Overcoming iceberg lettuce tragedy-1 (Dinner 3 Sep)

Taiwanese fried vermicelli, fried chicken
and miso soup with potato and enoki mushroom

Taiwanese Fried Rice Vermicelli was introduced before. 
This time, I used Iceberg lettuce instead for cabbage. 
Got a very nice, big, seasonal one from Waitrose in 1 pound.
Unlike other lettuces (round, curly, romaine, little gem), iceberg lettuce features its crispy and fleshy leaf. 

Tragedy of iceberg lettuce

However, I think it is shared experience such as when adding iceberg lettuce into salad too much against other ingredients, then the entire dish becomes watery. In stuffing sandwich, round or curly lettuces are better. If not seasonal, iceberg lettuce is just hard, watery and cold like iceberg. As it can last longer than other lettuces, can be found easily in Tesco Express or Sainsbury Local. It means iceberg lettuce is only one available leaf veggie when other shops are closed. As being voluminous when it is served, usually it is hard to use up at once, therefore occupies veggie space in the fridge forever.

To rescue poor iceberg lettuce...boiling is a good solution.

By cooking, the moisture is removed from the flesh then iceberg lettuce attains beautiful crunchy texture. Besides, when it is cooked, it enhances the flavour that is often hidden when it is cold and watery.

Therefore, I often add it into soup, fried rice, and noodles.

Ingredients

Iceberg lettuce 4-5 leaves (cut into small bite sized), 2 shrimps, 4 slices of pork belly, 2 spring onion (sliced), rice vermicelli (100g boiled in water for 1 min)
<Seasoning> 

1 tablespoon of soy sauce

1 tablespoon of mirin

1 tablespoon of sesame oil

1 teaspoon of oyster sauce

200cc of clod water

1 tablespoon of Taiwanese rice sake (if available)

1/2 teaspoon of Thai fish sauce

Directions

1. Fry meat, fish and veggies roughly for 2-3 mins in a large frying pan with vegetable oil (2 tablespoons)

2. add vermicelli and lettuce. Pour the seasoning and close the pan with a lid. Keep heating for 3-4 mins

3. Open the lid and stir-fry all the contents until the sauce disappears to serve.

Besides with vermicelli, I made a fried chicken. 

1. Soak chicken thighs with salt, black pepper and sake for 5-6 mins. 
2. Dust them with cornflour and deepfry them in a 1cm depth of vegetable oil in a small pan at medium temperature.

Total time to prepare: 40 mins
Total cost: 3.4 pounds (2 for chicken thigh, 0.4 for vermicelli, 1 for veggies)

Nabe (Hot pot) with Chicken with Enoki Mushroom Balls&Sardine with Broad Beans Balls

Nabe is a Japanese style fondue or hot pot cooked in a ceramic pot and served at the table. 

This is a popular family/party winter menu.

Nabe also works in the cool British summer. 

Received a pretty guest from Paris so we had a nabe party.

Ingredients of Nabe

• Nabe stock (2-3L of cold water and 15-20cm of konbu seaweed) , 3 tablespoon of soy sauce, sake each
• Winter cabbage or Pack choi
• Spring onion
• Seasonal veggies
• Fish, meat, chicken
• Tofu
• can add anything you like

Ingredients of Nabe dip sauce

• 3 tablespoon of soy sauce
• 2 tablespoon of mirin
• two bunches of thinly chopped spring onion
• 1 tablespoon of lemon juice

Direction

1) Preparing nabe stock 

1. Add 2-3l of cold water and 15-20cm length of konbu (sea weed) into a hot pot. Allow it to rest for 30-40 mints.

2. Add soy sauce and sake and then bring it to boil. 

• The stock is prepared with Konbu
• The right bottom is Chilli Oil (click for the recipe) is an essential seasoning for my Nabe style 

2) Add ingredients

3. Add vegetables to cook by closing the lid. Once veggies are ready, add fish or meat.

Veggies are added to cook

3) Serve nabe at the table 

with nabe sauce and some other dips such as chilli oil

4) Finish the stock with Udon!!

The stock gained the depth of flavour from all the veggies, chicken and sardine. The sharp hint of black pepper completes the luxurious flavour.

Chicken Balls with Enoki Mushrooms

Ingredients

• 2 pieces of chicken thigh
• 2 teaspoons of grated ginger
• 1 tablespoon of sake
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt 
• 1 tablespoon of corn flour
• 80g of Enoki Mushroom

Directions

1. Cut chicken thigh roughly and add all the ingredients except enoki into a food processor to blend for 20-25 seconds. Try to remain the texture of chicken or alternatively beat the mix over a cutting board.

2. Cut Enoki into 5-6 cm length. Put the processed chicken mix and enoki into a bowl and mix them well with a hand. Then make large bite sized balls

3. Boil some water in a deep pan and cook the chicken balls for 1 min and take them aside in a dish. Add into the pot to cook completely.

This chicken balls can be frozen and be used for soup and other ingredients. Very useful item.

Sardine Balls with Broad Beans

Ingredients

• 2-3 pieces of sardine fillet
• 1 teaspoon of miso
• 2 teaspoons of grated ginger
• 1 tablespoon of cornflour
• A handful of broad beans, peeled

1. Blend sardines with miso, grated ginger,cornflour for 30 seconds 

2. Add broad beans into the sardine mix

3. Scoop a bite sized sardine mix portion with a spoon and drop it in the boiling hot pot

4. Serve balls with nabe sauce.

Nabe gathers people, warms them up and thereby generates nice conversations!

It's a fun to have nabe also as we can take lots of veggies, is very healthy.

