Craving Ramen

There is something that happens to you once you have Ramen in Japan.  All your tastebuds jump up in attention and then dance around like crazy toddlers or kids at a Frat party.  It is that good.

My only experience with ramen up until our trip was eating the packaged, sodium laden processed stuff that screamed "dorm room, hot plate" and brought back memories of having $15 dollars to do two weeks worth of grocery shopping.  There were lots and lots of Top Ramen Chicken flavored noodles in my pantry during those lean times.

Skip forward to a trip to Japan with my 2nd son.  We somehow found plane tickets for around $700 round trip, so we pulled the trigger and planned a 3 week trip to Shibuya, Japan in Tokyo.

What an amazing city!  So fun, busy and exciting. It is a mix of new age meets ancient Japan that just can't be described.  It is a place you simply must take some time to visit to truly understand.  Trust me on this.

My first taste of real ramen was a unique experience.  How we found places to eat was by walking around.  Each day we walked everywhere,  exploring the city.  We put in around 9-13 miles a day.   If we saw a long line of locals, it was probably the place to eat.  We would look it up on Trip Advisor and head on in.  Our first ramen went like this:  down a flight of stairs to a machine very similar to an old cigarette machine,  where we placed our order, grabbed a ticket and waited.

After a bit, we were led to a a bar that looked much like the study booths in a college library.  A little window was in front and you handed the ticket to a man on the other side.  A few minutes later he would slide a bowl of heaven through the window into your foodie soul.

Every ramen place has its own style and flavor.  This one was more like a bar, and you could interact with the cooks a bit. 

  My favorite was one we stumbled across by following a sign to the 4th floor of a building.  It looked like someones apartment, converted to a lovely little restaurant that had 4 tables and floor to ceiling windows that opened up to the street below. The ramen was very light, with a lemon, ginger and pork broth, topped with lemon rind shavings. It was my favorite by far of all the bowls we devoured during our stay. 

I have not found ramen like this since our return to the states.  I have found some that I like, but they just do not put the hours of preparation into the stock that the Japanese do.  One place in Shibuya served dipping noodles that simply were to die for. The cook told us that the sauce was cooked for over 14 hours.  Unreal flavor. 

So the other day I was craving Japan. We won't be able to head back there until my youngest son graduates in 2 years, so I decided to make my own.

I looked up recipes, and got some ideas, but my taste buds kept remembering the lemon-ginger broth and I wanted to try and get as close to that flavor as possible.

This is what I came up with.  It is not exact at all.  The one I had in japan had pork in it, but I wanted something light that day, so no meat.  It is more an eyeballed, taste testing experiment, but I will do my best to put it in writing.

4 cups vegetable or chicken broth
the juice of two lemons
about an inch of ginger, diced very small
1/2 to 1 cup slices mushrooms
1-2 green onions, sliced including bulb and greens.
ramen type noodles (eyeball how much.  Too many will reduce the broth and that is not what you want.  You want lots of broth.)
large handful of bean sprouts
one egg for each person.
sriracha on the side

To a pot, add 4 cups of broth.  Add lemon juice, ginger, onion and mushrooms.  Bring to a gentle boil.  Reduce heat to low and allow to simmer on stove for 45 minutes to an hour.  Taste.  Add salt if desired.  Or more lemon.  Or less lemon.  Play with it and get it to your taste.  Add the noodles and cook for around 15 minutes or so.

Now, crack an egg into a small ramekin bowl.  Make sure the soup is not boiling, but very hot.  Lower the bowl to just at the surface of the liquid and gently pour the egg into the soup.  Do the same for the other eggs.  Do not stir or boil. Place lid on and allow eggs to soft set.....I, yet again, eyeballed this.  I like mine runny, but thick.  You want the white to cook solid but the yolk to be soft.

When the eggs are done to your liking, remove them with a slotted spoon to each bowl. Ladle the broth into the bowl and then add noodles and veggies.  Top with lots of bean sprouts and lemon rind shavings and dig in!

Chicken Fricassee with Spring Vegetables (GF)

CHICKEN FRICASSEE WITH SPRING VEGETABLES 
(gluten free version makes four generous servings)

In a surprise return to the blogosphere, my oldest and best girlfriend and I will be bringing you our latest offerings of peri-menopausal munchies that will appeal to the 50+ set as well as the spring chickens out there. 

A word of caution: you are entering the no-paleo, no-whole30, no nada diets or fads in this blog. Just good eating to make your soul and your mouth happy. Many of my recipes are gluten free, as some of us here have celiac disease and require said diet. 

