Bowl of Quick Chicken Noodle Soup at 2 AM

Alright, I think work life is somewhat back to normal phase and hopefully now I can post more regularly and able to check out everybody else' blogs as often like I used to. ;)

I don't think most of us inspects photos very closely, do we? I mean...other people's photos. Unless it happens to be a passion - photography or such. That said, what do I know?! Photography is not exactly a passion of mine. I may even consider it less interesting than gardening - and everybody knows how I feel about gardening! It hates me. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy beautiful photography, but not with me fiddling on the lens and buttons.

However, out of habit, I pay lots of attention on images (photos, drawings, art, etc). I am that annoying friend you have who will point to your wall arrangement and says 'That one frame there..I think it's 1/4" crooked" Keyword: FRIEND. I will never be that rude with new people - I may just pretend looking and admiring and when you are not looking, I'd nudge it a bit just for the sake of leveling it. ;) Kind of a person who installs toilet by looking at the diagrams, and not at written instructions.

Visual and all, this photo of noodle bowl. I took it at 2 am this past Thursday in my kitchen. It does not look very bad, I guess. And really, if you make some food at 2 am, you ought to be pretty desperate for food and photo taking shouldn't even an option, no? But the camera just sits there on the shelf so..might as well. Also, I am intrigued to see how it'd turns out - since natural light is not going to stay much longer anymore. Hmm...the result, I dunno. Maybe this is the time for me to start finding better spot somewhere else!! Can't count on natural light all the time, right?

Now the food..this is kinda food if I were to live in Indonesia, I can get it from roadside vendors at 2 am or 4 am. But since that is not the case, my kitchen it is then. It's comforting dish, homey and quick to whip up. Not as quick as PBJ, but I need to be away from my desk for a while and at 2 am..where am I gonna go to take a break? I guess, the right question is, where in the city that I can go in pajamas?

What:
- rice noodles, cook as instructed in the package, drained and toss in dash of oil
- 1 cup cooked chicken, shredded to chunks (I usually have some cooked chicken in fridge; for exactly this type of quick dish)
- 1 shallots, finely chopped
- 1 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- 1/2" ginger, finely chopped
- 1/2 tbsp soy sauce
- 1/2 tbsp sweet soy sauce
- pepper
- handful of bean sprouts, rinsed
- few sprigs of cilantro
- 2 cup of chicken broth (Into soup pot, I dropped in half a tray of ice cubes frozen broth I made not too long ago, add some water, dash of salt and pepper - let it comes to boil)

How:
- Toss in chicken, garlic, shallots and ginger to pan. Fry for few minutes.
- Add in both soy sauce (salty and sweet). Dash of pepper.
- This is the 'street fare' version of assembling such bowl:
- Add small dash of sweet, salty soy sauce and sesame oil to the bottom of serving bowl.
- On top of that, put noodles (either let it that way for now, or toss noodles to soy sauce, I like to leave it alone just as is)
- Top with shredded chicken mixture and tons of bean sprouts.
- Laddle boiling hot soup on top. Garnish with cilantro or green onions or...ohhh...fried shallots!
- Add some hot sauce just before eating.

Happy Thanksgiving to fellow Canadian bloggers! Can't wait to catch up with blogs to see what's on the table.

Simple Easy Fried Noodles

I can eat noodles just as often as rice. That's what we grow up accustomed to in Indonesia. All kind of noodles, fried, soup, gravy-ish. Fancy with all the trimmings or very plain: noodles, with garlic, beansprouts and eggs, soy sauce of course. For the latter, if it's being whipped up with very well-made noodles - oooh..it tastes just heavenly!!!

That said, my usual is full to the brim trimmings. Shrimp, fishball, veggies, eggs, chicken, et cetera!! Mhhmhh. At first, Vik just did not get this deep love I have for noodles. Even after gentle (and later, grumpy) explanation of that's just what 'we' eat!! He always thought noodle is either those ramen type or Pad Thai!! Just imagine my exasperation. I knew he'd changed his perception as we traveled through S.E.Asia. He was in awe to see noodles in various thickness, form, taste and the 1001 ways of it being cooked. I said I told you so in every chance I got. ;)

Anyhoo, weather has been gloomy - I sort of love gloomy rainy weather. It's just perfect for sitting on balcony, reading and falling asleep weather, ya know? Vik, on the other hand, detests this weather. He prefers either hot days, or just cold snowy days. Nothing in between. What perfect food to cure his moody day? A plate of fried noodles!!! Hot out from wok, sitting on the balcony. With a cup of jasmine tea.

What:
- 250 gr noodles
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 3 tbsp chillies in oil
- 3 handful of beansprouts (we love beansprouts)
- 1 cup of green leaf vegetables, chopped coarsely (I use romaine lettuce)
- 6 beef meatballs, cut thick
- 1/4 cup boneless chicken (or shrimp)
- 3-4 tbsp soy sauce
- 2 tbsp sweet soy sauce
- 1 egg
- cilantro, chopped (optional)

How:
- Heat oil in pan. Toss in garlic. Stir fry.
- Toss in chilies. Toss in chicken. Fry.
- Add meatballs. Stir. Add in eggs. Let it set for a while before scrambling it.
- Toss in lettuce. Stir well with everything.
- Turn the heat up to high. Toss in noodles. Pour both salty and sweet soy sauce. Stir quickly but try to do it lightly. Overworking the noodles can break them apart. Wok tossing-flicking skill is very useful in dishes like this.
- Toss in beansprouts. Stir and mix thoroughly, just for a minute or so. Turn off the heat.
- Stir in fresh cilantro.