Time to prepare: 50 mins
Total cost: 6 pounds (1.5 for chicken, 1.5 for sardines, 2 for all other veggies, 1 for udon noodles)

Tempura Rice, geeking out (Brunch, 2 Sep)

Got some leftover from yesterday's tempura. Seasoning tempura with soy-based sauce and topping it on the rice is a typical dish of next day of tempura, known as "ten-don".

Directions of tendon

Add 100cc of dashi (Japanese soup stock), mirin and soy sauce (1 tablespoon each) in a small shallow pan. Once it boiled add tempura and keep boiling for 1-2mins. Top tempura with remained sauce on warm rice in a bowl to serve.

I also made miso soup with chinese chive and egg. 
Boil 400cc soup stock, dissolve 1.5 tablespoons of miso, bring it into boil then add chopped chinese chive and beaten egg.

Mr. Husband is celebrating his final day of holiday with his favourite computer game and ten-don. 

Timte to prepare: 10 mins
Total cost: ?? very cheap

Shrimp Tempura, Shrimp Head Miso Soup and Shrimp Art (Dinner 1 September)

Got fresh shrimps from a local fish market, 

Hampstead Seafoods. 

What else I had in the fridge was, 

an onion, a carrot and a frozen tofu.

Defrost tofu can gain very fluffy and interesting texture!

I removed shells and heads from each piece and decided to make miso soup with them.

Half portion was stored in freezer.

I made tempura with shrimp pieces, onion and carrot.

The directions was introduced in Tempura Udon.

Shrimp Head Miso Soup

1. Boil 400cc of water in a pan and add shrimp shells. Allow them to get gently boiled for 1 min

2. Turn off the heat and remove shells out from the pan through a net

3. Add 2 tablespoons of miso to dissolve and bring it gently boil

3. Add tofu and spring onion. 

In case of a frozen tofu, heat it up in a microwave for 1 min and remove the extra water by squeezing it. Tear the tofu into pieces to put into the pan

4. Use a head of shrimp for decoration to serve.

To make the soup looks great, I used an artisan-made lacquer ware called "Hidehira-Nuri". 
Hidehira-nuri is a traditional lacquer ware produced in a historic town, Hiraizumi, Iwate Prefecture. 
Hiraizumi is a World Heritage Site of UNESCO.
With such nice ware and the decoration of the head, 
this miso soup is a 
luxury and rich with the shrimp flavour!!


However, Mr. Husband is scared of shrimp heads.

His miso soup is shrimp head-less. So boring!!

Instead, use a shrimp head in my art.

Such as an organic helmet. 

Time to prepare: 50 mins

Total cost: 2.5 pounds (2 for shrimps, 0.5 for other veggies)

Soy sauce-balsamic fried sardine, Pasta crude (Dinner 30 Aug)

Pasta crude means raw pasta in Italian according to my Italian friend. 

Fresh tomatoes and basil is dressed over capellini with onion and garlic based sauce. 

This is a summery dish and definitely should be enjoyed before tomato season ends.

Ingredients (for two people)

200g Capellini 

1 clove of garlic

1/3 large round onion or 2 small onions

20-25g (a pack of) Basil 

2 handfuls of mini-tomato or 1 large tomato

1 teaspoon of salt (+3 teaspoons for boiling pasta)

3 tablespoons of olive oil

2 teaspoons of truffle oil

Directions

1. Boil 3-4L of water in a large deep pan
2. Cut basil and tomatoes into small pieces (roughly 1cmx1cm)

3. Cut onion and garlic into tiny pieces. Heat up a large frying pan at middle temperature, spread olive oil and fry garlic and onion until they are done for 3-4 mins

4. Add 3 teaspoons of salt into the boiling water and add pasta. Cook it for 1.2 mins to make just before al dente condition
5. Add the cooked pasta, salt, tomato, basil and 1/2 cup or 100cc of boiled water into the pan. Mix all thoroughly

6. Serve with black pepper and truffle oil.

The season of sardine had started. I got 5 pieces of fresh sardine from Devon for 2.5 pounds from a local fish market, Hampstead Seafoods. Sardine is rich in Vitamin D and Calcium and is a great resource of good protein.

Sharp taste of sardine becomes elegant by the dressing of balsamic and soy sauce with a hint of garlic and chili. The asparagus and spring onion moderates the rich flavour of the dish.

I struggled to remove small bones near head and tail. I stored some pieces to freeze.

Ingredients

2 pieces of sardine (head off, cleaned the stomach, remove big bones)
1 teaspoon of salt
1 tablespoon of cornflour
1 clove of garlic (thin sliced)
1/2 teaspoon of chili powder
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1/2 tablespoon of soy sauce
1/2 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar
2-3 asparagus (lightly boiled and cut into large pieces)
1 Spring onion (sliced in thin stripe)

Directions

1. season sardines with salt and leave it for 5 mins. Then cut them into large bite size and dust with cornflour

2. Heat up a frying pan at medium temperature, spread olive oil and add chilli and garlic to fry for 1 min

3. Place sardines with the skin sides on the pan, cook them for 2-3 mins

4. Turn the sardines over to the other sides. Add asparagus and cook another 2 mins

5. Take asparagus and sardine out from the pan, put them into a dish
6. Add soy sauce and balsamic vinegar into the pan. Allow it gently boil

7. Top the sardine and asparagus with spring onion, pour the sauce over them to serve.

Time to prepare 1 hour (I spend 35 mins for removing out bones from sardines)
Total cost: 4.2 pounds (0.7 for pasta, 2.5 with basil, tomatoes and other veggies,1 for sardine)