Enough talking...let's eat. 

I adapted this recipe from one I found in the Feb. 2017 Southern Living. I've made it gluten free and changed the fats, veggies and chicken up a bit. It's the ultimate comfort food. The doc (husband) said he thinks it will actually heal your insides. 

CHICKEN FRICASSEE WITH SPRING VEGETABLES

Ingredients:

• 4 large boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/2 cup King Arthur Gluten Free Flour
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 1 (8-oz.) package baby bella Texas mushrooms, quartered
• Bag of mini carrots cut into 1/2" inch slices on the diagonal
• 1 medium onion chopped
• 2-1/2 cups chicken stock
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 8 ounces asparagus, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces (about 1 cup)
• Hot white rice or stone-ground grits
• chopped fresh chives

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2. Pat chicken breasts dry, and rub mixture of 1/2 teaspoon of the salt and 1⁄4 teaspoon of the pepper into both sides of the breasts. 
3. Place gluten-free flour in a large ziplock plastic freezer bag; add chicken to bag. Seal and toss chicken in flour to completely coat. 
4. Heat oil and butter in a large Dutch oven over over medium-high heat. Remove chicken from bag, shaking off all the excess flour. Place chicken in hot oil and butter. Cook chicken until deep golden brown, 3 to 4 minutes per side. Don't hurry this step...chicken needs to have a nice, rich brown crust. Remove chicken to a plate, and keep warm.
5. Add mushrooms to the pot and saute for a few minutes. Add carrots and onion and cook for about 2 minutes. Add 2 Tablespoons of gluten-free flour and stir constantly for one minute. Then add the 2-1/2 cups of chicken stock and stir often until the sauce thickens slightly, about 5 minutes. 
6. Add cream and salt and pepper to taste. Stir and then place chicken pieces down into the mix, making sure the chicken is nestled into the sauce. Add chopped asparagus. 
7. Cover and reduce heat to low, cooking until the sauce has thickened slightly and the chicken and asparagus are cooked through, about 5 minutes. 
8. Serve over rice or grits. You can substitute egg noodles or pasta, too. 
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Hortense's String Bean Casserole

GLUTEN-FREE

Summer is a time of recipe testing and heavy-duty eating! Something about the season makes me want to delve into my Southern roots and produce dinner after dinner of "meat and three or fours." 

Here is an extraordinary recipe (discovered during my summer cooking spree) that deserves mention -- it's a classic from Hortense Jones, the legendary cateress of Pine Bluff, Arkansas. I've made a few modifications to the original recipe to make it gluten-free. Enjoy! My family LOVED this dish. You'll never again make green bean casserole with the canned soup and french fried onions!!

Ingredients:

2 packages of 10 oz. frozen cut green beans

2 T salted butter

2 T Thomas Keller's C4C Gluten Free Flour**

1 t. salt

1/4 t. pepper

1 T sugar

1/2 pint of sour cream

1 medium onion, grated on a microplane

dash of garlic salt

1 cup freshly grated Swiss cheese

1 cup freshly grated cheddar cheese

1 cup gluten-free Corn Chex cereal

2 T salted butter, melted

9 x 13 glass casserole, buttered or sprayed with cooking spray

** available from Williams-Sonoma

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. 

Cook green beans per package instructions and drain well. Set aside. Melt butter, remove from heat. Add flour, salt, pepper and sugar to butter. Whisk ingredients together. Add 1/2 pint of sour cream and grated onions and garlic salt to mixture. Return to heat and stir until thickened. Remove from heat and add to bowl with green beans. Stir well. Pour bean/onion mixture into greased casserole dish. 

Combine sour cream mixture and cooked green beans.

Mix cheddar and swiss cheeses in a medium bowl. Sprinkle over beans in casserole dish. 

Sprinkle Swiss and Cheddar cheeses over the green bean mixture. 

Put Chex cereal in large ziploc bag. Crush with fist until all squares are broken up into very small bits. Add 2 tablespoons of melted butter to the bag and shake well to distribute the butter. Sprinkle buttered cereal on top of the cheese. 

Bake at 325 degrees for 20 minutes or until bubbly. 

Sprinkle with Chex cereal and you're ready to bake it!

My family ate this up so quickly, that I didn't have a chance to snap a photo of the finished product!

(Gluten-Free) Best Ever Fried Fish!!

