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| Where to start? |
I originally had planned to try out this idea in January, but a surfeit of peaches meant I had to put it on the back burner.
Thankfully, February was still on the warm side as this was very much a summer dish.
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| A hint of the end result |
It was inspired by a recipe for Cold Noodles in the Feast Magazine which primarily consisted of noodles, chicken, spring onion and a dipping sauce. I felt that may be a little light on for flavour so I had a poke through a couple of amazing Japanese cookbooks to come up with a few more additions for the cold noodles.
One of the things I really liked about this dish was the flexibility to tailor it to your own tastes. The dish is served as individual bowls of cold noodles and dipping sauce, then a whole pile of toppings to share. The toppings that I included were:
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| Noodles! |
- Shredded poached chicken
- Soy simmered dry shitake mushrooms (Washoku, Elizabeth Andoh)
- Wakame
- Blanched vegtables
- Gingery Enoki Mushrooms with carrots (Kansha, Elizabeth Andoh)
I poached the chicken in a dashi stock with some ginger and sesame oil. Dashi stock is a Japanese stock that forms the basis for a lot of Japanese food and is really easy to make.
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| Making dashi |
Simply take a piece of dried Kombu (a type of seaweed), place it in cold water and put on a low simmer. When small bubbles appear on the Kombu, remove it and add shaved bonito flakes (dried fish). Turn off heat and leave for five minutes or until the bonito has sunk to the bottom and you're done. Strain and refrigerate for further use. It will keep up to 3 days in the refrigerator.
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| Glorious Mushrooms! |
I had actually made both the shitake mushrooms and the enoki and carrot dish previously and knew they would work wonderfully with the cold noodles. The shitake mushrooms are simply soaked for 30 minutes or so in hot water to soften them then simmered in a mixture of soy sauce, sesame oil, sake, ginger and mirin. As they cook they soak up the salty sweet cooking sauce until you're left with these tender, juicy mushrooms that burst with flavour. They can be overpowering, so for the noodles I sliced them finely.
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| Quite a pickle! |
The enoki and carrots are quite a contrast to the shitake mushrooms. They are light, fresh and cooked in seconds. Essentially this dish is a mixture of julienne ginger (young ginger is best if you can find it) and carrots, with enoki mushrooms. This quickly tossed through a hot wok with some sesame oil, mirin and a dash of sugar. Essentially it's a quick pickle. But it's certainly not one that you would jar and store, there won't be any left to do that with!
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| Straight from the tub |
The wakame came store bought, and the blanched veg were a mixture of snow peas, spring onions and bean sprouts. All this was laid out in a pick and choose fashion for us to add to our noodles.
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| So many options! |
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| The end result! |
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| Crumbly apple cake |
I haven't been the only one busy in the kitchen. Brett has also been outdoing himself in the cooking department. Not one but two delicious deserts have been produced. The first, which I was lucky enough to sample, was an apple cake. I'm beginning to think that Brett is working on starting a patisserie, as he does make the most amazing pastry! The apple cake was delicious, though it was such a long time ago that he made it, that I think he should make more so I can add a better description.
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| Where's mine? |
The second pastry Brett turned his hand to was the classic Australian Vanilla Slice. Unfortunately I did not get to sample this, however I am told it was also delicious. Again I think Brett should revisit this recipe and provide samples so that I can provide a better description of how awesome his cooking skills are!
So, that rounds up the cooking adventures for February, and I can tell you now that March will bring new ingredients and mushrooms! I should really do a dessert some time soon, but I think Brett appears to be handling that quite nicely. Mr Carl is also promising to do a dish somewhere along the line, so I'm looking forward to seeing what all my friends are creating in the kitchen!
