Shrimp Ramen Soup

This probably isn't 100% authentic as I believe traditional ramen soup is made from pork stock - but it tastes pretty darn good.  I also went overboard on the vegetables, so it is quite thick, almost a stew.  But, that's the way I like it.

Then rent or netflix The Ramen Girl

Ingredients

• 8 cups chicken stock (preferably salt free)
• 1 pound small shrimp, peeled and deveined
• 2 Tbl miso paste
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 4 cloves garlic thinly sliced
• ½ Tbl grated ginger
• 3 large carrots julienned
• ½ large onion thinly sliced 
• 1 red bell pepper thinly sliced
• 8 oz mushrooms thinly sliced
• ½ head napa cabbage thinly sliced
• 2 packages ramen soup noodles (minus flavor packets)

Equipment

• Pot large enough to hold everything.  The 8 cups stock should fill less than ½ the pot
• Julienne cutter

Directions

• Heat stock in a large pot.
• Add onion, carrot, and bell pepper and cook for about 20 minutes
• Add mushrooms and napa cabbage and cook for another 10 minutes
• Add shrimp and cook for a couple of minutes until pink in color
• add ramen noodles and cook for 2 minutes.  Be sure to break noodles apart
• Serve in bowls with japanese soup spoons

  Notes

1. I used some homemade chicken stock from the freezer.  I do not add any salt when making my own stock as I feel it's best to season whatever is being made from the stock.  The miso paste will add some salt. If you feel it needs a bit more salt then add a bit more miso paste or, perhaps, some fish sauce.  If you use commercial chicken stock then be sure to use the low sodium variety and then add the miso paste to taste.
2. Just throw the flavor packets from the ramen soup away - they are mostly salt and not of much use for anything else.
3. If you don't have a julienne cutter cutter then thinly slice the carrot as I think grating it would make it too small and it would get mushy in the soup.  Then add a julienne cutter to your christmas list :)
4. Thinly sliced chicken or pork would also work well.  I'm not so sure about beef - but I suppose it could work too.
5. Snow peas or sugar peas would also work

Chicken Fried Steak

A Texas treasure - the Chicken Fried Steak.  I've tried making chicken fried steak at home in the past - but it never tasted as good as that which you can get in the better restaurants.  It was bland and oily.

To overcome the blandness, I experiemented with different seasonings in the flour.  A little seasoned salt can go a long way to overcome the blandness; but, too much makes it too salty; so, I added other seasonings.  Using buttermlk in place of regular milk also adds a bit of acidy goodness.

To overcome the oilyness and lack of crispyness, I turned to the cooking god himself - Alton Brown.  I highly recommend watching his chicken fried steak episode; although, I think he makes it far more complicated than it needs to be.  But, he does have some good ideas worth incorporating.  For one, using the double dip method (seasoned flour -> milk/egg -> back to seasoned flour).  For another, letting the breading sit on the meat for a bit before cooking allows to to stick better to the meat.  Also, draining the meat on paper towels to remove as much of the oil as possible and the putting in a warm oven helps to keep it crispy.

For the meat, I just use cheap cube steak from the grocery store - usually I picked it up on the used meat bin (the "about to expire" meat bin) for a couple of bucks per package and then stick it in the freezer until I'm ready to use it.

Ingredients

• 4 cube steaks (about 1½ pounds)
• 1½ + ¼ Cups all purpose flour (divided)
• 1 tsp seasoned salt (like Lowrey's)
• ½ tsp onion powder
• ½ tsp garlic powder
• ½ tsp black pepper
• ½ tsp ground thyme
• ½Tbl smoked hot paprika
• 1 Cup buttermilk
• 1 Egg, slightly beaten
• 2 Cups milk
• ½ tsp kosher salt
• smoked salt
• oil

Equipment

• cooling rack on top of a baking sheet
• Another baking sheet to place in oven
• 12" cast iron frying pan
• Plate covered with paper towels
• Tongs
• Whisk