I recently discovered Thomas Keller's (of French Laundry fame) flour blend C4C (Cup for Cup). Sold at Williams-Sonoma, it carries a rather hefty price tag of $19.99. But after using 2/3 cup for this fried fish recipe, I conclude that it is 1.) well worth the price and 2.) answered prayer for this girl who hasn't eaten fried food since November 2007.

All-purpose gluten-free flours are, as a whole, seriously lacking. I've been disappointed time and time again with a number of brands. Aside from the taste and texture issue, none of them allow for a "cup for cup" substitution for regular flour. Hence the brilliance of Thomas Keller's creation: I can take any recipe from a "normal" cookbook and simply substitute C4C. I don't have to adjust my flour portion or add xanthan gum. It's brilliant, and Friday night's dinner proved that.

Skillet-Fried Tilapia

(recipe from Sara Foster's Southern Kitchen)

2 to 3 pounds of tilapia fillets
salt and pepper
1 cup well-shaken buttermilk
1 large egg
dash of cayenne pepper
2/3 cup of C4C gluten free flour
2/3 cup of yellow gluten-free cornmeal
Canola or vegetable oil for frying

Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Line a baking sheet with a brown grocery bag.

Rinse the tilapia and pat dry. Slice each fillet into two or three long strips. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Combine the buttermilk and egg in a shallow bowl. In another bowl, mix the dry ingredients.

Pour oil into a large skillet (I use my Le Creuset large skillet) about 1/4-inch deep and set flame to medium-high to heat the oil.

Dip each strip of fish in the buttermilk mixture and then dredge in the flour mixture -- coating both sides. When oil is ready (drop in a pinch of flour -- it will sizzle and bubble when ready), place fish in oil and cook for about 2 minutes per side (more for thicker pieces of fish). Turn just once -- each side should be golden brown and crispy. You might need to cut back the heat on the burner if your oil is getting too hot and making the fish too brown.

Remove fish from skillet and place on paper towels on top of brown paper bag (the grocery bag is great for absorbing extra oil). Season with additional salt and pepper. Serve with tartar sauce, cocktail sauce or ketchup!

The whole batch -- ready to eat!

A closer look

Friday fish dinner with green beans, mushrooms and lady (field) peas

This teen loves her fried fish! She has celiac disease like mom & granddad.

Smothered Lamb (labdhara gosht)

I'm not sure if it's the influence of a dear friend from Kerala, or the results of a recent novena to Saint Alphonsa, but the husband and I have been eating Indian food non-stop for the past two weeks. I purchased three cookbooks (two by the amazing Madhur Jaffrey) before we left town for almost two weeks. So when we returned in early February, I set out on my Indian kitchen adventure.

Our youngest child gobbles it up like a trooper. We are thankful that our college-aged daughter is living in the dorm this semester and cannot complain about the abundance of curry, coriander and red chiles!

Our Indian friend tells us that the rate of cancer in India is very low compared to the US. The spices are known to have medicinal and cleansing effects. We are living proof of that. I honestly have not felt this good in a long time. All of the recipes I've encountered have no gluten in them. Nothing artificial either -- just pure flavor. I did have to make several trips to the local Central Market to stock up on Indian food basics, such as coriander pods, ground coriander, turmeric, curry, mustard seeds, whole cloves, lots of garlic, onion and fresh ginger (not the powdered stuff!). But it was so worth it. So if you're ready to dabble a bit in Indian cuisine, I give you my first offering by Chef Jaffrey - Smothered Lamb.

Smothered lamb in the pot!

Smothered lamb with roasted organic beets on the side.

Ingredients:

1 pound of boned shoulder of lamb, cut into 1-inch cubes
1 small onion (4 oz.) peeled and finely chopped
1-inch piece of ginger peeled and finely chopped
1/2 can of diced tomatoes (I use the Muir Glen ones)
1/2 cup of finely chopped cilantro
1-2 jalapeno peppers, thinly sliced -- don't remove seeds
1/4 teaspoon of ground turmeric
2 teaspoons of garam masala
1 teaspoon of cumin
1/4 cup plain yogurt (do not use low-fat)
1 Tablespoon of tomato paste
3/4 teaspoon of salt
3 Tablespoons of vegetable oil (I use canola oil)
4 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely chopped
Freshly ground pepper to taste

Put all the ingredients (except oil, garlic and black pepper) into a bowl and combine well.

