Egg Noodles....They Aren't Just for Soup Anymore

I have a habit of picking up ingredients that interest me, and then hoarding them in my pantry, never to be seen again.

Do you do this?

Am I the only one?

I am constantly finding random ingredients in my pantry that I had forgotten about, and generally, they go right back in, because I don’t have any ideas of what to do with them.

Specialty Pastas, Sauces, Condiments, etc. They all fit in this category.

Not long ago, I bought a package of Oakland Egg Noodles at The Market On The Square in Carlinville, because they came highly recommended by a co-worker. Admittedly, I normally throw egg noodles in a pot of soup.... or maybe a batch of chicken and noodles... but not much else.
I mean, that’s what they are FOR, right?

Right. And wrong.

While chatting up the owners of the Market, I learned that Nathan stir fries his noodles. Well, duh, of COURSE! My all time favorite Thai dish, Pad Sei Yew, is a mélange of chicken, spicy sauce, and rich, thick eggy noodles. Genius!

While rattling around this house this weekend, cleaning for Ty’s birthday party, I began cleaning out the fridge and pulled out a bunch of veggies that needed to be used. Some carrots, scallions, and a bunch of snow peas. Throw in some chicken and noodles and that was a satisfying lunch just waiting to happen!

Five Spice Chicken and Noodle Stir Fry
1/3 cup honey
3 TB soy sauce
1 TB Ginger
2 TB mirin
1-2 TB sriracha
1 TB orange juice concentrate
1-2 tsp five spice powder
1 tsp sesame oil
1 TB minced garlic

Boil water for noodles and start them cooking while preparing the stir fry. (only cook them about half way)
Mix marinade ingredients together and let chicken marinate at least a half hour.
Quickly stir fry the marinated chicken pieces until almost done.

Add in your vegetables, and stir fry another minute, then add in remaining marinade and cooked noodles and cook another minute to finish cooking the chicken and marinade.

Top with cilantro and serve.

**Notes: the noodles add great texture to the stir fry as well as make it more filling for those of us who can’t live on veggies alone! Letting the noodles finish cooking with the marinade helps them soak up a bunch of the yummy flavor of the five spice and sesame.

This is my submission for Presto Pasta Nights #205, hosted by Debbi Does Dinner

Standing Over the Stove with a Spoon...

...eating straight out of the pot.

(see those beautiful little droplets of toasted sesame oil swimming around with the red pepper flakes? They look happy, don't they?)

That’s how good this soup is. For about the last two months, I have had a very insistent craving for Chinese food. Or Thai. Or Vietnamese. Pretty much anything spicy with noodles. So, when I was browsing around at the Market on the Square (fabulous new shop in Carlinville that stocks only Illinois-made products) and I ran across some adorable little egg noodles called Soup Buds (by a company called Pasta Alley), I knew exactly what I wanted to do with them.

SOUP.

After all, that’s what they are for... and it has been an excruciatingly long, vicious winter around here. In that kind of situation, you can never have too much soup. These little gems look like egg noodles that someone took a hole punch to. Less than a half inch in diameter when fully cooked, they fill up with the broth from the soup, but stay slightly firm, giving you a wonderful mouthful of noodly goodness, without the treachery of the random noodle that inevitably flings itself over the edge of the spoon, scattering its juices on your chin (or shirt) in a last-ditch effort to escape.

Now, set on my path to a steaming pot of soup, I started searching for recipes. I go through this several times every winter. Looking for something new, something flavorful and earth shattering.... and without fail I seem to end up with....chicken soup. No matter how good the recipe claims to be, regardless of how enticing the ingredient list appears, it always just ends up as being some generic chicken soup.

I wanted more.

So when I ran across this recipe, suffice it to say I remained skeptical. Nevertheless, I trudged ahead, making a few minor tweaks here and there. And what did I end up with?

Sheer bliss.

The hubs came in from feeding the dogs and found me hunkered down over the stove with a spoon in hand, eating straight out of the pot. It started innocently enough, with a taste to check the seasoning....but you know, first tastes can be deceiving, so you should always check twice. But in the second bite I really didn’t get any chicken, so I tried again. And then I wanted to make sure it was seasoned consistently throughout.... and I might as well double check those noodles to make sure they were thoroughly cooked.... Well, it was shameful, really. I ate enough of it standing there at the stove that I didn’t need to actually fix myself a bowl. I was full. And gloriously so.

Sadly, I was so enthralled with my brothy discovery that I completely missed the recommended garnishes. Imagine how much more pleased I was when I dragged the pot back out again this morning (yes, at 5:00 am) and fixed myself a bowl, complete with savory garnish, and had another serving for breakfast. Yes, you heard me right. And then ladled up another generous serving to take to work with me for lunch. I see no reason to ever make another kind of chicken soup again. Ever.

Here is the recipe (originally from America’s Test Kitchen), with my changes. I strongly urge you to make this at home. And eat it standing over the strove with a spoon. And maybe for breakfast...

