Tempura Mushroom with Wassabi | You've Got Meal!

If you Internet people out there have read any of our previous posts before (who am I kidding, I know you love us), you’ve probably noticed the fact that we talked a lot about the pleasure of keeping, sometimes, things simpler in the kitchen. 

Of course we love to get fancy, combining spices and ingredients, adding and taking quantities, but, in the end, we get the best satisfaction from the simple or the classic (take our home-made pasta or the duck fat fries). Same thing goes for frying veggies in tempura batter, and I remember last spring when we had the best baby zucchini ever, just fried in some tempura.

We’re not really describing a recipe here, we’re rather telling you of a great cooking experience when we combined tempura batter and some beautiful oyster mushrooms.

Making the tempura batter couldn’t be easier, you just need some fizzy water and wheat flour. I guess you do have to be determined to do it, I remember Mrs. G saying “I’m gonna own this batter” before starting. We used one egg, 200 ml ice cold sparkling water and 250 g smooth flour, but the thing you have to remember is 1. Use ice cold fizzy water, or even add an ice cube to the mixture and 2. Don’t overwork the batter.

For a bit of a kick, we added about 1 tsp. of wasabi paste in the tempura, just enough to give it a slight punch.

Separate the oyster mushrooms and dip the separately in the batter for a couple of seconds, dripping the excess of tempura. Fry the oyster mushrooms in some super hot cooking oil, until it gets a nice golden color on each side, and you’re done. Don’t keep the mushrooms for too much in the oil, the batter will burn and they will get soggy, you want to keep a firm texture.

We used the mushrooms as a great side-dish for some great duck breast, but that’s a story for another time.  

Enjoy,

Noodle Soup with River Bass | You've Got Meal!

River bass is one of my favorite fish. The meaty, lean, white, subtle fish is very versatile and can be cooked in so many ways that is too bad that I don’t get my hands on bass very often.

And considering the fact that Mrs. G’s name day was coming, I decided to turn this fabulous fish into an Asian style noodle soup. To say she loves those is an understatement, and I would really like to see what she would do in a Ramen restaurant.

Cooking this soup is super simple and it’s composed of 3 parts: the fish, the stir fry, the boiled ingredients and the broth (the base of the soup). This feels like actually building the soup from different parts, the ingredients for each being: green onions, carrots, chili, garlic, ginger, sugar, soy sauce and fish sauce  (1 teaspoon each for the last 3) for the stir fry; broccoli and instant noodles to boil; cardamom, allspice, star anise, pepper, salt for the broth.

Start of by  gutting and cleaning the fish. Next, take all the ingredients for the broth and put them in a tea satchel. Place it in salted water and boil until the liquid has been infused by the spices. Next, massage the fish with some salt and a hint of 5 spice and place it in the oven, high heat, on a rack that has a tray under. Depending on the size of the fish, it will take to cook from 8-15 minutes.

Remove the fish from the oven and set aside. The next 2 parts take literally 2 minutes. At  the same time, boil the broccoli in the broth and stir fry the vegetables in a wok, in a little peanut oil .

Time to plate your soup. First, place the vegetables from the wok, then the instant noodles (that’s the kind I used here, but you can choose a different kind- just be careful with the ones that take longer to cook – boil them in the infused broth before adding them to the soup ), soup (up to 90% of the bowl), pieces of broccoli and flaked pieces of bass. Let the noodles cook- it takes 2-3 minutes, they will absorb a fair amount of liquid so feel free to add more broth to the soup if you feel like necessary.

Now, I’m gonna go and say here that the resulting dish was a comforting, savory soup. Thing is, in order to fully demonstrate this would be to actually show you Mrs. G just munching it away in under a minute (but she hid the recording). Like I said before, she LOVES her noodle soups.

Enjoy,

Caramelized Chicken with Coconut Rice

The way I imagined this dish to look was a red/yellow color combination, but I didn’t have enough time to follow through on my initial plan to cook the chicken into red, so  I opted for a caramelized version of the meat, still in contrast with the coconut rice, that had a powerful yellow color from using turmeric. All of this combined with a fragrant green from using chives makes a lovely dish, with a gorgeous visual appeal, that also packs some great taste.

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5 Spice Beef and Chinese Fried Rice

Initially I was thinking of going for a Thai based rice, with some coconut milk and saffron, but in lack of a proper main dish to go with it, I decided I wanted to show you that Chinese takeout can be done in your own kitchen without a lot of fuss. Now, this recipe requires a lot of fuss… What? No, just kidding, it’s a super easy recipe that you can cook in a flash and impress any Chinese food lover.

For the rice (and this is where I kinda screwed up) make sure you use a type of grain doesn’t stick to one another. Use basmati or jasmine, make sure you don’t try this with Arborio or carnaroli, typical risotto rice. I have to admit that I was too lazy to actually go and buy a bag of basmati so I used the package of Arborio that I already had in my pantry. The taste is good, but it makes things difficult to actually fry the rice. For 1 cup of rice, use 2 cups of water, cook the BASMATI (final warning) rice until it is done or the liquid is absorbed, and set it aside to cool a little.

You will also need: 1 medium onion, diced, 2-3 cloves garlic, 1 thumb sized ginger, diced, some crunchy veggies (peas, beans, water chestnuts, baby carrot, baby corn, etc.), 1 or 2 eggs (depending on how much rice you have), spring onions or chives(optional), soy sauce, sugar, pepper, peanut or sesame oil. You will have to do this in batches, in a wok, so start by cooking the ginger, onion and garlic for 3 minutes in a tsp of oil, set it aside. Next, add in the crunch (you can either get them fresh or frozen, the cooking time is different for each), and stir fry those for another 4-5 minutes tops with the sugar, until they are cooked enough but still hold some serious crunch. Set aside. 