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 250 degrees
2. Mix together in a flat bowl 1½ flour, seasoned salt, onion powder, garlic powder, and paprika.
3. In another flat bowl, mixed together buttermilk and egg
4. Lightly sprinkle both sides of cube steaks with smoked salt
5. Dip cube steaks in seasoned flour, then in buttermilk/egg, then back in seasoned flour and place on cooling rack
6. Let steaks sit with breading on cooling rack for 15-20 minutes
7. While steaks are sitting, preheat frying pan with about ½ oil
8. Place steaks in oil, 2 at a time, and cook about ??? miuntes per side.  Be careful not to crowd them.
9. When steaks are done, remove to plate to drain for a couple of minutes and the move to cooking sheet in oven to stay warm and crisp
10. When all steaks are cooked and in oven, drain all but about 3 Tbl of oil from pan, being careful to leave the crispy bits in the pan.
11. Add ¼ cup flour to pan to stir to brown for a minute or two
12. Add 2 cups milk and quickly whisk together until gravy thickens, stirring constantly.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Serve with mashed potatoes and some other vegetable, like green beans.

Coconut buttermilk pie

So, I was having a hankering for coconut pie; so, I planned on making one for dessert on Sunday.  Problem is, the recipe I found called for a can of coconut milk - which I forgot to buy at the grocery store on Saturday.  Still in the mood for pie, I decided I would make a buttermilk pie for dessert instead.  Then, while making it, I thought "why not add the coconut to the buttermilk pie?"  The result was quite delicious

Pie Ingredients

• 2 cups sugar
• 1 stick butter, softened
• 4 Tbl flour
• 3 eggs, slightly beaten
• 1 cup unsweetened coconut, lightly toasted
• 1 tsp coconut extract
• 1 unbaked pie shell

 Whipped topping Ingredients

• 1 cup whipping cream
• 2 Tbl sugar
• ½ tsp coconut extract
• ½ cup toasted coconut

 Directions

1. Cream together butter, sugar, and flour
2. Add eggs, buttermilk, and coconut extract and mic thrououghly
3. Add toasted coconut
4. pour into unbaked pie shell and bake for 1 hour at 325 degrees

Before serving

1. Add sugar and coconut extract to whipping cream and whip until stiff
2. fold in toasted coconut

Put a dollop the coconut whipped cream on top of each piece of pie

Hiroshima style Okonomiyaki

Note: My friend Craig shared this delectable Japanese recipe with me and I have confirmed its deliriousness. Craig has his own recipe blog here.

Ingredients:

• okonomiyaki sauce
• yakisoba sauce
• japanese noodles
• dashi soup stock
• thin strips of meat: chicken, pork, beef, shrimp or whatever
• green onion sliced thin
• thin strips of carrot
• fresh mushrooms sliced thin
• eggs

Directions:

1) Cook japanese noodles according to package. Then stir fry with some yakisoba sauce.

2) Mix together

2 c flour
1 1/2 C water or water with dashi soup stock
1 egg
1/3-1/2 head of shreeded cabbage

3) pour some batter on a griddle, let it cook for a little, then add toppings (meat and vetetables) and flip over.

4) Meanwhile, cook an egg on the griddle, break yoke and swish it around so that the egg is about the same size as the pancake.

To serve:

Layer on the plate in the following order

1. some stir-fried Japanese noodles
2. fried egg
3. okonomiyaki pancake

Drizzle okonomiyaki sauce and mayonnaise on top

Notes

• I cheated and bought a package of thinly slice cabbage (intended for use in cole slaw).
• I used pork when I made it.
• I used an electric griddle to cook everything.

Gyoza

Note: My friend Craig shared this delectable Japanese recipe with me and I have confirmed its deliriousness.  Craig has his own recipe blog here.

Ingredients:

• 1 pound ground pork
• 2 to 2 ¼ cup shredded white or Napa cabbage
• 4-5 scallions, finely diced
• 1½ T grated, minced fresh ginger root
• 3-4 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 3 T tamari dark soy sauce
• 1 to 1 ½ t sesame oil
• 1 ½ T oyster sauce
• ground black pepper, to taste
• slosh or two of mirin
• 50 gyoza wrappers, or as needed (also wonton wrappers, basically anything that is round and small)

Directions:

1) Chop cabbage fine, sprinkle with coarse salt, let sit for 20 minutes then squeeze out as much water as you can with a cheese cloth or clean tea towel

2) Combine all ingredients together in a large bowl, adding meat last.

3) Place 1 1/2 teaspoons in the center of each gyoza wrapper and use your finger to put water around the edge.

