Taiwanese Noodles with Meat Sauce

I had something like this the other day at a restaurant and it totally made me want to make this. It's pretty nice in the hot weather because the cucumber is so refreshing.

Apparently this is something that most Taiwanese families have in their arsenal and it's different for every family. This is how I made mine and I like it.

Don't worry if the meat sauce seems salty; it's supposed to be that way so it doesn't taste bland against the noodles and cucumbers. The cucumbers are truly awesome (as you can tell from the abundance of cucumber we like to put in our bowls).


Taiwanese Noodles with Meat Sauce
(serves 6)

Ingredients: 

• 6 packs udon/don don noodles/ramen
• 1lb lean ground pork
• 1 small onion, finely diced
• 1/4 cup sweet thick soy sauce
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 1 tsp Chinese five spice
• 2 Tbsp cornstarch
• Water
• 1 English cucumber, julienne

Directions:

1. Prepare noodles as directed on the package. 
2. Heat a sauté pan on medium high heat. Brown pork. 
3. Stir in onion, both soy sauces and five spice. Mix well. 
4. Add enough water to just cover the meat. Bring to a gentle boil. 
5. Meanwhile, mix cornstarch with about 1/4 cup of cold water into a slurry in a small bowl. Add to meat mixture and turn off the heat. 
6. Divide noodles into 6 bowls. Top with meat sauce and garnish with cucumber. 
7. Serve immediately. 

Wonton Noodle Soup

A childhood classic for me is mom's wonton noodle soup. For a long time I couldn't figure out how she made the soup taste so good. It's really very simple, but I just put too much stuff in it. Then one day I got lazy and didn't put all that extra seasonings and then it tasted like the one mom makes. More salty though, since Hubby needs his salt. He's a funny one. His body craves salt, and he'll get sick if he doesn't get enough. Very cool.


Wonton Noodle Soup
(serves 2)

Ingredients:

• 2 bundles of dry wonton noodles (or dry thin shrimp egg noodles)
• 16 frozen or fresh wontons
• 1 green onion stalk, diced
• 1/4 tsp chicken bouillon
• 2 tsps Maggi seasoning
• Water
• Salt, to taste
• Splash of soy sauce 

Directions:

1. In a large pot, bring about 2 inches of water to boil. Cook wonton noodles until al dente. Transfer to two deep soup noodle bowls. Add in the frozen wontons and stir for about half a minute to remove the flour. Drain wontons and rinse out the pot.
2. Add about 5 cups of water back into the rinsed pot. Bring to a boil. Add season water with a pinch of salt and chicken bouillon. Once water has boiled, add wontons back into the pot and cook until wontons are cooked through (they'll float to the top). Add Maggi seasoning and taste soup. Add more salt if needed.
3. Turn off heat, add a splash of soy sauce and stir in green onions. Ladle 8 wontons and soup per bowl over noodles.
4. Serve hot.

Easy Lo Mein

So it has occurred to me that I've never posted a Lo Mein recipe here. WTF?!!??? It's one of those things that I like to make as a quick snack. Mind you, it almost always turns into a meal just by adding some veg and some leftover (roasted) meat.

My mom always made it super simple for us for breakfast. Just cooked hot oil with soy sauce. Believe me, it's worth it to heat up the oil. I remember sometimes she didn't have time to heat up the oil and it just never tasted the same. :(

But, of course, Hubby likes it with spice. Meh. I'll eat it whichever way. I love it all!


Easy Lo Mein
(serves 2)

Ingredients:

• 2 bundles dry thin shrimp egg noodles
• 3 Tbsps soy sauce
• 1 tsp honey
• 1 tsp canola oil
• 1/2 tsp sesame oil
• 1 red chili pepper, diced (optional)
• 1 green onion stalk, finely diced (optional)

Directions:

1. In a small pot, bring water to a boil. Add in the bundles of noodles. Cook for 5-7 minutes, or until al dente, using chopsticks or tongs to separate noodles from their bundled form.
2. Meanwhile, mix remaining ingredients in a microwaveable bowl. Cover with saran wrap and cook on high for 20 seconds. Carefully uncover the bowl.
3. Using tongs or chopsticks, transfer noodles into the bowl of sauce and mix. Some of the residual noodles water will help make the noodles saucier.

If you don't want to use the microwave, just mix all the ingredients, except for the noodles and oils. Heat up the oils in a wok or pot and then pour it over the sauce mixture and then mix in the noodles.

Sichuan Udon Soup Bowl

Super spicy! But that's how K and Hubby likes it. It's remarkable how spicy K likes his stuff. Just like daddy, I guess?

