Japchae (Meatless)

This was my first attempt at japchae.  I adapted this from Maangchi's recipe to suit my taste.  It came out to be a perfect hint of sesame oil.  I hope you enjoy my version.


8 oz sweet potato noodles
4-6 fresh shiitake mushrooms (or dried ones, rehydrated for 20-30 mins in warm water), cut to strips
3/4 cup julienned carrots
1 bell pepper, cut into strips
1 medium onion, cut into strips
1/2 to 1 bunch fresh spinach, blanched
2 Tbsp oyster sauce
1 tsp Sesame oil
2 Tbsp Soy Sauce
Fish Sauce
Cooking oil

Marinate the shiitake mushrooms and with oyster sauce and set aside.

Bring water to a boil and cook the noodles for 6 minutes.  The noodle should be soft and chewy, but should not easily break apart. Rinse the noodles under cold water when done and drain well.  Cut the noodle to shorter length.  Add noodles to a large mixing bowl and add 1 tsp of sesame oil and soy sauce and give it a light toss.

Heat up a pan and add oil to lightly coat the pan.  Cook the carrots, bell peppers, mushrooms and onion separately with a dash of salt.  Add to the mixing bowl with the spinach and noodles.  Mix the ingredients with your clean, washed hands.  Your fingers will incorporate the ingredients together better than using utensils.  Add the fish sauce to taste.  Allow the mixture sit for 5-10 minutes before serving.

Grilled Coconut Scallion Corn

What's summer without corn?  The smell of grill corn brings back great memories of childhood.  I love the simplicity of corn.  You can add a little variation to change it up.  Here is a Vietnamese favorite.


1 cup coconut milk (not the juice)
1/4 to 1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 stalks chopped green onions/ scallion
1/4 tsp salt
8-10 ears of corn

Start your grill.  You want the grill to be about 350*F.

In a small sauce pan, add the coconut milk and sugar.  While waiting for the coconut sauce to come to a simmer, prepare the corn.  You can leave the husk on (easy way to eat) or pull the husk all off. When the sauce starts to bubble, add the salt and stir.  You will be cooking this for about 15-25 minutes, or until the sauce is thick enough to have a nice coating on the back of the spoon.  When you achieve this, take off heat and allow for it to cool for 5 minutes before adding in the chopped green onions.

Place the corn in the grill and grill the outside until you see the kernels appear glossy.  Start shellacking on the coconut sauce, one side at a time, turning that sauce side to the heat to achieve the charring.  Continuously turn the ears and shellacking on the sauce for about 12-15 minutes.

Indian inspired potatoes with peas and carrots

Level: Easy


After watching chef Singh make aloo, I daydreamed of little dice pieces of potatoes with a light curry sauce.  I normally don't like to have potatoes in my house, but I made a Vietnamese style chicken curry earlier in the week.  I planned to boil the potatoes and toss it with some curry powder, but I prepped, I added more things to it and it became something my little kids loved.

1 lb potatoes, peeled, boiled then diced
2-3 stalks carrots, peeled and diced
1/2 cup frozen peas
2-3 large cloves garlic, crushed and minced
1 shallot, minced
1 inch piece of ginger, finely crushed and minced or 1/2 tsp of dried ginger powder
1 Tbsp of Indian yellow curry powder
2 tsp garam masala powder
1/4 cup milk
2 tsp yogurt (I used Fage plain greek yogurt)
salt and pepper to taste
dash of fish sauce


Start off with a hot pan with enough oil to cover the bottom of it.  Add your garlic and shallots and take it off the heat to add the carrots.  Cook the carrots until it is almost tender and starts showing a sign of caramelization.  Add your potatoes and peas and stir until the peas loses the ice.  Add the curry powder and toss until the curry powder is well distributed.  Add the milk and yogurt and stir making to be careful not to break the potatoes.  Turn off the heat and add the garam masala, salt and pepper, and fish sauce.  Stir again and taste.  Add more if needed to suit your taste.

Malaysian/Singaporean inspired noodle soup

I got sick over the holidays and I suffered from dehydration.  After being discharged from the hospital, all I wanted was soup.  Noodle soup.  I was still too weak to cook but my mind wanted the taste of the warm broth to re-hydrate me.  The previous weeks, I would stumble up many photos of the Malaysian red broth poured over a pile of noodles.  I wanted some but I was not in any condition to trek to the store to gather the ingredients needed.  I rummage through the fridge and saw there was a lot to work with.

Soup:
1 lb ground pork or chicken
32oz box of chicken broth (strongly recommend if you use ground chicken)
4 cup water
1 golf ball size piece of yellow rock sugar
fish sauce to taste
Annato oil

Vietnamese Sate Sauce
4-5 cloves garlic
2-3 stalks or 2 Tbsp pre-chopped lemongrass
1/2 tsp chopped ginger
1 large shallot
1 Thai chili, finely chopped
Peanut oil

1 pkg rice sticks

Finishing:
Chopped green onions
Cilantro
Chiffonard Shiso leaves
Blanched mung bean sprouts
Fried garlic

In a medium pot, start the water and broth to bring it to a boil.  Drop in the ground meat mixture and reduce heat so that it is a simmer.  While the soup is cooking, let's make the sate sauce to to add flavor to the soup. In a small pan heat up some oil.  Add all the ingredients in except for the pepper and fry until you get a dark paste.  Add more oil if need to make sure that it isn't a dry lump.  When the ingredients are one color add the pepper and continue to fry the sate until it is dry paste consistency.  Check on the soup stock and make sure to scoop out any impurities/scum.  Add the sate mixture to the soup and allow for the soup and sate to slowly cook together.   Add the fish sauce and rock sugar to your liking.  The total cooking time for the soup should be about 20-25 minutes.  Finish with the annato oil for the bright red color.

Serve the soup over rice noodles and top with the great finishing.