Yakisoba

 

This month Chris asked us bloggers to join him on a trip to Japan. I sometimes wish Chris’s travels with us were real. My brother’s been to Japan three times. I’m sure if he ate my dinner he would have turned his nose up and claimed it not to be Japanese enough. I’m not claiming it’s super authentic either. I had to make several substitutions that probably minimized it’s Japanese value because I couldn’t justify buying sake (rice wine) or mirin (a sweeter rice wine) for cooking this dish. I had some sake and had to toss it because it was way too old. I just can’t justify buying ingredients I don’t use frequently. So I used white wine instead.

I probably should have just taken a picture of the Japanese curry and the tonksatsu that we had for lunch at the Japanese restaurant. 😉

Yakisoba
(the more authentic recipe)

Ingredients
6 oz dried chow mein noodles
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 oz pork chop, cut into small chunks
2 oz cabbage, shredded
2 oz carrot, chopped
2 green onions, chopped
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tbsp soy sauce
1/2 tbsp white wine
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp sesame oil

Directions

1. Cook the noodles per package directions. Drain and set aside.

2. Heat a large skillet or wok and add the oil. Add the garlic and stir, cooking until brown. Add the pork and stir a few times.  Next add the cabbage, carrots, and onions. Stir a few more times. Add the noodles and the remaining ingredients. Stir fry until the vegetables are cooked and the noodles are warmed through.

* serves 2
* Besides Bloggers Around The World, I’m sharing this dish with Foodie Friends Friday, Foodie Friday, Weekend Potluck, & Foodie Friday

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Green Tea Soup

 

This month at this blog’s monthly Pantry Party, the theme is soup! Essentially the goal is to look into your pantry and make a dish that meets the theme with at least one (or more!) things found in your pantry. This month I relied on two pantry items to make soup.

– Rice
– Green tea

I also now have a new addition to my pantry: nori.

I was skeptical of this dish when I first started. But I was intrigued by this recipe from Sunset magazine. The idea of my broth being green tea seemed so odd, but.. I had to try it! I ended up adding some soy sauce to the broth because I felt like it needed a salt element to it. The addition of the soy sauce was perfect. I was so full after this bowl of soup.

Don’t forget to enter this month’s soup themed Pantry Party! I’d love to see what other soups came out of pantries this month. Entries are due by the 28th.

Green Tea Soup
(source)

Ingredients
1 cup uncooked basmati rice
1/2 tsp kosher salt, divided
1 sheet nori, cut into strips
1 green onion, chopped
1 tsp vegetable oil
1/2 lb swai (or other white fish), cut into 2 fillets
4 green tea tea bags
4 tsp soy sauce

Directions

1. In a rice cooker, cook the rice with 1/4 tsp of salt according to the rice cooker instructions.

2. Preheat the broiler. Rub your broiler pan with oil. Put your fish on the broiler pan and turn the fish over on the pan to get oil on both sides. Sprinkle remaining salt on the fish. Broil 3-4 inches away from the broiler until cooked through (when the fish flakes), about 5 minutes. Remove and set aside.

3. Bring 4 cups of water to boil, either in a pot or a teapot. Once boiling add the tea bags and let steep for 5 minutes. Remove the bags and stir in the soy sauce.

4. To pull your dish together, put 1 cup of rice into each bowl. Place a fish fillet on top of the rice. Pour half of the broth into each bowl. Garnish with green onions and nori.

* serves 2
* Besides Pantry Party, this recipe is shared with Food of the Month Club, Souper Sundays, Tasteful Tuesday Party, Recipe Box, Tasty Tuesdays, & Tempt My Tummy Tuesday

Chickpea Croquettes with Greek Salsa

I’ve seen Belleau Kitchen’s Random Recipes Roundups around the web for the last few months. I keep intending to participate and then for whatever reason, I don’t. But I love participating in things like this, so I’m going to try to participate in Random Recipes every month. It keeps my cooking from getting too regular when I participate in fun events. It keeps it all exciting. This month the challenge at Random Recipes was based on birthday dates. The instructions told me to take my birthday date (in my case 2, my birthday is December 2nd, coming up by the way!) and to count that many books over on my recipe bookshelf. I counted from right to left and landed on this old, tattered book that I  actually almost always like what I cook out of it…

This book came from my mom’s when she was clearing out some old cookbooks. You know, one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. In this case, one mom’s old tattered cookbook has provided her daughter with some pretty tasty recipes. The recipes all seem weird. The pictures are so dated. But I haven’t made anything bad out of this book yet, so it really wasn’t a bad random pick this month for Random Recipes.