Spicy Asian Chicken Noodle Soup
adapted from America's Test Kitchen

8-10 cups chicken stock
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons mirin
2 tablespoons grated fresh ginger
1 tablespoon Asian chili garlic sauce (this had a lovely amount of heat without being too spicy, but I LOVE spicy, so if you don’t, then cut back on this ingredient)
2 cups chicken (I picked the all meat off a rotisserie chicken)
1 cup Soup Buds or other egg noodle (or 2 packages of dried ramen noodles, seasoning packed discarded)
3 scallions, sliced thin
1/4 cup fresh cilantro leaves, minced
4 teaspoons toasted sesame oil
pinch of red pepper flakes for garnish (optional)

Bring broth, soy sauce, mirin, ginger, and chili garlic sauce to a boil in a large saucepan.
Add the egg noodles (if using) and cook until almost done.
Add the cut up chicken to the pot and simmer, covered, over medium-low heat until chicken is warmed through.
If using Ramen noodles, add the dried noodles into the broth and cook, stirring occasionally, until they're just about cooked.
Stir in the scallions and cilantro and serve in bowls.
Garnish each bowl additional fresh cilantro leaves and a drizzle of toasted sesame oil and sprinkle with a few red pepper flakes, if you like.

I am submitting this to Presto Pasta Nights, the brainchild of Ruth at Once Upon a Feast. Be sure to check out this week's roundup tomorrow hosted by Helen at Fuss Free Flavors!

Thai Beef Short Ribs

As you all know, it is one of my biggest pet peeves that I can’t get a wide variety of ingredients locally, because of where I live. I often have to drive an hour or more to get to a store that carries what I want. Every once in awhile, though, I am pleasantly surprised by something I find at the grocery store. I should probably also note that although we have a “super” walmart in our town (they call it super, but the truth is it’s the smallest version you can get, with no salon, eye care, tire & lube, and very limited selection) I tend to do most of my food shopping at the hometown grocer. The bill is generally a little higher, but I am a believer in supporting the little guy and, frankly, the meat selection is much better. I treat them well, and they return the favor by getting me certain things I ask for. (For example, the guy who does the liquor ordering just got me a case of a nice little moscato I asked him to get for me. He also does his best to keep the Schlafly seasonal beers in stock because he knows I love them. Okay, maybe that’s not the only reason, but I still appreciate it. Love that guy.)

Back to the point of my story. Every now and then, they surprise me (and I make sure I let them know how pleased I am). Just last month, I was tickled to find a batch of pork neck bones in the meat section. Occasionally I even run across something I’ve never tried before. It doesn’t matter. If its something different, I make a point of buying some and finding something to make with it, just to show my appreciation for them trying to bring variety in. Well, recently I had another find. Beef Short Ribs. Something fairly mainstream in the culinary world, and yet, I’d never made them. Sometimes the most basic things elude me just from lack of exposure.

But no more! I snapped up three packages of those gorgeous ribs and took them home to reside in my freezer while I came up with a good recipe. I originally intended to grill them, but in the process of researching a recipe, I decided it was too risky. It seemed slow roasting was a safer bet, at least for my first time out, especially since I don’t have a lot of experience with my grill yet.

And so, after looking at quite a few sites, I came up with this recipe that sounded lovely. Instead of just slow roasting, it begins with putting the ribs under the broiler, helping give the meat a nice crust. I like the idea of that because so often meats that are slow roasted (or cooked in the crock pot), though they can be wonderfully flavorful and tender, just don’t have the texture that I look for in a piece of meat. I like that caramelization, the crust....

I don’t think I could have found a better place to start. This recipe was super easy, beginning with seasoning the meat and broiling it for 10 minutes, then putting it in the slow cooker and topping it with an Asian sauce to cook while I was at work yesterday. When I opened the front door last night, I was overwhelmed by the fragrant cloud that hit me right in the face. I couldn’t get to the cooker fast enough, and when I lifted the lid? Well, I may or may not have been drooling....

The recipe finishes by adding some aromatics to the liquids from the cooker, cooking it down a bit and serving the sauce over the super tender ribs. I could have taken a bath in that sauce. I don’t think the hubs would have minded, either, after the way I saw him cleaning his plate. The meat was extremely moist and tender, and peeled away from the bone easily without just falling apart. Fabulous. Just fabulous. This one will be going in the official recipe card box for a repeat performance the next time I see short ribs at the grocery store.

Thai Beef Short Ribs
3-4 pounds beef short ribs (English cut)
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
Oil spray
4 cloves minced garlic
2 Tbsp minced ginger
3 Tbsp hoisin sauce
2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 1/2 Tbsp Fish Sauce (I didn’t use the fish sauce, since it really doesn’t like me)
1 Tbsp honey
1 Tbsp soy sauce
1 lime, juiced and zest finely grated
1 jalapeno pepper, stemmed, seeded and finely chopped
3 scallions, cut into thin slices
2 Tbsp freshly chopped cilantro

Directions:
Preheat a broiler on high. Season the meaty parts of the short ribs with salt and pepper and set bone-side down on an oven tray.

