Sure Beats The Foam Cup

 

Supper, Saturday April 18, 2020: ramen (homemade noodles, shiitake/chicken broth, shrimp, roasted chicken, egg, shiitake, bellas, scallion, cilantro, fish sauce, soy).

When the pre-packaged ramen in the cello bag and the version in the styrofoam cup flooded the US in the 80s I was a teenager and my mother found that buying them by the case was a good way to keep me and my brother fed. During my college years (a lot longer than they should have been) I would have starved if I didn't have a microwave and cases of salty chewy noodles. (I paid my own way through college. Long story.)

Fast forward to nearly the present, about three years ago. I still have a place for those chewy noodles in my heart, but I really shouldn't eat them on account of the salt. Plus my tastes have changed. I know there is a movement(?) that loves to show how to dress up the plain Jane noodles, and better versions are available at specialty stores. I've just never been motivated to explore that. 

Then I went to a conference in San Diego. When we visit new cities we try to take in regional flavors and independent restaurants. Up to that point I had been to noodle houses but none that had ramen. I was only vaguely aware that ramen houses were even a thing. So when I saw one in downtown SD I was intrigued. Long story short: I had to figure out how to make that sh*t.

The broth is negotiable. Traditionally a rich, slowly and carefully crafted extraction of beef, pork, or less often chicken is used. Also seafood stocks or something akin to a nabeyaki broth are enjoyed. I suppose miso? Whatevs. If you look at a ramen house menu the central philosophy is choice. It should be what you like. The same goes for the other ingredients aside from the noodles.

The noodles are easily purchased. Making them at home is not difficult BUT it requires a speciality ingredient - kansui. It is a solution of potassium carbonate and sodium bicarbonate. It is quite alkali and responsible for the yellow hue and springiness of the pasta. It is a little hard to get. Not all Asian groceries carry it. It might seem expensive online BUT a little goes a long way so it is worth the investment. To my knowledge it can't "go bad" (as long as the bottle is closed and the water doesn't evaporate).

Initially on the interwebs I found some sites that proclaimed it is possible to make ramen noodles with homemade sodium carbonate (made by baking baking soda (LOL, cooking sodium bicarb in the oven for four hours)). My experience with this method was:

Nope. Buy the kansui.

Soul Food. . . Ish

Supper, Friday February 22, 2019: fried catfish; sweet potato; bok choy with lemon and feta.

If you told someone you were having soul food for dinner and they asked what specifically. The answer "Catfish, sweet potato, and greens" would be received with a nod of approval. (By anyone who knew soul food.) If you replied, "Fried catfish, sweet potato, bok choy with lemon and feta" you will likely get a different response. 

Call it soul fusion.

Demon Squid From Hell

Multi-meal entry circa Tuesday January 22 2019: variations on a squid.

I like shopping at the little asian grocery near our Asheville home. It is fun to poke around looking at the odd (for the western palate) ingredients that would not normally be available in our "normal" grocery. I have also found that some foods are substantially cheaper. Sesame oil for example is much less expensive than if purchased from our usual grocery. We also like trying some of the weird snax, garlic shrimp chips, say no more. 

On this visit they had squid. A lot of squid. So I bought a lot of squid, in the form of one really big squid. 

I made some nabeyaki with some of it. We had squid and grits the next day for breakfast. I also made a seafood stew not pictured. 

My initial concern with a squid this large was that once cooked it would take on the consistency of a wet rawhide. It CAN do just that if not cooked properly. Overcooking is the best way to ruin a good squid. For fried calamari you want to pull it from the oil just as it starts to brown. Unfortunately this means that the breading is sometimes not well bonded to the squid. A bit of lost breading is just the price you have to pay. 

For the stew and the nabeyaki I add the squid after I turn off the stovetop. The latent heat in the liquids are enough to cook til tender. 

Happy Sushi Day!

Supper, Tuesday December 25, 2018: sushi;

das it.

I've probably already mentioned this but I'm too lazy to look. Alexis and I aren't so much into the Christmas thing. I'm not certain I could explain it fully. There are a lot of reasons. The big ones are: It's a set of rituals that people (gentiles perhaps more accurately) are expected to participate in while so few have a deep understanding of its history and origins. The holiday as celebrated in the US is a  weird blending of incompatible theologies. The consumption thing is out of hand. It's grotesque. Oh, and don't get me started on the decorations.

I did not grow up that way. It was celebrated with gusto in my family, but here's how not into it I am. Last holiday season I had to look up when it was. I don't mean the day of the week. I had forgotten that it is on the 25th. That might be a little embarrassing, but it does demonstrate just how little I give a. . .hoot. 

