Maapo Harusame

As a massive noodle fan, having learned how to make maapo tofu, my next step was to make maapo harusame (maapo with rice vermicelli). I actually don't know if they eat this in China since I always had the Japanese version (from already made packs). Rice vermicelli are very thin, transparent noodles and I think you can easily find them in local Asian grocery stores :)

In an earlier post I explained how I made maapo tofu. If you mastered this already then you will be able to make this dish too! It's a pretty easy recipe and you just need to replace tofu with a bag of rice vermicelli and buy a pack of shiitake mushrooms (this was not in the maapo tofu recipe).

Ingredients (for approximately for 4 big nomsters):

• 3 teaspoon of chicken stock diluted into 500ml of water
• 2-3 teaspoon potato starch (to thicken the sauce)
• 4 teaspoon soya sauce
• 3 teaspoon sugar
• a drizzle of sesame oil
• 3 cloves of garlic or 4 teaspoon of mashed garlic
• 4 teaspoon of minced ginger
• 8 green onions (white parts and green parts)
• Doubanjiang (chili bean paste; you can easily find it in asian supermarkets)
• 400 g of minced beef (you can also use minced pork)
• a bag of more or less 250g of rice vermicelli (available at local asian grocery store)

Preparation:

• In a bowl, mix the chicken stock, potato starch, soya sauce and sugar. 
• In a deep frying pan or a pot, add a drizzle of sesame oil and add the garlic, ginger and white parts of the spring onion on medium heat. When it's cooked add the minced meat. Try to make sure to break the clumps of meat with the spatula :)
• When the meat is almost cooked, add the shiitake mushrooms (I cut them into very small bits but you can cut them bigger of course)
• In a pot, boil the water for harusame (rice vermicelli). 
• When the meat is cooked, add the doubanjiang. I did not put a specific amount in the recipe because I always just randomly add the paste. I just keep adding until the meat is evenly covered and becomes red-ish.
• Mix the sauce that you kept on the side one last time before adding it to the pot. 
• Let it boil until the sauce thickens
• When the water in the pot is boiling, add the rice vermicelli. Check the package to know how long you need to boil them (mine were 5 min). When they are done, drain them and rinse them with cold water. This is to ensure the cooking stops completely. Drain them well and add them to the sauce. 
• Serve with fresh rice (optional) and sprinkle the green part of the green onion as decoration. 

As you can see pretty straight forward preparation! My only problem was the rice vermicelli... I didn't want to use the entire pack at first but it was impossible to cut them. Tried with scissors, knife... I put the entire bag and there were some left overs. 

Luckily, this dish was still good to nom-nom the next day. If you have leftovers you will see the vermicelli will drink up aaalll the sauce and they will look a bit fatter than the day before. But no worries the taste will still be the same! :) 

Enjoy!

Oroshi Nattou Soba

Oroshi nattou soba made by my dad! :3

Soba is a type of japanese noodle that is made of buckwheat flour. The noodle is brownish and you can eat it cold and hot! Soba is a dish typically munched during new years, to be able to live long and young. At home, we just eat them whenever we want (I know such rebels right?) and when my dad makes soba, this is how we usually eat them (see picture below)! My dad grates daikon radish (the white puree type thing), sprinkle some spring onion, some sea weed and wasabi. You add the soba tsuyu (the dipping sauce) and you munch away. It's so refreshing, it's perfect for summer days!

He had told me about putting nattou (fermented soya beans) on soba and I have been drooling over the idea for some time... I think many westerners don't like nattou since it has a very strong smell (rather ssshtinkyyyy for some :P) and it's all sticky and all. In any case, I love it so I was super keen to try. This recipe is pretty easy. The main problem would be the ingredients that can be rather difficult to find in Europe like nattou and daikon radish. The latter can easily be found in asian grocery store I think (at least in London and Netherlands). Nattou is trickier... I find it in London in a Japanese store called Atariya. Apparently, you can also make it yourself but haven't tried that yet :P Japanese grocery stores are scarce in Europe and are also expensive... Soba is also yummy without it so no worries :D Just adding spring onion, sea weed and wasabi already makes it delicious! For the soba tsuyu I managed to find it in Asian grocery store so should be manageable... 

