep simmering until needed.
8. Make soup seasoning by mixing soy sauce #2, vinegar and la-yu in a small bowl.
   .
9. Boil plenty of water to cook noodles according to the package.
10. While noodles are cooking – spoon in equal amount of soup seasoning in each bowl (from process #1). Pour in 1/2 of hot soup, mix well, and then put 1/2 of just cooked, drained noodles. Top with meat miso and bok choy. Sesame oil and salt to taste. Serve hot.

Spicy Sesame Version – Make soup seasoning with 1 teaspoon of doubanjiang (豆板醤 ) and 1 Tablespoon of chi-mar-jan ( 芝麻醤/tahini paste),  2 teaspoons of sesame oil and 1 Tablespoon of  soy sauce. See step #8 and #10. .

I tried Sissi’s Tomatoes Confites and I quickly used them for a pasta dish which I do not have photo, darn it! Her favorite ramen soup stock could be my  favorite. I definitely will try that next.

Spent a whole bunch of time in the kitchen last week…Pumpkin Tart,  just because I didn’t have it at Thanksgiving.

Wild rice, farro and Tangerine Salad recipe I spotted in the November issue of Bon Appetite magazine. We had this as dinner, only this. How refreshing!

Okinawan sweet potato chiffon cupcakes were for Church activity. Light and airy and have lovely lavender color. That’s it! Honey, let’s to go out for supper. No more dishes. Come again? Right, no more dishes for you tonight.

My son and his wife sent me a belated birthday present. This is one of them…a bit stale but it is the thought that counts, right? Still tasted like chestnuts.

Fine read – Manga (comic) version of Steve Jobs –based on the book by Walter Isaacson.

Gift of service…at least I tried. I was praying for the opportunity to serve others this Christmas season. I got a phone call out of blue from a Japanese lady I have never met before. She held onto my phone number that I gave her neighbor to pass on to her more than a decade earlier. I visited her in Nursing/Rehabilitation Home last week. She is perhaps several years younger than my father was. I’m glad that I was able to give her time to chat in Japanese.  

Crescent moon was romantic the other night…made me sing…Fly me to the moon.. Wishing you a peaceful week.

 

 

 

 

 

Matsutake Three Ways

Matsutake mushroom and Bok Choy Sauté

My husband got an email from his co-worker one Saturday saying that they saw matsutake mushroom at such and such market (my husband does not recall the name of the market but that is not an important part of this story) for 16 dollars per pound. ‘Do you want it? asked the co-worker. At the Japanese super market, matsutake mushrooms sell for nearly 50 dollars per pound at the beginning of Fall and price will come down to half at the end of the season but so and so market price was lower than that. My husband asked for a conservative 1 pound proxy purchase.

When my husband and I were still young with just my daughter, we took a broken television to a tiny repair shop. The repairman happened to be Japanese and he shared a few matsutake mushrooms he had hunted in Mt.Hood. It was a tender moment, I hadn’t had that delicacy in years and I never dreamed of having them in the US but there they were right in front of me.

The following Monday morning, my husband and co-worker made the exchange.

Do you have the goods?
Yeah, do you have the money?
Yeah.
Good.
Good. This never happened, capish?

Joking aside, it definitely was a great buy. The aroma and texture were excellent. We should have bought more. What is the name of the mystery market honey?

Ingredients and Instruction for two servings

• Matsutake mushroom 2-3 Use the bristle brush to remove dirt under running water then pat dry, cut off hard stem ends.
• Bok Choy 2-3, separate each leaf and clean
• Ginger roots about size of adult thumb. Peel skin and julienne.
• Vegetable oil or peanut oil  2 teaspoons, divided
• Chinese chicken broth 4 Tablespoons Note: I used soup granule (approximately 1 teaspoonful) dissolved in 4 Tablespoons warm water.
• Salt to taste
• Soy sauce  or ponzu sauce (optional)
• Red pepper for garnish (optional)

1. Heat 1 teaspoon of oil in wok or non-stick skillet at medium heat. Sauté matsutake mushrooms until aromatic, about 1 minute. Place the mushrooms on a plate. Set aside.
2. Heat remaining oil in the same pan and add bok choy and ginger and sauté for 1-2 minutes at medium heat.
3. Pour in the chicken broth and continue sautéing until vegetable is tender.
4. Put matsutake mushrooms back in the wok and stir to combine.
5. Salt to taste. Add a few drops of soy sauce or ponzu sauce if you desire. Garnish with red pepper (optional) and serve.

My daughter sent my husband a Stove Top Smoker for his birthday in September. I placed matsutake mushrooms, maitake mushroom and eringi mushroom in it.And closed the lid.Voila!OK… it worked, stinking up the whole house in the process though. Hummm, I think we killed the nice fragrance of matsutake and replaced it with less desirable smoky flavor, beside it works better on meat?…but that was a fun experiment wasn’t it?… I try not to put blame on my husband.

Matsutake rice is our favorite. And it goes well with sautéed matsutake mushroom and bok choy. I stumbled upon a male Japanese blogger who hikes to the mountain to hunt for mushrooms around this time. I recently tried his award winning okonomiyaki recipe  (I forgot to take photo) and it was terrific! His blog, written in both Japanese and English, is worth checking out.

We saw this No-Knead Artisan loaf recipe by Jeff Herzberg and Zoe Francois in Oregonian FOODDAY. It had really good texture. Super easy said my husband.

Also discovered in FOODDAY was World’s Best Lasagna recipe. I crumble under the words like ‘Best”  If it says “World’s” in front of  “Best” then I must try it. This one however is a touch over rated.

I made Banana and Walnuts Rolled Cake for dessert. This perhaps is a post worthy recipe for next Tuesday? But I can’t really think so far ahead.

Goodwill hunting with my friend the other day and I decided that I can’t live with out this vase. Just $1.99, so money can buy love some times? Roses in our garden are on their last leg.

Rain is back and gloomy in Portland. I went and bought a ‘cheer me up’ item from the grocery store…glowing light of sunshine.

Have a happy rest of the week!