bits and pieces

Perhaps it’s a bit early to buy a new calendar for next year, but when I saw that Ilee Papergoods had posted their one for 2010, I just had to buy one. And it’s my 4th from them. :)

The whole thing is made of different letterpress and silkscreen designs, and the colors and designs are so lovely. It’s actually nice to see that one month has ended, because then it’s time to flip to the next design, er, month. A bit pricey, but I think it’s worth it.

I’ve really been craving noodles lately, and had a very specific picture in my head of the sort of dish I wanted to eat. Something Asian, without broth, and with a variety of meat and/or vegetables mixed in. And with some good flavor to it. I looked through my clipped recipes and a few recipe web sites before settling on one for Spicy Asian Noodles with Chicken from Cooking Light magazine. (I would add that this magazine goes overboard on pharmaceutical ads, so you’re better off viewing the recipes online.)

The recipe itself is fairly simple, since it’s mostly a salad. There’s only a little bit of sauteing at the beginning, softening up rice stick noodles (they describe it as cooking them), and then mixing it all together. It did take a little bit to find the sambal oelek (thank you, local Chinese market), as well as some minced ginger in a jar (so I’m lazy). Also, it listed roasted chicken as an ingredient — which seems lame to me, since that’s a bit of work in and of itself — but I cheated and used a rotisserie chicken from Whole Foods. Easy.

Though it doesn’t look quite as pretty as the photo in the magazine, it was really tasty, with a nice spicy flavor. I let the chicken sit for a bit, so I think it picked up a bit more flavor, and mixed with the peanuts it just all worked well. I would definitely make this one again, though I’d get the rice stick noodles softening before sauteing and blending, since that didn’t take much time. Also, I should have cut the noodles a bit, to make it easier to eat. But I’m glad that I made the full recipe, since now I have leftovers!

Spicy Asian Noodles with Chicken
Serves 4

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon dark sesame oil, divided
• 1 tablespoon grated peeled fresh ginger
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 cups chopped roasted skinless, boneless chicken breasts
• 1/2 cup chopped green onions
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
• 3 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
• 2 tablespoons hoisin sauce
• 2 teaspoons sambal oelek (ground fresh chile paste)
• 1 (6.75-ounce) package thin rice sticks (rice-flour noodles)
• 2 tablespoons chopped dry-roasted peanuts

Preparation

1. Heat 2 teaspoons oil in a small skillet over medium-high heat. Add ginger and garlic to pan; cook 45 seconds, stirring constantly. Place in a large bowl. Stir in remaining 1 teaspoon oil, chicken, and next 6 ingredients (through sambal).
2. Cook noodles according to package directions. Drain and rinse under cold water; drain. Cut noodles into smaller pieces. Add noodles to bowl; toss well to coat. Sprinkle with peanuts.

Last week (or was it the week before?) I tried out a recipe from Martha Stewart Living for “Udon Noodles with Shiitake Mushrooms in Ginger Broth.” I’d printed it out awhile ago with some other recipes and figured I’d try to work through a few of them. I tried to overlook the presence of chicken broth, thinking that maybe it’d be ok with the other ingredients, but it was not meant to be.

I prepared it all as directed, with only a few minor changes. The shallot I had become inedible (mold after only a few days home from the store?), so I had to forgo that. And I used less spinach than called for, and I think baby spinach at that. Everything else went together easily enough, and it didn’t look so bad when I had served it up.

Unfortunately, it just tasted bad, and I blame the chicken broth. It even made the shiitake mushrooms, which I really like, taste sad. I had a few bites of it all and just had to stop and eat something else instead. What a disappointment!

So, let this be the final lesson to myself that any so-called “Asian” or “Asian-inspired” recipe that comes from Martha Stewart should be handled with extreme caution or avoided altogether. Especially when it’s a recipe for a noodle soup and it calls for chicken broth. It just never turns out well.