To pick the recipe I was instructed to randomly open the cookbook and to make the recipe on the page I opened it to. I opened the book to page 180 and there were three recipes: Squash Tsimiss, Chick Pea Croquettes, and Pineapple Charlotte. I opted for the croquettes as I had a can of chickpeas in the pantry. I followed the recipe almost exactly as it was written in the cookbook. But since the recipe was only for croquettes, I needed to add more to my meal than just these chickpea patties. To supplement the recipe I whipped up (or rather chopped up) a Greek topping for the croquettes. This was a simple, filling meal.

Chickpea Croquettes with Greek Salsa

Ingredients
1 25-oz can chickpeas, drained and dried with a papertowel
a pinch salt
1/4 tsp dried basil
1/4 tsp dried oregano
1/4 tsp dried thyme
1/4 tsp garlic chili sauce
1 clove garlic, minced
1 slice sourdough bread, toasted
1/2 cucumber, cut into small pieces
1 tomato, cut into small pieces
1 green onion, chopped
1/2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 lemon, juiced
1/4 cup crumbled blue cheese

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350. Put the chickpeas and the bread in a food processor and grind for about 20 seconds.

2. Place the chickpea and bread into a bowl and combine with salt, herbs, garlic chili sauce, and garlic. Mix well with your hands. Form the mixture into balls one inch in diameter. Place on a nonstick cookie sheet. Bake for 20 minutes.

3. While the croquettes are baking, chop the ingredients for your salsa (cucumber, tomato, green onion.) Combine the vegetables, olive oil, lemon juice, and blue cheese together in a bowl.

4. When the croquettes are cooked, cover with salsa.

* serves 2; 5 croquettes per serving
* 464 calories per serving
* Shared with Random Recipes, Mix it up Monday, & Mealtime Monday

Lime Shrimp Fried Rice

 

I have a thing about lunches. I hate leftovers. I don’t really like sandwiches unless they’re purchased from a deli and the only thing I did in the creation of the sandwich was fork over some money. I really like my lunches to be just as delicious as my dinners – just different from my dinners.

My coworkers go out to eat so often. I really save money eating the way I do and I probably end up being a lot more satisfied than they are. When school starts next week I’m going to make sure I bring lunch with me on those days I’m on campus all day also, because cafeteria food and my stomach don’t always make the best pair.

Lime Shrimp Fried Rice

Ingredients
2 cups rice, uncooked
2 3/4 cups water
4 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tsp salt
2 eggs, beaten
1 garlic clove, minced
6 oz shrimp
1/3 cup green onions, minced
1 cup cucumber, diced
1 cup tomatoes, diced
1 tbsp sesame oil
6 tbsp fish sauce
2 tbsp sugar
1/2 jalapeno, seedeed, devined, and minced
2 tbsp lime juice

Directions

1. Cook the rice in a rice cooker or in a pot with the water. Once cooked remove and allow to cool.

2. Place 3 tbsp of vegetable oil and 1 tbsp of sesame oil in a small bowl. Whisk to combine. Set aside.

3. Place the 3 tbsp of fish sauce and sugar in a small bowl. Whisk to combine. Set aside and finish the rice.

4. Place a large skillet over high heat. Add the vegetable oil/sesame oil combination and heat.

5. Add the beaten eggs and create an egg “pool.”

6. Add the garlic on top of the eggs to prevent it from burning. With a spoon, life and stir the egg mixture to break up the eggs.

7. Add the cooked rice and continue to stir-fry until the rice begins to brown.

8. Sprinkle with the fish sauce/sugar combination. Continue to lift and stir the rice.

9. Add the shrimp, continuing to cook for about 8 minutes or until the shrimp are cooked all the way through.

10. Stir in the vegetables.

11. Stir together the jalapeno, lime juice, and remaining fish sauce. Whisk to combine. Stir into the rice mixture.

* serves 4
* 392 calories per serving

Egg Noodle Casserole

I don’t really have any commentary on this post. It was an easy pasta dish that tasted great.

Egg Noodle Casserole
(inspiration)

Ingredients
2 cups egg noodles
1 egg
1/2 tbsp heavy cream
1/2 tsp Dijon mustard
1 green onion stalk, sliced
1/2 cup pepper jack cheese, shredded
1/4 cup cheddar cheese, shredded
1/4 cup parmesan cheese, shredded
1/4 cucumber, diced
1 1/2 oz ground beef
1 sausage link, of your choice

Directions

1. Heat oven to 350. Grease a casserole dish.

2. Boil noodles according to the package directions. Drain and set aside.

3. In a small pan, saute sausage, ground beef, and zucchini until the meat is cooked and the zucchini is soft.

4. In a small mixing bowl, mix eggs, cream, mustard, and some salt and pepper.

5. In a medium mixing bowl, add noodles, sausage, ground beef, zucchini, green onion, cheddar, pepper jack, half the parmesan, and the egg mixture. Mix well so everything is covered with the egg mixture. Top with the remaining parmesan.

6. Bake for 30 minutes.

* serves 3
* Shared with Presto Pasta Nights hosted by Culinary Vibes