We do take advantage of sales to make some purchases. This time we got a wicked good deal on a washer/dryer combo. Multiple discounts and and rebates. We don't "Christmas shop." We lurk online cynically looking for deep discounts and make in person purchases only if necessary. 

Point is, Alexis volunteers to work the holiday so somebody else can be with their kids or whatever. (We are not so nihilist that we do not recognize that nearly every nominal Christian, and even a few others, place some value on the holiday.) Also for the last fifteen years give or take, Christmas dinner has been sushi.

I suppose it is our personal version of the orange on the seder plate. 

It's Octopuses

Weird road food edition

So we were traveling home from our beach condo and planned on making a stop in Savannah to eat. Alexis is always down for Mexican but I wasn't feeling it. I was more in the mood for Thai. While I was looking on the Google I was reminded of a sushi place we recently tried and liked. So I was like "What about that sushi place?" Then she was all like "Hells yeah!" So then I was like "OK then make a left up here."

Yeah, not a fan of the quotative "like." Say or say not, there is no like.

The place has a baby octopus "salad." I guess it's a salad 'cause it's got sesame seeds, soy, and sesame oil. Really it is just a bowl of chewy yumminess (assuming you're into that sort of thing). Anyhoo we shared the "salad" and some sushi and soup. A great way to start the trip.

Oh, yeah. octopuses always sounds weird to me. I have always wanted it to be octopi. Cactus? Cacti. Alumnus? Alumni. Octopus is not a Latin word. It's Greek. So it is octopuses. My position though is that we are using a Greek word in English that sound Latin-ish. Do we really need to adhere to the original plural form? We should make it an honorary Latin word. Octopi forever!

Where's The Psgetti?

Supper, Saturday May 26: stir fry pods (snow peas, garlic, chopped cashews, soy sauce, mirin); meatballs (ground beef, ground pork, egg, breadcrumbs, salt, pepper, oregano, basil, crushed red pepper); marinara; shredded parm.

I REALLY like pasta. The low carb thing is a little difficult for me. I can see the logic of it: lower the thing that is most of your diet. That doesn't make it easier though. This was a good combo though. Meatballs and sauce with a side of something that is chewy and saucy itself. 

I do have an admission: it's not really parm. There is a local creamery that makes fantastic cheese. This selection started as a cheddar process then was further treated and aged so that it came out similar to Argentine Parm. I tasted it at the shop and knew immediately that I needed some for the meatballs I had recently made. (Actually we are just suckers for cheese, but that is my story and I am sticking to it.)

Supper, Saturday March 10: stir fry (cubed pork, shiitake, oyster mushroom, black fungus, carrot, green pepper, water chestnut, onion, sesame seed, soy oil, sesame oil, soy sauce, ginger, hot banana chili, mirin); wild rice and quinoa. 

So we are still going with the low carb thing. just 1/2 cup of the wild rice and quinoa. It would have been jasmine rice but I had this in the fridge. You gotta watch that black fungus when it is in hot oil. It pops rather explosively. A spatter screen is a good idea. I have seen that stuff launch itself out of the pan. 

Gnome Butts

Supper, Tuesday October 31: Thai frog legs (de-boned frog legs, shiitake, black fungus, onion, carrot, roasted chilis, sesame seed, fish sauce, soy); rice noodles; kimchi, seaweed salad.

We have a couple of Asian groceries that we patronize. One is a small affair that we have been using for years. the other is a new and much bigger store. The new one has a much wider variety of items and a broader selection within categories. On the other hand the small store has most of the stuff we normally use in the brands we recognize. Mostly I stick with our usual store, but if I am in the mood to explore new ideas I might go to the new shiny store and wander the aisles. 

This time I went to the new place. I spotted the frog legs in the freezer. I didn't know I was looking for them until found them. I decided to do a stir fry of some sort with them. 

I love that fresh seaweed salad.

Oh yeah, at some point in the day I texted Alexis with the following picture to tell her we were having gnome butts for dinner.

It Just Takes One Whiff

Supper, Friday July 14: Thai Thing (onion, black fungus, squash, sugar peas, sesame seed, soy, fish sauce, thai basil, red pepper, smoked mussels).

I've mentioned this before but it is worth saying again, though I won't belabor the point. Thai basil is simply intoxicating (at least for me). A friend brought over a good sized sprig. Well that defenestrated my dinner plans. It's Thai basil tonight. Period.

Defenestrate is my favorite word.

