Miso Ramen

It’s cold!  I get it, I’m not from Fargo, North Dakota (ya know?) and a daily temperature range of 32-42 isn’t terrible… but the barometer of a San Diego native is Rainbows (warm) or no Rainbows (frickin’ freezing).

So how does one keep warm when 42 degrees feels like minus 60?  Eat some soup!  I’m definitely preferential to soup in the winter, and rarely eat it outside of the season… but when winter is coming (yes, I am using a GOT referent in a cooking blog), I eagerly anticipate months filled with soups on soups on soups.

One of my favorite soups is miso ramen.  It is delicious, super easy to make, and cheap!  I like both red and white misos, but I find that white misos are easier to find.  You can put an array of additions to your bowl of awesome, but below you will see a picture of everything I like.  I recommend going to an asian market, although many of these items can be found at Whole Foods.  For those that live in Washington DC, there is a great Asian market on 17th and U that I go to.  It has some awesome stuff!  If you want some homemade ramen noodles, check out the Japanese pop-up at Union Market.

Ingredients (per bowl)

2 cups water
2 tbsp fresh white miso
1 tbsp dashi
1 packet of noodles (you can use soba noodles or thinner pho like noodles)
1 egg
1 cup maitake mushrooms
2 tbsp minced fresh garlic
1/2-1 tbsp chili and dried ginger in chili oil
1/2 cup green onions
1/2 cup firm tofu
1/4 cup tried seaweed

You will need two medium pots and a saute pan. 

Preparation

1) Bring one medium pot filled 3/4 of the way with water to a boil.  This will be used for the soft-boiled eggs, noodles and dried seaweed.

2) In the other pot, add as much water as you want broth (typically 203 cups a serving).  Then add the appropriate amount of miso (you can always add more).  It is important you add your miso through a medal strainer.  There are solid particles that you will not want in your broth, and this will prevent them from getting in there.  Add the dashi and chili/ginger in chili oil.  You can add more or less of ingredients based of what taste you prefer.  

3) Once the first pot of water comes to a boil, reduce to an intense simmer and gently place in eggs.  Keep in water for 6 minutes, and remove with slotted spoon and place in ice bath (this prevents the egg from cooking more).

4) Sautee mushrooms and ginger in a hot pan with a little oil.  Cook for 3-5 minutes, and empty pan into miso broth.  Add tofu as well.

5) Once the eggs are done, bring the water back to a boil and add noodles.  Cook until they rise to the top, and taste for flavor.  If they are done, remove with tongs (do not pour out water).  Place the noodles in serving dishes.

6) Place the dried seaweed in boiling water, and re-hydrate seaweed.  It is important you re-hydrate in water and not in miso broth.  The seaweed is dried out with salt, and putting it directly into the miso broth will make the soup far too salty.  Once the seaweed is re-hydrated (it will look like the seaweed in your miso soup at Japanese restaurants), strain water and rinse with medal strainer, and add to soup.

7) Pour soup into serving dishes over noodles.  Add green onions, halved soft-boiled eggs, nori, and whatever else you want to add that is lying around (I had some leftover pork belly).

8) Enjoy!

Thanksgiving Leftovers – Take 3

For those that know me and my eating habits, you should know of my hulk like sweet tooth.  Yes, I am well aware that this is easily my most unhealthy blog post, and yes, I realize how many calories are in this.  But do you realize how f***** delicious this is?

To give a small background… my good friend Julian, who shares a similar sweet tooth to mine, used to like to walk by Good Stuff Eatery on Capitol Hill and poke his head in “Let’s just see what the seasonal shake is today,” he would say.  I am pretty sure he had already googled it or saw it on twitter, but nonetheless, I obliged and would poke my head in.  While I have never seen it or tried it, I will never forget when he told me:

“Oh Man!  Spence you gotta try the November milkshake right around Thanksgiving… They take a vanilla shake and drop an entire slice of pumpkin pie into the blender!!  An entire piece Spence!”

I had to pick up my jaw off the ground.  It made so much sense, slurping small bits of crust through your straw filled with a vanilla-pumpkin blended shake.  I had to try.

 

Ingredients

1 slice of pumpkin pie
4-6 oz whole milk
2-3 scoops vanilla ice cream
Fresh Nutmeg

Preparation 

1) Combine all ingredients except for nutmeg in blender.

2) Blend until you find the right consistancy.  You may need to add more ice cream to thicken, or more milk to liquidize.

3) Grade fresh nutmeg on top of poured glass, it does not take much.

4) Enjoy

There is a reason I used to fit in the suit pictured above.  I love milkshakes!  Enjoy a taste, but don’t have too much!

Thanksgiving Leftovers – Take 2 – Turkey Bahn-Mi

It is Saturday, you have mashed potatoes coming out of your ears and sweet potatoes coming out of your nose.  When you sneeze the reminiscence of cranberry sauce is on your hand, and if you have to eat more stuffing you might throw up.  But there are still plenty of leftovers and you have no idea what to do with them, and you are sick and tired of eating the same leftover sandwich I posted early (I know, you couldn’t resist yourself).

Let me help.

I recently became bahn mi’s biggest fan.  I can’t get enough of it.  I have eaten it so much, I decided it is time to start making my own, and I figured a turkey bahn mi wouldn’t be terrible.  There are so many powerful flavors in bahn mi, from the salty and sweet pickled carrots and diakon, to the cilantro, and finally the creamy and spicy sriracha mayo, you wouldn’t have the slightest idea you were eating Thanksgiving leftovers!