This is super easy and super simple. Perfect to warm you up on a cold night. K loves the fish tofu (it's really just fish paste shaped into tofu and deep fried). He wouldn't eat anything else other than that. That's okay I suppose. At least he's getting SOME protein? =\

It really doesn't matter if you're throwing in frozen or fresh fish tofu and meatballs. As long as they're separated into their own pieces, it's all good. The most important thing is to make sure the soup is super hot if you're having an egg with it. Mind you, if you're scared of eating potentially not fully cooked eggs, just fry it or leave it out all together.


Sichuan Udon Soup Bowl
(serves 4)

Ingredients:

• 1 2.5oz packet of Sichuan Hot & Spicy Hot Pot soup base
• 8 cups water
• 1 inch knob of ginger
• 1 large carrot, chopped
• 2 small packages of enoki mushrooms, trimmed and washed
• 1 lb fish tofu
• 1 lb beef/pork & mushroom/pork meatballs (any Taiwanese or Vietnamese kind will do)
• 4 packages/blocks of Udon noodles
• 2-3 stalks of green onion, cut into 2 inch slivers
• 4 eggs, at room temperature (optional)
• Cilantro, stalks and leaves separated

Directions:

1. Squeeze out the soup base paste into a large Dutch oven or pot. Add water and bring to a boil.
2. When water boils, add ginger, carrot, cilantro stalks, fish tofu and meatballs. Bring to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes, or until they float to the top, if using frozen. Transfer into a large (mixing) bowl or plate.
3. Add in enoki mushrooms and cook for about 3 minutes, or until tender. Transfer to another bowl or plate.
4. Add in noodles and cook until al dente. Split noodles into 4 big bowls. Transfer the meatballs and fish tofu back into the soup to warm up. Leave the soup to boil while you're arranging the bowls.
5. Arrange green onion slivers, enoki mushroom, fish tofu and meatballs on top of the noodles, leaving a small space in the middle for the egg, if using. Crack an egg in the middle and quickly ladle hot soup over top. Garnish with cilantro leaves.
6. Serve hot.

Emergency Zaru Soba

Okay. If you were to actually make the proper version of zaru soba, it'd be more difficult (by like a hair). But I didn't have any dashi and I used the last of my mirin, so this is my "emergency" zaru soba sauce that's not from a bottle. It tastes way better when you have dashi stock instead of water, but meh. I work with what I got. :)


Emergency Zaru Soba
(serves 2)

Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup soy sauce
• 1/4 cup sugar
• Water
• 1 cup ice cubes
• 1 green onion, diced
• Wasabi
• Sesame seeds (optional)
• 2 bundles (200g) buckwheat noodles

Directions:

1. In a medium pot, bring salted water to a boil. Cook noodles until al dente. When done, strain and rinse noodles under cold water a few times until noodles have cooled. Place in a bowl. Set aside.
2. In a small pot, dissolve sugar in soy sauce over medium heat. Take it off the heat and add ice cubes to cool sauce.
3. Add water to the sauce, if needed, to dilute. Without adding water, it'll still be quite strong.
4. Divide sauce into two smaller bowls. Whisk in wasabi, green onions and sesame seeds (optional).
5. Dip noodles into sauce and slurp! It's nice served with a deep fried pork chop or chicken strips.

If you're actually making zaru soba sauce properly, add less sugar and equal amounts of mirin to sugar. Also, add dashi stock to the soy sauce to "dilute" it. Careful not to dilute too much or when you add ice cubes, it'll be super bland. Alternatively, just let it cool to room temperature before chilling in the fridge if you have the time. :)

Japchae

I love Japchae! Hubby doesn't, so I almost never get to eat it at Korean restaurants unless we go with other people and they want to eat it too. The same goes for the seafood pancake. But that's another discussion all together.

It's simple enough to make, but I have no clue why it costs so bloody much when we have it in restaurants. It's so crazy cheap to make! I guess the hardest part is to find the noodles, but you should be able to find them in most Asian supermarkets. I always just get mine from T&T, along with all the other ingredients.

I brought this in for a potluck at work. It was pretty well received. Usually there's beef in there, but I wanted to make it vegetarian for non-meat eaters. Of course you can put any meat in there, even firm tofu if you wanted. There's no better compliment to a cook than for people to ask for the recipe and/or go back for seconds. :)

I find it to be the easiest when you use your hands to mix everything in a big bowl, so gloves are definitely recommended.