For A Friend

Supper, Sunday May 7: sweet and sour tofu.

I will start by coming clean on something. I used to be a tofu scoffer, but for reasons not important here I had to start eating it. Now I like it. Really. I voluntarily eat it. 

In this case Alexis invited a friend from work over for dinner. She is a vegetarian. I had been thinking about sweet and sour something for a few days. Don't know why. This was the perfect entree.

So I bought These Funky Noodles. . .

Supper, Friday March 3: seaweed salad (dried kelp, sesame oil, sesame seed, pickled ginger, red onion, scorpion pepper sauce); noodle thing (Korean starch noodle, black fungus, bamboo shoots, kelp, sesame seed, sesame oil, carrot, scallion, pork, soy sauce, ginger, mirin).

Clearly I like to try new things so when I saw these noodles at the asian store I bought a bag to experiment with. They are different. Not bad, just different. They are grey when dry, and glassy when cooked. The texture is rubbery-chewy (chubbery?). I like chewy so I'm OK with it. I'll use them again. 

It's Just A Matter Of Having A Well Stocked Pantry

Lunch, Thursday January 23: Thai thingy (tofu, snow peas, black fungus, kelp, sesame seed, sesame oil scallion, water chestnut, rice noodles).

Got home from errands and whipped this together in a few minutes. It was just a matter of chopping the veggies and boiling the pasta. By the time one task is finished the other is ready to go. I have had friends comment on the dishes I make at home, specifically about the ingredients and the hassle of getting this or that. I tell them that a great part of what I do in making meals is the management of the pantry. (I mean that in a metaphoric sense. I don't have a walk in larder.) You have to be willing to stock ingredients, rotate them, plan meals around items that need to be eaten or else they go to waste. Example: You will see a lot of fried squash, green tomatoes, eggplant and okra. moving forward. I made a lot of those, breaded and frozen at the end of the growing season last year. We need to eat that up before the next harvest. I have a tremendous amount of food in the kitchen and basement. Our friends joke about coming to our house for the zombie apocalypse. Despite this I waste almost nothing. I doesn't hurt that Alexis will eat just about whatever I put in front of her. I often ask her what she might want or like and her reply is along the lines of "I don't care" or "how about something with feta." I have a lot of leeway

Christmas? What Christmas?

Supper, Sunday December 25: sushi extravaganza.

Not your mama's Christmas dinner. I know that there is a long tradition of going out for chinese in the Jewish community. We have done that on occasion. We don't have kids and our families are a days travel away, so we rarely travel during the holidays. Alexis usually works the holidays giving somebody else the day off. Several years ago I made sushi for Christmas dinner on a lark. We enjoyed spending a quiet evening, just us and a giant plate of raw fish. 

The Return Of The Thai Basil

Supper, Friday December 23: Thai basil with lamb; fine rice noodles; a dusting of dry basil.

This recipe is fundamentally the same as the one I served a couple of weeks ago with the exception of lamb instead of shrimp as the protein. The other change was the replacement of the wider rice noodles with a very fine rice noodle. The fine noodles are difficult to incorporate with the other components of the dish so instead of tossing the noodles with the other ingredients I opted to make this version a little soupier and serve it over the pasta.

Nothing Special, Just A Quick Lunch

Lunch, Wednesday December 14: fried rice (leftover rice, frozen peas, carrot, onion, sesame seeds, soy); beets; greens.

Alexis got home from work early. I needed to whip up something quick. I threw together some leftovers and retasked some rice. Really I only show this because leftovers are a bit of a thing with me. I know some people who just don't do leftovers. It astounds me.

Not Quite Thai Basil

Supper, Monday December 12: Thai fusion (bell pepper, garlic, carrot, scallion, ginger, shitake, black fungus, shrimp, dried Thai chilies, fish sauce.

I have a Thai basil plant in the greenhouse. I had other plans for supper but I was rearranging some potted plants and disturbed the basil. The aroma it immediately gave off was hypnotizing. I decided that instant what was for supper. Some of the ingredients are not traditional, but this combo was scary good. Alexis really likes shitakes and I really like the fungus. Since the shrimp goes in at the end you could do this with any protein. Is there a suitable vegan substitute for fish sauce, IDK?

I realized later that there is one thing not pictured here. A little bit of the water I soaked the dry shitakes in. I add it towards the end to deglacez.

Supper: Thursday October 27, 2016

We are still getting eggplant: spicy Thai style eggplant (eggplant, assorted chilis, one finely minced habanero, cilantro, scallion, fish sauce, soy, garlic, a lot of garlic).