I looked through all my clipped recipes this weekend and pulled out two that had noodle soup as the base. Both Japanese-style, of course, but that’s just what I like.

The first one was “Japanese salmon ramen,” which I had a lovely photo of, but the recipe was missing. It was from Martha Stewart Living, so I figured their site would have the recipe, since I’d forgotten to rip out the recipe from the back of the magazine (I hate how they do that). Nope. But I did find it on a newspaper site called The Idaho Statesman. It all seems in order, though it didn’t list oil as an ingredient, but requires it for cooking the salmon (I used tea stir fry oil).

Now, looking at the photo I had pulled out, this dish definitely didn’t look like ramen. It actually calls for soba noodles, so that’s the first clue it’s not ramen. And then the broth is just dashi with green onions simmered in it. Not miso or shoyu soup base. Still, it looked nice. Unfortunately, I ended up making a number of mistakes on this recipe, and it didn’t quite end up looking like the photo.

My first mistake was not remembering the part about marinating the salmon for an hour or more before cooking. I cheated and only did so for 45 minutes, which I think is ok. The rest of the recipe went together ok, though coordinating everything was a bit of a hassle. The salmon fell apart a bit as I cooked it and took it out of the pan, but since it was flaked into chunks anyway, it didn’t really matter.

As you’ll see from the photo, my end result looked nothing like the magazine picture. It looks like they styled it and clearly used a lot more of the marinade than I did. And those are not soba noodles, or at least not like the ones I’ve seen and eaten. Ah well, at least it’ll hopefully taste good, I figured…

Unfortunately, my final mistake happened when I served it all up, and the flavor was rather disappointing. The recipe called for a dressing, which I mixed early on and then put into the fridge while I prepared everything else. And in the fridge it stayed until after I’d eaten the food without it, cleaned everything up, and then finally remembered it was in there! Oops.

Without the dressing, the soup was very light in flavor, and didn’t do much for me really, though I liked the green onion in it. The salmon was fine and the mixture of everything was all right as well. I just wish I could have tasted it with the dressing, which ended up having quite a kick when I sampled it after all this. I guess that’s what happens when you are on the phone while cooking, but oh well. :)

Here’s the recipe for reference:

Japanese Salmon Ramen
Yield: 6 servings

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 pounds salmon fillet, skinned
• coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
• 5 tablespoons store-bought teriyaki marinade
• 2 tablespoons black or red-wine vinegar
• 1/4 cup sweet chili sauce
• 6 tablespoons Asian fish sauce
• 1 piece peeled fresh ginger, finely grated
• 1 pound thin wheat noodles or soba noodles
• 1 tablespoon plus 1/4 instant dashi stock powder
• 3 scallions, white parts cut into 1-inch pieces, green parts thinly sliced
• 1 1/2 cups baby spinach
• 1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds

Directions

1. Season salmon with salt and pepper. Transfer to resealable bag. Add teriyaki marinade; gently toss to coat. Refrigerate at least 1 hour (and up to 4 hours).
2. Make the dressing: Whisk together vinegar, chili sauce, fish sauce, and ginger in a small bowl; set aside.
3. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add noodles and cook according to package instructions 3 to 5 minutes. Drain, and rinse under cold running water to stop the cooking. Set aside.
4. Remove salmon from marinade, and rub with oil; reserve marinade. Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat until hot. Add salmon; cook, flipping once, until dark brown, about 3 minutes per side for medium-rare. Add about half of the reserved marinade during last minute of cooking and flip salmon to coat. Transfer to a plate. Let stand 5 minutes. Flake into large chunks.
5. Bring 6 cups water to a boil in a large pot. Stir in dashi powder and white part of scallion. Reduce to a simmer and cook 3 minutes. Set aside.
6. To serve, divide noodles among 6 serving bowls; ladle some dashi broth over noodles. Divide salmon and spinach among bowls. Drizzle with dressing; sprinkle with sesame seeds and green part of scallions. Serve immediately.