Ingredients (per/ sandwich)

Leftover turkey meat
1 crispy baguette
2 long cucumber slices
3 jalapeno slices
1/2 cup pickled carrots and daikon
(for the pickling brine, I used 1 cup sugar to about 1.5 cups rice vinegar… I also put in a little ginger and lemongrass)
1/4-1/2 cup cilantro
A generous amount of sriracha mayo (mix to your spiciness liking)

Preparation

1) Julienne diakon and carrots, and place in simmering brine (1 cup sugar, 1.5 cups rice vinegar).  Cook for about 10-20 minutes, or until vegetables are tender.

2) Combing sriracha and mayonnaise until thoroughly mixed to desired spice.

3) Cut jalapeno and cucumber very thin (I used a mandolin).

4) Toast the baguette, and combine all the ingredients.

5) Grab a napkin and enjoy!!

Thanksgiving Leftovers – Take 1

I have never met someone who has said “Nah, I don’t like Thanksgiving leftovers.”

I do not want to meet someone that says something of the sort.

Thanksgiving leftovers are frickin’ delicious.  Nothing like letting the flavors really come out over night, just to enhance expectations of your Thanksgiving experience.  For me, I am all about packing everything into one bite for my leftovers.  By combining all of the flavors into one chomp, you are reminded of everything you loved from the day before.

Ingredients

1 slice of turkey roulade (or just get a bunch of turkey)
1/2 cup of stuffing
1/2 cup of mashed potatoes
1/4 cup port cranberry sauce
1 tbsp harissa spread
1 leftover Pillsbury biscuit

Preparation

1) Cut one Pillsbury biscuit in half, and toast in a pan over medium heat with a little butter.

2) In microwave safe containers, bring turkey, stuffing and mashed potatoes to desired temperature.

3) Once the biscuit is golden brown, put on harissa, cranberry sauce, and the heated leftovers.

4) Cut in half and enjoy!  It should be delicious!

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is easily one of my favorite holidays.  The food is hearty and everyone seems to be in a great mood… if not, all it takes is some dark beer, wine, and/or a baileys with coffee. Unfortunately for me, getting home for Thanksgiving is expensive and a hassle.  So what do you do when you miss your family and can’t get home for the holiday?  Bring the flavors of your home to you.

I am not going to go into much detail on Thanksgiving because, to be frank, I am more interested in sharing with you my leftover recipes.  Nonetheless, I will walk through my time leading up to Thanksgiving Thursday.

On Tuesday, I picked up the bird.  Lucky for me, I was able to order a pasture raised, antibiotic-free, organic never frozen turkey through Ripple… the bird’s name was probably Colin.  I decided this year I would try out a turkey-roulade recipe I saw on chefsteps.com (Click here for more).  So after my Tuesday shift at The Rip, I spent some time in the kitchen taking the legs off, de-boning them, and removing the tendons.  After I seasoned the turkey legs, or what was once the legs, throw a little fresh sage in there and roll it up in plastic wrap (see the link above for more visualization and explanation).

On Wednesday, I prepared my bring to allow enough time for it to return to room temperature.  In my brine I had some lemon, honey, peppercorn, sage, rosemary, thyme and a few bay leaves.  Once I set that aside to cool, I started preparing my stuffing and cranberry sauces.  For the stuffing, I sauteed in butter a lot of celery, mushrooms, and white onions with fresh herbs (sage, thyme, and rosemary that I put through a piston and mortar).  Separately I toast broken up pieces of english muffin, roast and shell chestnuts, and cook off sausage.  It is important you under cook everything because it will cook later on as you roast your turkey (if  you cook your stuffing too much beforehand, everything will be mushy).  It is also important you store the ingredients separately so nothing gets too soggy.  Once the stuffing preparation was complete, I made a port cranberry sauce and a cranberry chutney.  For the sauce, I took one bag of fresh cranberries and boiled it down with sugar, a little salt, port wine, and some fall spices (cinnamon and cloves).  For the chutney, I took one bag of fresh cranberries, the juice of an orange, the zest of half an orange, one pear with the skin off, and a little sugar, and pulsed it all in a food blender until I found the desired consistency.  On top for garnish I sprinkled candied ginger and candied orange rinds.

As for Thursday, things pretty much fell into place.  I woke up at around 8 A.M. to put the Turkey into the brine.  Then I made the sweet potato dish, where I baked sweet potatoes, removed the skins, and mixed with a little seasoning and maple syrup, and topped with toasted pecans.  Then I prepared the stuffing my combining all the ingredients, and stuffing the bird.  The remaining stuffing I put into tinfoil with turkey bones or the turkey neck, and roasted individually.  Once the bird was in the oven at 350 and the clock was ticking for 2.5-3 hours, I prepared the garlicky mashed potatoes with plenty of butter and a little cream.  I am lucky to have a heating drawer, so I put my mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes in here to avoid cramping up the oven.

As the time drew closer to take the turkey out of the oven, I put a bunch of Pillsbury biscuits on baking trays and prepared them for the oven.  I also prepared a nice fall salad with walnuts, pears, beets and blue cheese with a simple balsamic vinaigrette.

Once you remove the bird, insert biscuitss that need to heat for 15-2- minutes.  Once the biscuits were done, I put in the roulade at 475 until the skin on the outside was crunchy.  I let that sit for about 5 minutes, then I cut into everything and served.