Put the oil in a deep dutch oven (I use my 5 or 6-quart Le Creuset), and set over medium-high heat. When oil is hot, stir fry the garlic until it turns medium brown. Then put in the meat mixture and stir around a couple of times. Add 1 cup of water and bring mixture to a boil. Put lid on the dutch oven and reduce to simmer. Cook for about 1 hour and 15 minutes, give or take. When meat is done, remove the cover and cook uncovered until the sauce is reduced and thick (stirring occasionally). When the sauce is desired consistency, add a generous sprinkling of black pepper. If you don't care for lamb, you can substitute pork shoulder or stew beef.

Serve with brown rice. I also like to serve either roasted beets or stir-fried green beans and mushrooms.

Polpette di Carne, or meatballs in tomatoe sauce Neapolitan style

I am Italian. Specifically my family is from Bari (Apulia, or Puglia region of Italy) Italy. My grandmother cooked by the eyeball method, so I find myself doing this when I cook Italian food. I don't really measure anything out. This makes posting a recipe difficult at times.

I had some ground buffalo beef in the fridge and wanted to try it in meatballs. I found a couple of recipes, but no single one really sounded good so I combined a couple and hoped for the best. They turned out great, and were seriously to die for. Will never use regular ground beef again. I think for this to truly be Neapolitan (Naples or Campagna region), I would have added white raisins and pine nuts to the meatballs and deep fried them. Alas, I had no raisins and I am allergic to nuts, so out they went. If you decide to add them, it would be 1/3 cup each. Also, deep frying was not on my radar for this night. I am not averse to it, but I wanted this to be a healthier meal.

The recipes I hacked up were a combination of 2 from (will have to try adding the spinach next time) internet and one from my Italian Regional Cooking by Ada Boni. GREAT, authentic recipes in this book. Get it!

Buffalo meatballs:

2lbs ground beef
1 cup Italian style bread crumbs
1 cup shaved Parmesan cheese (I love the shaved chunks better than grated. I used DiGiono, but you can shave your own which is even better)
1/4 tsp ground pepper
2 large eggs
2 Tbsp Italian herbs (or I might have used more...do this to taste...oregano, basil and parsley...you can also use fresh. Remember that the bread crumbs are seasoned too so don't overdo it. Although, I am not sure you can overdo italian seasonings)
1 tsp red pepper flakes

Mix this all up with your hands (yes, that is seriously the only way to really do this if you want authentic, italian meatballs ;*)) to incorporate everything together, but don't over work it. Form into balls. Mine were largish as you can see. Then roll them in some bread crumbs.



Spray a baking dish with cooking spray and bake your meatballs @ 350 degrees for 30-45 minutes.....or more (am so bad about the timer....mostly I eyeballed these, Grandma Balducci style) I turned mine and let them get brown just a bit. You will know when they are ready.

For the sauce I poured about 4-5 tbsp of olive oil in a large pan and sautéed 1/2 a chopped onion with 4-5 cloves garlic. When translucent I added a large can of italian San Marzano tomatoes and broke them up as they heated up. Add a can of tomatoe paste and 1-2 of the paste cans of water, depending on how thick you like your sauce.I think I added 1 can. Stir this up and add about 1 tsp sugar to break the acidity. Now grab some red wine and add a dash. And another. Okay, maybe one more. I used an organic Cabernet....maybe 1/4 cup or a bit less.. Basically just add to taste. Now add salt to taste. Cook for 40 minutes. You can add some herbs to this, but remember you are adding your meatballs, so use care.

Add the meatballs to the sauce, cover and simmer 20-30 minutes. I think mine went for 45 minutes or more because getting 4 kids to the dinner table is like herding cats....or worse. Am serious. Its okay though. The longer the meatballs are simmered, the more the flavor infuses the sauce.

I served this over Gluten free rice spaghetti (I use Mrs Leeper's). It was soooo good. It had a deep, rich taste that I attribute to the ground buffalo and red wine. I will make this recipe as my go to meatball in spaghetti sauce dish for sure. It was that yummy.

Ahi!!

I love Ahi tuna. So healthy and yummy. I know it is a bit pricey, but it is so worth it.

My kids even like it. The little ones call it steak and have no idea they are eating fish. Even my seafood loathing 14yo likes it.

When I grill it, I marinade it in Braggs organic and gluten free Healthy Vinaigrette. I also pour some over it while the steaks are on the grill. I like mine pink inside, but cook the rest of the families almost all the way through. I served this with steamed veggies (new potatoes and green beans with red and yellow grape tomatoes) tossed with More Bragg's Vinaigrette

I also prepare a few extra steaks so I can have grilled tuna salads during the week for lunch. Healthy and gluten free!