Chicken and Shrimp Pad Thai

I love noodles dishes. I guess being Asian, it's hard not to love noodles. Our bread and butter, yes? At first, Vik was not much into noodles - once in a while, but not at all close to my sudden craving for wok-fried noodles. Until he visited Asia that is - Medan is the highlight, he literally could eat noodles for every meals. Yeap, the abundant varieties and they are just delicious ! Yum!.

Though I can make any noodles as often as I wish, it's just not the same. Largely, it is due to the wok and gas burner, or even better, coal type of stove (the name escapes me). My grandpa was super awesome when it comes to these type of wok frying: open fire, flames shooting up from the side of wok. Oh my! The beauty of having outdoor/ wet kitchen is Asia.

I've been to Thailand couple times but couldn't remember seeing Pad Thai - hawker style. Maybe I was too young, all I remembered was the fun festive night market. Upon conversation with this one gal, her description of hawker style Pad Thai in Thailand reminds me of wok fried noodles back in Medan. It should be on drier side - nothing too oily or gravy-iesh.

Most of the ingredients for making Pad Thai are staple in my kitchen - fish sauce, tamarind, rice stick noodles, sprouts. Except for tofu. Vik is not big fans of tofu - unless I 'hide' it somewhere in the dish. I LOVE TOFU. So, coming home from work, I grabbed a pack of extra firm tofu from store.

There are couple techniques on how to go about frying/cooking up Pad Thai. The dump and fry all of them sorta way - typical hawker style, I think. They don't have the time to do things in batches, do they. Or, cooking it in batches - fry up tofu, prepare scrambled eggs first.

I learn that, eggs part is always tricky when one has smaller work. Adding eggs at the end (which that's how it should be done), while using smaller wok, risking the noodle getting covered/ sticky goey with eggs mixture. Cause there is not enough working space in wok to work up/scramble the eggs before mixing it with noodles. Some people may like slightly egg-coated noodles, but .... hm....

So, might as well prepare the eggs part first (if using smaller work), and set it aside and add it at the end of cooking process. My wok is about 15" and at that, I am just fixing it up for two people, so I just dump and fry. :)

What:
- 250 gram rice stick noodles (soak or slightly cook according to package, it should be slightly hard and not thoroughly cooked) - I also use thinner version of rice stick, instead of the flat thicker version served in most places. Just because that's all I have in the pantry.
- tofu, cut to squares
- handful of shrimps, shelled and deveined
- 1/2 chicken breast, slice
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 shallots, minced
- 1/4 cup fish sauce
- 3 tbsp tamarind juice (either from canned juice or soak tamarind in hot water)
- 1 tbsp lime juice
- 4 tbsp palm sugar
- 2 tbsp sambal ulek (or sriracha hot sauce, optional)
- 2 tbsp crushed red pepper flakes (optional - we love ours very spicy hot, so adjust to taste)
- 2 stalk green onions (or chives) chopped to 1 inch lengths.
- 1-2 handful of fresh bean sprouts
- cupful of broccolis (optional, I just happen to have 1 small crown of it in fridge) chopped up to its florets
- crushed peanuts

How:
- Mix together fish sauce, tamarind juice, lime juice, palm sugar, sambal ulek together. Set aside.
- Heat 2 tbsp of oil in the wok. Make sure it's hot before tossing in cut up tofu. Fry until golden. Push to the side of wok. Toss in shallots, garlic and crushed red pepper. Stir.
- Add chicken. When chicken is half cooked, splash some water to wok and add in noodles. Stir.
- Add in the liquid mixture to wok. Stir and mix thoroughly.
- Toss in broccolis and green onions. Stir.
- Push noodles to the side of wok and add shrimps to center of of wok.
- When shrimps are almost cooked, mix noodles to shrimp. Toss together.
- Last, make a well (or push noodles to the side) and add whipped up eggs to center of wok. Let it set for a while, then scramble it. It is matter of preference here, I like the eggs on chunkier side, so I let it set first before 'separating' it out. For smaller 'crumblier' egg bits, scramble it right away.
- Serve with crushed peanuts on top (and some coriander - I don't have any of them at the moment)

Fried Noodle (Mie Goreng)

What:
- 350 gr noodles (I use fresh kind from Asian grocery store. If you buy those dry kind ones, read the package on how to boil/cook it - some only need soaking in boiling water, some require cooking it in boiling water)
- 3 red chilies
- 3 medium size shallots
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 teaspoon coriander (ketumbar)
- 1/2 block of maggi chicken bullion (only if you have it, it's okay if you don't), mix with tiny bit of warm water.
- 1/2 onions, sliced
- 1 medium size tomatoes, sliced.
- carrots
- bell peppers
- cabbage
- chives (or green onions, whichever you prefer), cut to 4 cm length.
- bok choy
- shrimp, deveined and shelled.
- cooked chicken
- soy sauce
- sweet soy sauce

The vegetables and meat can be adjusted according to taste, or what it's in the fridge. :)

How:
- Grind shallots, garlic, coriander, maggi block, and chilies to paste. This is my preference. But to it's completely fine just to chop them up very finely and mix it with coriander and maggi block.
- Add oil to wok, when it is hot, toss spice paste to it. Fry until fragrance.
- Add onions and tomatoes. Stir until it's soft. Then goes into it, carrots, bellpepper, cabbaga. Stir for couple minutes.
- Add noodles. Stir. Add both kind of soy sauce, to taste. Stir.
- Add shrimp and chicken. Mix them thoroughly.
- Last, add chives and bok choy.

Note:
- If you have fried shallots, sprinkle some of them on top of it. Yum! Or, shredded omelette.