Seafood-Chicken Somen Noodles

One of my comfort food is noodles. Homemade, restaurant served or instant noodles. I even remember my officemates gave me a bunch of Chinese instant noodles of Christmas. Since we are current at the heart of Japan town in San Francisco, I am able to access wide variety of noodles, soba, somen, ramen, rice noodles,Chinese noodles and a lot more to discover.

This recipe uses somen noodles and shrimp stock

Ingredients:

shrimp stock:

shrimp heads and skin (wash the heads gently, do not drain all the fats, they make all the flavor)
carrots (cut to pieces)
celery (cut to pieces)
onions (cut to pieces)
bay leaves
spring onions
peppercorns
salt
dried basil leaves
kombu (a type of dried kelp)
1 tease spoon of white miso paste (just to add more flavor)
peeled garlic
water

noodles:
somen

seafood:
scallops (gotten from shell)
shrimp (butterflied cut)
(may also use steamed green shells or manila clams)
garlic
salt and pepper
sliced chicken(no bones)
olive oil
mirin (sweet sake)
fish sauce

Procedure :

To make the stock:

Combine all the stock ingredient in a stock pot and simmer for 1 hr in low heat until all the flavor of shrimps are out , especially from the heads. Add water if necessary to maintain the stock level desired. Pour the stock through a strainer and set the stock aside for the recipe.

1. In a separate pot, sautee garlic in olive oil or sesame oil in high heat.
2. When garlic is about to turn brown, add chicken and
3. When chicken turned pale, add scallops, shrimp fish sauce and pepper, then add sake, continue sauteing until
shrimp turn red.
4. Add the shrimp stock and somen noodles.
5. Simmer until the noodles is done, about 4 to 5 minutes.
6. Finally tastes with salt and pepper.

Serve hot and enjoy (see picture for serving suggestion, top the noodles with shrimp,scallops,kelp and chicken)

Seafood Chicken Noodles

Gyoza (pork-shrimp-herbs)

When we went to Japan last 2008, I kept asking hubby how do they cook gyoza, he told me, maybe they fried it, grill it and steam it. I tried all of them, but they don’t look like the gyozas I ate at the japs restaurant.

After finding several awesome Japanese cookbooks from japantown library, I finally knew how to do it! Fry a little, steam and fry a little more. Let me try to explain it further on the procedures.

I also found out that good gyozas are flavorful, aromatic and made of veges and pork. Well, I made mine a little bit different, I used herbs, spices, pork and shrimp.

Ingredients:

filling:
grated pelled ginger
grated onion
grated garlic
chopped green onions
chopped cilantro
Japanese soy sauce
sake or mirin (sweet sake)
salt and pepper
sesame oil honey
pure honey
finely chopped peeled shrimp
ground pork

wrapper:
package of Japanese gyoza skins or round Chinese dumpling wrapper

dipping sauce (combine all ingredients):
Japanese soy sauce
Japanese rice wine vinegar
hot chili oil
honey

while cooking:
water and oil

procedure:

1. Combine all the filling ingredients and let stand for 15 mins and mix well again.
2. To wrap filling, take one wrapper and lay it flat on your hand.
3. Take about 1/2 tablespoon of the filling to the center of the wrapper.
4. Using your finger, run a thin layer of water along the inner rim of the wrapper and press both sides together, forming a half circle and make 4 tucks at edge of the wrapper.
4. Lay the bottom of the gyoza flat and let it sit upright.

Cooking :
1. Put a medium sautee pan in high heat and add little oil.
2. put 6- 8 gyozas to the pan, flat side down.
3. When the bottom turn brown, for 1 – 2 mins add 1/4 cup of water to the pan and cover.
4. Turn the temperature from high heat to medium heat.
5. Cook until all the liquid has evaporated, about 3 – 4 mins.
6. Then add little oil and continue to cook until bottom is crisp.
7. I like the sides, to be a little bit crispy too, so I turn the gyoza to the sides for about
2 times, while making the bottom crispy.
8. Transfer the cooked gyoza to the serving platter and cook the remaining ones, with same process with water and oil.
9. Serve gyoza with dipping sauce.

the wrapper

filling

the wrapper

filling on the wrapper

how to wrap

how does it look after wrapping

wrapping done

how to cook

Gyoza!

Mussel Tomato-White Pasta

Every week, we got a chance to visit the fresh wet market with countless seafood selections. One of my weekly buy is the mussels. I got them live and fresh! Now this gives me more reason to love San Francisco!

Here’s to cook this recipe. Note that seafood is always good with white wine. So I used white wine with this, while sauteeing the mussels.

Tips from the Series Pasta: Pasta does not have to be swimming in sauce, all the sauce should be absorb by the noodles, even when served warm or not hot, it still taste good and after eating one serving you taste buds will want to have more. Enjoy!

My next challenge is ginseng pasta, even though it’s just an imagination of the movie writer, it looks like a good ingredient for pasta. Will see what I can do. 🙂

Ingredients:
Fresh Mussels – cleaned
Evaporated milk
Spaghetti
White wine
Lots-of-sliced fresh tomatoes
Onions sliced
Garlic peeled, sliced or crushed
Green onions
Parmesan cheese
Basil fresh or dried
Salt and pepper
Olive oil

Procedure:

Cook the spaghetti according to the package instructions in a large pan of water with salt and oil.When cooked al dente, drain the pasta.

While your spaghetti is cooking, head a large saucepan and sautee, garlic, onions, and tomatoes in olive oil until tomatoes turned saucy. Add mussels, heat should be set at high, then add white wine, salt and pepper, continue to sautee until mussels open. When the wine is perfectly combined with the sauce, add water, enough to make little sauce (this must be boiling)and add evaporated milk, bring to boil and quickly toss pasta into sauce, final taste and sprinkle with basil, green onions and grated Parmesan cheese.

sauteeing tomatoes

In the pan

Mussel Tomato-White Pasta