Anyways, here are the directions for oroshi nattou soba! 

Ingredients (for 2 munchers):

• 400g Soba noodles 
• Soba tsuyu 
• 2 packs of nattou (one for each person)
• 1/3 of daikon radish
• couple of spring onions
• sea weed

Preparation:

1. Boil the water for the soba.
2. In the meantime, cut the spring onion (in small bits).
3. Grate the daikon, it will become like puree. Its very refreshing and a bit spicy? (you will need a little tool for that)
4. In a bowl, add the nattou and the little sauce. Mix it well until its all gooey and stickyyyy.  
5. Cook the soba (check the time on the packaging. Usually soba noodles cook very fast so be careful not to over cook!). When they are done, drain them and use cold water to cool them down.
6. Drain them well and place them into a bowl. Add some soba tsuyu, enough so half of it is immersed in it (some tsuyu needs to be diluted in water so read the etiquette beforehand!). Add the grated daikon raddish, the nattou, and finally sprinkle on the spring onion and sea weed! 

Dekiagari~ Enjoy! :)

Hiyashi Carbonara

First time I made it! :)

You love carbonara? You love asian food? This may be the perfect recipe for you! I saw this recipe, hiyashi carbonara (冷やしカルボナーラ which means cold carbonara) in a Japanese magazine in a clinic for Japanese people in London. When I first read it I thought it was so clever! I adapted it a bit (combined it with how my mum makes her carbonara, my own carbonara recipe and the one in the magazine). If you love carbonara but have issues with the high calories of the original recipe, try making this one! Instead of using spaghetti, you use somen which are very thin Japanese noodles made of wheat flour that are usually served cold. For the sauce, use milk instead of cream! This dish is the perfect way to eat carbonara without feeling guilty or like a fat shit! Yey! AND if it's summer and it's too hot to eat carbonara (said no one ever?) this cold version will be perfect for you! Double YEY!

Second time I made this dish :3

Changed the presentation a bit :P

Ingredients (for 2-3 munchers):

• 400g Somen
• 1 Onion
• 100g Bacon/pancetta
• 2-3 spoons of mashed garlic
• 2 cups of Milk (you can also use liquid cream but makes the dish pretty heavy ><)
• Wasabi (optional)
• 3 Egg yolks
• Sake
• Cheese (emmental/gouda or any other cheese)
• Spring onion
• Salt and Pepper

Preparation:

1. Boil water for the somen while you prepare the sauce
2. Cut the onion into strips and cook them with a little bit of oil. When they start to soften, add the sake. Cover with a lid for 8min. Keep an eye on it to make sure it doesn't burn. Lift the lid and let the liquid evaporate. When they are cooked, set aside and let them cool a bit. 
3. In another pan, fry the bacon (I don't put any oil in it since bacon already has PUULENTY) until crispy. Set aside so it cools down.   
4. In a bowl, add 3 egg yolks, wasabi and mashed garlic. Mix well with a fork until combined. 
5. Add the milk and cheese and mix some more. Add salt and pepper to taste. 
6. Cut the spring onion as small as possible and put into a bowl. 
7. When the somen are done, rinse them with cold water. Drain them well, place them on a plate, put the onion on top, the bacon and add the sauce. Sprinkle the spring onion as decoration! 

Although I love carbonara, I do think it is pretty heavy. By changing some ingredients to somen and milk, it makes the dish a lot lighter and still very tasty! To reduce even more fat I used smoked ham (it has less fat than bacon). I do think bacon is good for this recipe (even though I'm not such a fan) as it gives extra flavour to the sauce. Make sure you add enough salt to the sauce (it's just milk so it doesn't have that much taste). I also used 2 different types of cheeses for the second time I made it (grated emmental and some powdered nameless hard cheese?) but parmesan would also definitely be yummy :D

If you are not a fan of wasabi you can skip that step but I personally love wasabi so I like to put enough so I am able to taste it hehe. You can also add the onion and bacon to the sauce but make sure they cooled down a bit because otherwise it will cook the egg yolk in the sauce and it will become clumpy.

Enjoy!