Spray with oil and broil until the meaty parts are browned (about 10 minutes).Transfer to a 5-6 quart slow cooker. Mix together the garlic, ginger, hoisin, vinegar, fish sauce, honey, soy sauce, and lime juice and zest in a small bowl, and pour over the short ribs. Cover the slow cooker and cook until tender, about 3-4 hours on high or 6-8 hours on low.
Transfer the ribs to a platter. Skim the fat from the liquid, then add the jalapeno, scallions, and cilantro and cook on high for 5 minutes. Spoon the sauce over the meat and serve.

Gingery Chicken and Bok Choy with Spicy Edamame Salad

I have so many good things to say about my trip to Baltimore this past week, but I am still frantically trying to get caught up at work from being out of the office for three whole days and yet MEF is pissin' and moanin' that I haven't updated my blog yet. So, I am going to start with food!

I promised my sister that I would cook for her while I was out there, and while I intended to cook much more than I did, this meal was definitely a keeper. The chicken recipe came from Rachel Ray’s website, and the Edamame Salad recipe I found on Tastespotting (but the link to it isn't working anymore).
I have been aching to try these recipes since I came across them, but I really wanted to use the baby bok choy and it isn’t really something that I can get locally, so I saved it for the trip when I knew I could get to a nice Asian market. This recipe turned out SO tasty, and even as leftovers, we inhaled the couscous and edamame all mixed together. I hope you enjoy it!

One-Pot Ginger Chicken, Bok Choy and Couscous 1/2 cup soy sauce
6 tablespoons brown sugar1 1/2 tablespoons sesame oil
One 1 1/2-inch piece ginger, peeled and grated
1 bunch scallions, thinly sliced
6 skinless, boneless chicken thighs, trimmed and halved
Salt
One 10-ounce box plain couscous

1 1/4 pounds baby bok choy, halved lengthwise and rinsed

1. In a shallow baking dish, whisk together the soy sauce, brown sugar, sesame oil and ginger; stir in half the scallion pieces. Add the chicken to the marinade, turning to coat. Let marinate at room temperature for 30 minutes.

2. Line a footed metal colander with 2 layers of damp cheesecloth, allowing 2 inches of overhang. Place in a pot and add enough water to just reach the colander bottom. Bring to a simmer; have a small pot of boiling water on the side.

3. Pour the couscous into the colander. Place the chicken thighs on top in a single layer, pressing up the sides of the colander, if necessary; reserve the marinade. Cover and steam, adding more hot water as needed, until the chicken is cooked through, 25 to 30 minutes.

4. Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, simmer the reserved marinade until thickened, about 4 minutes; strain.

5. When the chicken is almost done, scatter the bok choy on top and steam for 3 minutes. Transfer the bok choy and chicken to a platter, drizzle with the marinade and top with the other half of the sliced scallions. Stir any remaining scallions into the couscous and serve with the chicken.
Sweet & Spicy Edamame Salad

1 cup fresh/frozen shelled edamame (soy beans)

2 tbsp rice vinegar

1-2 tsp brown sugar

1/4 tsp salt

2 tsp toasted sesame oil

1-2 tsp toasted sesame seeds (we didn’t have any, so we left them out)

1/4 cup flaked almonds (we only had whole almonds, so we chopped and toasted them)

1-2 spring onions, thinly sliced on a bias

1 tsp chili flake (this is the red flaked chili you get in Asian markets, NOT chili powder)

1. Bring a pot of water to a rolling boil and season with a generous pinch of salt, then add the edamame and boil for 3-5 minutes, or till tender. Rinse in cold water, then drain well.

**we had the shelled, pre-cooked edamame and they worked just fine. We just warmed them up in the microwave instead of boiling them before adding the sauce.

2. Put the warm beans in a small bowl, then add the salt, sugar, sesame seeds and vinegar and toss to combine. Give this a stir, then taste. Add the chili flakes and half the sesame oil, toss and taste again, and if it’s OK now, add in the spring onion and flaked almonds and toss once more to combine before serving.

3. Serve immediately, but it can also be stored in the fridge for up to a week - though the almonds can get a little soft in the moisture.

Oriental Baked Chicken

This recipe is a twist on one for Asian chicken wings that I got from a relative a while back. When I was planning my dinners for this week, the split chicken breasts at the store called out to me, but I didn't have any inspiration for what to do with them. SO, this is what I did!

Oriental Baked Chicken

4-6 split chicken breasts (I took the extra step and cut the bone off, leaving the skin intact)

1 teaspoon onion salt

2 teaspoons minced garlic

1 teaspoon (or more, to taste) red pepper flake

1/2 teaspoon ginger

drizzle of sesame oil

3/4 cup brown sugar

1 can Coke

Mix together all ingredients except for the chicken in a saucepan and simmer for about an hour.

Meanwhile, line a baking sheet with foil and bake the chicken breasts at 350 for about 45 minutes, or until just cooked through.

Toss the chicken in a bowl with the sauce and let sit for 15 minutes, then put the chicken back on the sheet and return to the oven for another 10 minutes.

**as an alternative, put the "marinated" chicken on the grill and baste with leftover sauce to caramelize. I would rather have done this, but our grill is shot and we haven't bought a new one yet this season. The chicken does not caramelize in the oven like it would on the grill.

I just served this with some cheesy hash browns for the hubs last night.