4) Fold the sides up to form a semicircle, and then pinch the edges to seal. Continue with the rest of the gyoza wrappers until the filling is gone. (Or, cheat like I did and use a wonton press)

5) To cook, heat 1 tablespoon oil in a heavy frying pan over medium to medium-high heat. Add some of the Gyoza, don’t crowd the pat too much, and cook for 2 minutes, or until medium golden brown on the bottom.

6) Add 1/2 cup of water to the pan. Cover the dumplings and cook until the water is absorbed (5 to 7 minutes). Repeat with the remainder of the gyoza dumplings.

Prepared Tamari Soy Sauce

½ C Tamari dark soy sauce
½ C Katsuobushi (dried bonito tuna flakes)
¼ C dried seaweed (nori)
3 T mirin

Put all of the ingredients in a small sauce pan, bring to a simmer over medium to medium-high heat, remove from heat and allow to steep for 5 minutes. Remove the bonito flakes and seaweed with a very small sieve or spider, being sure to squeeze as much liquid out as possible, and then discard.

Gyoza Dipping Sauce

1 C prepared Tamari sauce (see recipe above)
1 C rice vinegar
1 t sesame oil (or to taste. You may also use rayu - spicy sesame oil)

To be added at table and/or to taste. When preserving left over sauce in the fridge, do not add the following ingredients. They do not keep long. Add them fresh to the sauce before serving, and in this way, the sauce will keep in the fridge longer.

1 teaspoon minced/grated ginger root
1 scallion, minced

Optional:

1-2 T fresh grated daikon radish
¼ teaspoon roasted, crushed sesame seeds
dash of lemon juice

Notes

• I cheated and bought a package of thinly slice cabbage (intended for use in cole slaw).
• I used shrimp when I made it.
• It made more Gyoza than would fit in my frying pan. So, I got my bamboo steamer out and steamed the rest on top of cabbage leaves.

Sweet & Sour -whatever-

Sweet and sour is a very versatile dish.  You can use a variety of meats, such as chicken, shrimp, or pork (not sure beef would be good - but, to be honest, I've never tried it).  It's also a good way to use of vegetables as just about anything can go into a sweet & sour dinner.

 Living on a gulf coast state, we regularly get shrimp on sale in our local grocery stores.  This week, our local Tom Thumb had shrimp for $2.99/lb (in 2 lb bags).  It was the small (51-60/lb) shrimp - but that's perfect for a sweet & sour.

I found a good sweet & sour recipe in a Thai cookbook recently - which I, of course, have modified to my own tastes.  The trick to a good sweet & sour is to have a variety of colors in the vegetables.  I like to include the following colors:  red, green, yellow, orange, white

Ingredients

• Rice
• 1 - 1½ lbs of meat (chicken, pork, or shrimp)
• 4 cloves garlic
• oil
• 1 cup cashews (optional)
• Variety of vegetables cut into bite sized pieces, such as
• pineapple chunks, 1 can *
• onion *
• bell pepper *
• carrot *
• water chestnuts, 1 can
• bamboo shoots, 1 can
• snow peas
• sugar peas
• cucumber
• celery
• mushrooms
• tomato

* a 'must have' vegetable - in my own most humble of opinions

Sweet & Sour sauce ingredients

• 1 cup stock (see note 1)
• 6 Tbl vinegar (nothing fancy, cider vinegar is just fine)
• 6 Tbl sugar (I prefer brown, but white will suffice)
• 4 Tbl ketchup (or catsup, whichever name you prefer)
• 4 Tbl juice from pineapple chunks (if using shrimp, can substitute with 2 Tbl Thai fish sauce, if desired)
• 4 Tbl oyster sauce
• 2 Tbl corn starch
• 1½ Tbl chili sauce (see note 6)
• 1 Tbl grated ginger

