Singapore Mai Fun

curry noodles with shrimp Work’s been very busy for both of us since February began, so we haven’t been cooking a lot and certainly haven’t been blogging. To begin catching up: Singapore Mai Fun, aka curry noodles with shrimp, from Cooking Light. Primary ingredients are shrimp, thin rice noodles, bell pepper, green onion, egg, with peanut oil, garlic, and curry powder for predominant flavors. FYI, “mai fun” refers to a type of rice noodle, but any thin rice noodle will work.

Things I would or did change: We skipped the chicken and used a pound of shrimp in order to make it pescatarian. Definitely make sure you use the peanut oil for cooking – it’s subtle, but contributes deliciously. And be aware of the heat level of the curry powder you use because that will dictate the heat of the whole dish. Also, it came out pretty salty. We forgot to get no-salt-added chicken broth, so that probably didn’t help, but I might consider reducing the amount of salt you add either to the noodle water or the dish itself.

Would I make it again: Definitely. Quick and easy, relatively healthy, and delicious.

Nice Salad

Tonight we concocted a salad bastardization, part chef’s salad, part salad Niçoise, mostly whatever we felt like throwing in. I’m calling it a Nice Salad because we went with a Niçoise dressing. Pardon the icky photo, I forgot to snap it until we’d tossed the salad and consumed most of it.

Ingredients:

  • Head of Romaine
  • 3 Hard boiled eggs
  • Can of solid white tuna
  • Broccoli
  • Kalamata olives
  • Red onion
  • Parmesan
  • Capers

Dressing:

  • 1 clove garlic, crushed
  • 2 tsp mustard
  • 2 tsp dried thyme
  • 2 anchovy fillets, chopped to an almost-paste
  • 5-6 tbsp cider vinegar
  • 6 tbsp olive oil

Mostly the instructions are just wash, chop, mix, etc. However, I do highly recommend the following procedure for hard boiling eggs to keep them from overcooking and smelling sulfuric:

  1. Start with refrigerated eggs, and put them in a pot filled with cold water to about 1″ above the eggs. (Yes, cold and cold. The key is to avoid overcooking.)
  2. Cover the pot and bring to a boil on high.
  3. When it starts to boil, turn the heat off, but leave the pot covered and on the stove. Set a timer for 10-15mins.
  4. When the timer goes off, put the eggs in a bowl and and run cold water over them until they’re cool enough to peel. This will stop them from cooking right away.

Gumbo

This was a real project over the weekend.  I got some of the ideas from gumbopages.com.

Ingredients

  • Shrimp (2 lb) head on.  You have to go to an asian grocery to get head on shrimp, generally.
  • A whole chicken
  • 2 lb chicken parts
  • 1 lb andouille sausage
  • 2 lb okra
  • 8 stalks celery
  • 4 carrots
  • 2 large onions
  • 3 green bell peppers
  • one bunch green onions
  • several sprigs of fresh thyme
  • one bunch parsley
  • whole pepper corns
  • 1 cup flour
  • 1/2 cup olive oil
  • 1/4 cup vegetable oil
  • 1/2 cup butter
  • 3 cloves garlic
  • 9 quarts water
  • white pepper
  • ground thyme
  • ground oregano
  • ground black pepper
  • cayenne
  • sweet paprika
  1. Start by making a stock.  This is a special stock for gumbo, but you can use whatever stock making techniques you like.  Below is what I like to do.
  2. Butcher the whole chicken, saving everything except the skin.  Chop one onion, 4 stalks of celery and the carrots into large chunks.
  3. Brown the chicken and the vegetables in the bottom of you stock pot for about 20 minutes, stirring regularly.
  4. Add the water, and let it come to a boil, reduce it to a simmer.
  5. Add the thyme and some whole peppercorns, and salt, to taste.
  6. Let the stock simmer for 4 hours, skimming fat from the top every 30 minutes or so.
  7. Peel the heads and skin from the shrimp.  Save the shrimp for later and add the heads and skin to the stock.
  8. Let it simmer for another 30-45 minutes.
  9. Strain the stock so that it is just the liquid.  I refrigerated the stock overnight to allow the fat separate, and then skimmed the fat from the top.  Any other method to remove fat from stock is also fine.
  10. If the stock has been refrigerated, begin reheating it, otherwise, skip to the next step.
  11. Make a roux by melting the butter in the oil in a cast iron skillet and adding flour steadily until all of the flour is in the cast iron.  Cook the roux on medium-high heat stirring constantly until the rue is dark brown, about 15 minutes.
  12. Finely chop the remaining onions and celery, green peppers, garlic, and green onions.  Add the vegetables to the roux as it is finishing cooking to cool down the roux and the brown the vegetables.
  13. Cook the vegetables in the roux for another 10 minutes, continuing to stir constantly.
  14. Add the vegetables and roux to the stock.  Brown the chicken parts (cut into medium sized cubes) after rubbing them with a spice mixture of your liking (I used the ones listed above) in the oven.
  15. Brown the andouille sausage in a cast iron skillet.
  16. Add the chicken and sausage to the stock as well as the parsley, finely chopped, and the spice you would like to have in it.
  17. Let the gumbo simmer for about 2 hours.
  18. Chop the okra horizontally, leaving the seeds in tack.  Add the okra to the gumbo.
  19. Let the gumbo simmer for another 30-60 minutes.  The okra should be simmered until it has lost all stringiness.  You should notice your gumbo thickening as the okra softens.
  20. Add the shrimp and continue to simmer until the shrimp are cooked (about 15 minutes) and remove from heat.
  21. Serve with rice.

Shrimp & Snow Pea Stir Fry

asian stir fry shrimp snow pea Another simple stir fry, and this time I remembered to take a photo before it was devoured. This time we went for a Chinese-ish Shrimp & Snow Pea Stir Fry with rice from Cooking Light. Main ingredients include shrimp, snow peas, red bell pepper, red onion, garlic, ginger, sesame oil, soy sauce, and sesame seeds.

Things I would or did change: I went with fresh ginger & garlic over bottled, and was too lazy to toast the sesame seeds (you stir fry everything in sesame oil, so it still tasted fine). It could have used a little more kick, so I might go with more garlic & ginger and/or a spicy element to the sauce.

Would I make this again: Sure, when I’m looking for a simple, healthy stir fry with a little fish. I happen to LOVE snow peas and shrimp, and the color was nice, but the flavor left a little to be desired. It was fine, just not… Exciting. Definitely needed a dump of Sriracha in the end.