Mix the egg(s)  with 2-3 tbs of soy sauce, beat them together, and cook the eggs like an omelet or scrambled, 2-3 minutes. Set that aside as well. Now, in a tbs of oil add the rice and stir fry it for 2 minutes, then add the other already cooked ingredients and mix them together, add more soy sauce if you feel like it needs salt.

For the beef, again, super easy, just rub the meat with some sesame oil, salt and 5 spice condiment and cook in a hot searing pan for 3 minutes on each side or for how long you want, depending on what degree of rare you want. I used a piece of tenderloin that I cooked roughly 3 minutes on all sides for a medium rare outcome.

Plate the meat, sliced, the rice (with some chives or spring onions on top), and, if you care for it, some wasabi paste to kick things up.

Enjoy, 

Asian-Style Chicken Noodle Soup

For the past 24 hours we've been having tremendous amounts of rain falling, a matter very difficult especially for our ceiling, that decided that it had enough and made us a gift in the form of a couple of leaking spots. In this dire situation I did what any foodie would do: I cooked some comfort food, more precisely an Asian style chicken soup.I just love this type of cooking soup, that beautiful way in which they manage to combine great tastes. A very special combo for me is one that brings together spicy, sweet and salty in perfectly balanced dish.



For a rather rich and otherwise thick soup I used: 

2 packages of pho noodles, 2 tbs of canned bamboo slices, 2 green onions, a thumb size of ginger, 2 green chillies (use red for a nicer coloring), 2 garlic cloves, 3 tbs of black chanterelle mushrooms,2 tbs of canned mung bean sprouts, some sweet corn, soy sauce, 200 grams of boiled and finely diced chicken meat, mint leaves for garnishing. 

Start by heating up 3 tbs of vegetable oil and cooking in it the diced ginger and chilli for 2 minutes. Add the chopped onion, diced garlic, corn and  mushrooms and cook for another 2-3 minutes. Add the soy sauce and mix for another minute, after which  add the stock, bring to a simmer and cook for a couple of minutes more. Turn of the heat and add the chicken and the noodles that will cook in 3 minutes. Pour in a soup plate and garnish with mung bean sprouts and mint leaves (add some more extra soy sauce if you need salt). 



So there you have it, the perfect way to admire any leaking walls: with some comforting chicken soup. You won't think about the amount of work needed to repair the damages. That's what I call eating your problems away.

Take care,Mr. G.

Trout Noodle Stir Fry

Instant noodles, we all know them, they’ve been there for us on those hard, lazy nights or when we were pretty much broke, and that’s a thing that can’t be said about a lot of foods. So I wanted to cook  something to elevate those bad boys, and I decided to give things a mix with some trout meat and crunchy vegetables.

For the fish, I just fried 2 of them whole in 2 tbs of olive oil until the skin got a golden color, after which I let it rest before removing all the meat from the bones, resulting in 200 grams of trout flakes, that can be prepared a day before, or you can use some leftovers from other fish dishes (cod works nice here).

For the stir fry: 3 medium carrots, 4-5 cucumbers, both cut into strips with the veggie peeler, 3-4 spring onions, white part separate from the green, 50 grams bean sprouts (soy, pea, etc., visit your local supermarket for more info), garlic, diced, 1 piece of ginger, thumb size, grated, 3 packages of instant noodles (only use the pasta, throw away those other things in there). 

Get your wok (or other similar pan) nice and hot, pour in some peanut oil, add the carrots, beans and the white part of the onion, mix for 2 minutes, add the cucumbers, garlic and ginger, cook for another minute, then add the green part of the onions (those also cut in to strips) and a mix of grinded coriander, fennel seeds and pepper. Mix this whole thing, add the flaked fish, pour in 2 tbs of soy sauce and 1 tsp of fish sauce. After stirring this combo throw in the noodles (in this case, the packages suggested a 3 minute cooking time, so I just boiled them for 2 and cooked them in the pan for another minute), and give it a strong stir, to make sure the soy sauce covers everything (add more soy sauce  if you feel like the dish needs more salt).

Enjoy!
Mr. G.

Chicken Noodles Stir Fry - Simple Chinese Recipe

Today we will share with you what has become a tradition in our home. Honestly, if you make sure you always have the ingredients on hand, it is easier and quicker than take out being delivered to you.

Not to mention is has the take-out smell and flavor, but you can control what you put in it.

Rice or bean thread noodles  (the thin type)
300 g chicken breast
1 carrot
1 bell pepper
1 medium onion
5 tbs soy sauce
1 tbs fish sauce
2 tbs brown sugar

1 tsp 5 spices condiment

Cut the vegetables in long slices or however you prefer them. You can cut the chicken in either fine, thin, long strips, or in small cubes, either way make sure you cut it pretty small so it will cook fast.

In a wok, heat up some oil (sesame, peanut, or just vegetable, don't bother with olive oil), about 2 tbs, then stir fry the vegetables for around 3 minutes. After that, add the meat with the sugar and 5 spice, and brown the chicken for about another 3-4 minutes. Make sure you don't overcook the veggies, they have to be nice and crunchy (if i were Italian i would say al dente, so whatever). Add the fish and soy sauce, mix it up all together.

Now for the noodles: you need about 60-90 seconds to cook them (depending on the type and thickness of the pasta, we used and loved rice or bean thread), and about the same amount of time with the vegetables and meat combo. When you put the noodles in the wok, add another tbs of soy sauce (or don't, it's all about taste). Mix it all together, grab your chopsticks, and enjoy.  

Optional: if you wanna make things hot in this motha-dish, add a nice hot smoky red chilli with the vegetables.