Directions

1. Start cooking rice.  While rice is cooking, cut up vegetables
2. If using shrimp, peel and devein it and save the shells (see note 1). If using chicken or pork then cut into bite sized cubes.
3. Mince garlic and mix with meat and let sit until ready to cook (can even be done a few hours ahead of time)
4. Add a couple Tbl oil to wok and saute the vegetables.  Different vegetables require different amounts of cooking time; so, I suggest adding them in the following order, sauteing each for a minute or so until adding the next (if not using a particular vegetable then just skip it).  That way, the first vegetables added get cooked longer
• carrot
• celery + bell pepper + onion
• mushroom + cucumber
• tomato + snow peas + sugar peas
• water chestnuts + bamboo shoots + pineapple chunks (just enough to heat through)
5. Remove vegetables to a serving bowl
6. Add a bit more oil to wok and saute meat until cooked through
7. Add sweet & sour sauce and cook until thickened
8. Add vegetables back to wok and stir until all is coated
9. Remove to serving bowl
10. Service with rice
11. Go vegetate on the couch after having eaten too much because it tasted so good

 Notes

1. If using chicken or pork then use 1 cup chicken stock. If using shrimp, put shrimp shells in a small sauce pan along with about 1½ - 2 cups of water and bring to a boil.  Then let simmer for a bit to reduce (and concentrate the flavor).  Turn off and let cool with shells in water (which will maximize the amount of flavor in the water).   Strain and add 1 cup of the shrimp stock to the sweet & sour sauce.
2. Don't skimp on the vegetables - use a cup or two of each.  Makes it more healthy.
3. I prefer canola oil, but any vegetable oil will suffice
4. Personally, I don't like the taste of green bell peppers; so, I always use red, yellow, or orange.
5. A trick I learned from Rachel Ray (Food Network) is to buy fresh ginger, peel it and then freeze it in a small ziplock baggie.  You can then just take it out of the freezer and just grate however much you need.  Being frozen, it grates up nice and fine.
6. For the chili sauce, I use Sriracha sauce - which my children refer to as "rooster sauce" because of the picture of a chicken on the bottle.

Greek Moussaka

My daughter, who is living with us while her husband is in basic training with the U.S. Air Force, has started following the Atkins diet.  I was once on this diet; so, I am familiar with what is and is not legal to eat.  I've been trying to be conscous of this as I prepare dinner to either make a low carb dinner, or something where the carb component can be easily eliminated or removed (such as rice, noodles, etc.).

Tonight I made a Greek Moussaka. Not all recipe's for Moussaka are low carb; but, there are some very delicious ones.  This is mine which is a combination of three different recipe's I found

Ingredients

• 2 eggplants (about 2½ pounds total)
• ½ cup olive oil
• 2 ounces parmesan cheese, grated

Meat Sauce

• 1 lb ground lamb or beef
• 1 small onion chopped
• 3-4 cloves garlic minced
• ½ tsp dried oregano
• ½ tsp kosher salt
• ¼ tsp cinnamon
• smidge allspice
• pinch ground cloves
• pinch nutmeg
• 1 bay leaf
• 14½ ounce can chopped tomatoes with juice

Custard sauce

• 3 eggs
• ¼ cup heavy cream

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees
2. Peel eggplant and slice in to ½ inch thick slices. 
3. Brush both sides of eggplant slices with olive oil and place on a foil lined baking sheet, overlapping as necessary. 
4. Cover baking sheet with foil and then bake for 25 minutes in a 425 degree oven
5. Brown onion until starting to brown then add minced garlic.
6. Add ground meat and cook until meat is done
7. Drain meat/onion mixture and then add spices, cook for about 30 seconds to toast spices and then add tomatoes and bay leaf
8. Simmer until eggplant is done (about 15-20 minutes)
9. Assemble by placing a thin layer of meat sauce in the bottom of the baking dish.  Add 1/3 of the eggplant slices, cover with grated cheese and 1/2 of the meat sauce.  Repeat with 1/3 eggplant, 1/3 grated cheese, and remaining 1/2 meat sauce.  Top with remaining 1/3 eggplant.  Pour custard sauce over entire surface and top with remaining 1/3 grated cheese
10. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 50 minutes, until  top is toasted and a knife comes out clean when inserted.

Notes

• Many recipes call for leaving the skin on the eggplant.  While it may be edible, I personally find it tough and unplesant in the mouth.  So, I always peel my eggplant.
• Measurements like "small onion" or "clove garlic" are very ambiguous.  For this recipe, I used an onion that was about 7-8 ounces and ended up with 5-6 ounces of chopped onion after cutting ends off and removing skin.  I didn't measure the garlic cloves beforehand, but I used about ½ ounce minced garlic
• A smidge is about 1/8 tsp and a pinch is about 1/16 tsp