Japchae
(serves 6-8)

Ingredients:

• 1 500g package of potato starch vermicelli noodles (dang myun)
• 1 big bunch spinach, washed & cut into 2-3 inch pieces
• 1 medium carrot, julienned
• 1 medium onion, thinly sliced
• 1 bunch green onion, cut into 1 1/2 inch pieces
• 5-7 rehydrated shitake mushrooms with stalks removed, sliced
• 1 cup white/brown mushrooms, sliced
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/3 cup sesame oil, divided
• 1/3 cup soy sauce, divided
• 1 Tbsp sugar
• Sesame seeds (optional)

Directions:

1. Bring a large pot of salted water to boil. Blanch spinach and use tongs to transfer spinach to a large mixing bowl.
2. Using the same cooking water, cook noodles for 5 minutes or so until al dente. Rinse under cold water 3-4 times until all the starch has been removed. Add to the large mixing bowl and mix with 3 tablespoons each of soy sauce and sesame oil until well-coated. Set aside.
3. In a large pan, stirfry onions, carrots and mushrooms in 1 tablespoon of sesame oil on medium heat until tender crisp. Stir in the garlic. Season with 1 tablespoon of soy sauce and sugar. Transfer to the large bowl and add remaining soy sauce and sesame oil.
4. Put foodsafe gloves on and start mixing until veggies and noodles are well combined. Add more sesame oil if it's too sticky and season with more soy sauce, if necessary.
5.  (Optional) garnish with a sprinkle of sesame seeds and serve as a full meal or as a side dish.

Dried shitake mushrooms are easy to rehydrate. Just put them in some lukewarm water for a couple of hours, and you're good to go. If you're running low on time, soak them in hot boiling water for 30-60 minutes until they don't feel hard anymore. It tastes better if you have the time to soak them in lukewarm water as opposed to the hot water though. The stalks are always woody so just chopped them off and throw them in the trash.

If you're using tofu or meat, just stirfry them first in a little sesame oil, season with a pinch of sugar and a dash of soy sauce and set it aside before stirfrying the veggies in the same pan. It'll give your veggies extra meaty flavour if using the same pan without washing or wiping it down first. :D

Pho Noodles with Beef Balls, Carrots & Beef Ribs

There are SO many pho places around here. I LOVE pho. It's perfect for gloom and doom days and it's not that expensive. It's actually pretty cheap, which is why I normally have never attempted to bother making this. What's the point if it's not going to save me all that much money? I guess it'd matter if I cared what goes into my body, but sometimes I just want yummy food.

Sis' Hubby (-to-be) has a good recipe. I'm sure it doesn't include beef back ribs, but sometimes you gotta use what you got, right? And I had beef back ribs. Lol. It's actually his mom's recipe. Kinda. It's one of those recipes where they give you no measurements and you just add more here and there as you go along. >_>

Please note that the cooking time for noodles is entirely dependent on the thickness of the noodles. You can use any rice noodles, but try to look for actual Vietnamese kinds used for Pho. Otherwise they can soak up a lot of the soup while you're eating. I suppose that isn't so bad. But it can get soggy sometimes!


Pho Noodles with Beef Balls, Carrots & Beef Ribs
(serves 4-6)

Ingredients:

• 3 lbs beef bones/back ribs/oxtail
• 3 star anise
• 3 inch knob of ginger, sliced
• 2 large onions, thinly sliced and divided
• 3 medium carrots, chopped
• 2 Tbsps Por Kwan Beef Flavour Paste
• 10+ cups water
• 1 package beef balls
• 1 cup cilantro, chopped
• 4 green onions, diced
• 1 Tbsp canola oil
• 2 packages of Rice Stick/Vermicelli noodles
• Hoisin sauce (optional)
• Fish sauce (optional)
• Sriracha (optional)

Directions:

1. In a dutch oven, heat oil on medium high heat. Sauté star anise, ginger and 1 1/4 onion slices until golden. Stir in beef flavour paste.
2. Add beef ribs/bones/oxtail, carrots and 10 cups of water. Bring to a boil. Cover and lower heat to simmer for 3-4 hours, or until beef ribs are tender. Add beef balls to cook 15-20 minutes before serving.
3. While beef balls are cooking, boil water in a large pot. Cook noodles until al dente. Drain and separate into large serving bowls. Divide remaining sliced onions, green onions and cilantro into bowls.
4. Ladle soup with beef balls, carrots and ribs over bowl of noodles. Enjoy steaming hot. Season with hoisin sauce, fish sauce and/or Sriracha, if desired.

Update: I just wanted to add a nicer picture because I made it again the other night. This time I used the Instant Pot from beginning to end and it wasn't as flavourful. Boo.