photo by Grape Juice Girl

Noodles are such a simple meal - the list of noodles you can buy on streets throughout Asia is long.  You can really get by on noodles from a stand at all hours of the day - in a light broth for breakfast, with meats for lunch or a spicy bowl of noodles to end a long night out.

I just love buckwheat soba noodles.  Besides coming in great packages with perfect little wrappers, they are hearty and go well with just about everything except the lightest broths.  This is a quick recipe that makes for a terrific bowl of noodles.  If you have the chicken already cooked, its takes less than 10 minutes to cook this perfect bowl of noodles.

Soba noodles with Spicy Peanut sauce

1 Tbsp olive oil

1/2 cup scallions

1/2 tsp red chili pepper

1-2 cloves garlic, minced

1/3 cup soy sauce

1/4 cup water

1 Tbsp brown sugar

2 in grated ginger

Zest from half a lemon

1/2 cup peanuts

2 tsp Hoisin sauce

1 Tbsp lemon juice

1 Tbsp sesame oil

1/2 lb or 2 bundles of organic buckwheat soba noodles.

1 chicken breast, cooked or grilled to your liking, slivered

Scallions and cilantro for garnish

Filling

1. Boil water for the noodles with salt.  Cook the noodles while you are making the sauce.


2. Heat the oil over medium heat.  Add scallions, pepper and garlic and cook until softened.


3. Add the soy sauce, water, brown sugar, ginger and lemon zest and allow to heat through but not cook.  Set aside.


4. Blend the sauce with the peanuts, Hoisin sauce, lemon juice and sesame oil in a blender or food processor.


5. Once the noodles are cooked and drained, mix half the sauce with the noodles.


6. But the noodles in a bowl, add the other half of the sauce on top, and add the chicken on top of that.

Make 2-3 servings.

photo by Tracy Hunter

Dim sum started out as modest tea house snacks.  That is really not the way Americans partake, but that shouldn't surprise anyone.  Dim sum has become something else entirely - an active weekend brunch where you try to convince the waiters to bring just one more order of Xiao Long Bao or Salt & Pepper Shrimp while carts of buns and dumplings whizz by.  Seating is tight, the wait staff is busy and after a while anyone would be convinced they are hoarding the soup dumplings for their best customers.

I decided to try Dim sum as a breakfast, since I intended to do breakfasts for the month of September.  Sometimes I already know how to make something, its just a matter of getting it down.  This was not one of those times.  It never occurred to me that Dim Sum was something to try at home, and there is probably good reason...

Honestly, the real deal, the fancy little dumplings in nearly translucent wrappers are more than a little intimidating.  I know how they are made, but I am not ready to dive off the cliff of perfection required to get them right.  This is a good first step, but doesn't hold a candle to the delicate little dumplings that really made dim sum such a fantastic experience.

Unless I am thrust into a Dim Sum kitchen or asked to participate in a Dim Sum pot luck, I doubt I will ever make these again.  Sure, there is justice and satisfaction in abusing a staple of the southern kitchen (white bread), but these little buns land on my table with about the same impact as fried empanadas.  That said, here they are.  I obviously need to make those beautiful little dumplings now.

Chicken Curry Bun - Dim Sum

1/2 a large sweet potato, diced

5 Tbsp oil

1 medium onion, diced

14oz can fire roasted tomatoes

2 Tbsp soy sauce

2 in grated ginger

4 garlic cloves, minced

1 cup water or chicken broth

1 Tbsp white wine or sherry

2 lbs chicken breast, cut into pea sized pieces

1 Tbsp corn starch blended with 1 Tbsp water

Loaf of soft white sandwich bread

1 egg

Oil for frying

Spice Mix:

2 Tbsp curry powder

1 tsp ground turmeric

1 tsp chili powder

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp black pepper

1/4 tsp white pepper

Filling

1. Dice the potatoes, boil for 25 minutes, strain and set aside.


2. At the same time, cook the onion in the oil until translucent.


3. Add the tomatoes, soy sauce, ginger, garlic, water, wine and spices.  Cover and cook for 12 minutes.


4. Add the chicken, stir and cook for 12 minutes.


5. Uncover, add the potatoes and corn starch blend.  Cook for 1 minute and remove from heat.

The buns

1. Heat the oil over medium-high heat, but do not let it smoke (not over 400 degrees)


2. Trim the crusts off the bread.  Separate the yolk from the egg and beat with a little water.


3. Roll the bread out flat with a rolling pin until they are very flat.


4. Put some filling  in each piece.  Brush the edge of the bread with the egg wash and fold the bread over on itself to form a bun.  Trim the bun back with a knife (I use an empanada cutter)


5. Fry each bun in the oil.  It only takes about 1 minute each side.  Drain on paper towels.

I think the best way to do this is to stack a sunny-side-up fried egg on the rice.  Then you can manage the warm yolk as it mixes with the rice and meat.  You'll notice something missing in this recipe - the beef tapas.  I use day old carne asada.  In fact, tapsilog is the perfect way to use up highly seasoned meat left over from a day of grilling.  Fajitas, carne asada, kebabs - they all work wonders.  Not to mention it makes for a fantastic breakfast.  I might eventually figure out how to make beef tapas, but this is such a great compliment to an afternoon lunch of carne asada, it really seems like a waste.

Tapsilog

Garlic Rice:

1 1/2 cups cooked rice, preferably cooked the night before

2 Tbsp olive oil

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/4 medium onion, minced

Salt & pepper

1 Tbsp soy sauce

Directions

1. Sauté the garlic and onion in the oil over medium heat until the onion becomes translucent, usually a couple minutes.


2. Add the rice and mix well, breaking down any clumps.


3. Add the soy sauce, mix well, remove from heat.

Tapsilog:

Fry an egg whatever style you like.  Make sure to use black pepper to season the egg.

Make a mound of rice by packing a bowl then inverting the bowl onto a plate.  Put the egg on top of the mound.  Add the meat.

Other Tapsilog blogs:

http://80breakfasts.blogspot.com/2007/06/sunday-brunch-meme-tapsilog.html

http://pinoyfoodblog.com/restaurant-and-eating-places/tapsilog-from-rodics-diner/

photo by mynameisharsha

As much as I maintained a habit of spending my trips to India enjoying Chicken Tikka eggrolls, I had a much more private tradition of failing to make them correctly on my return home.  I could never get the simplest part correct - the chicken.  Never mind the  roti, which continues to elude me, I was baffled by the chicken.

After nearly a year of fantastic (and mostly delicious) failures, I came to find out that I was actually making different recipes much closer to Pakistani origin than Bangalore.  I could very easily be proved wrong on this, but I am fairly sure I was making something closer to Kalmi Kebab.

What a great way to back your way into a great recipe, by a series of interesting mistakes...

A yogurt based marinade makes recipe want to be baked rather than grilled, but grilled is what I usually do.  I think this is better baked in an oven followed by a quick broil but make sure you use some sort of grilling tray.  You'll want the drippings to fall off the chicken.

That said, you might be happier with the grill, as I was...

Chicken Kalmi Kebab

1 in. Ginger

2 cloves Garlic

1 cup Yoghurt

2 Cloves

1 in Cinnamon

1/2 tsp Cumin

Pinch of Saffron

1/2 tsp Garam masala

1/2 tsp Red chili

2 Tbsp lime juice

1 1/2 - 2 lbs boneless chicken meat

Directions

1. Mix the marinade well


2. Add the marinade to the meat and mix well.


3. Marinate meat for at least 2 hours


4. If using bamboo skewers, soak the skewers for 30 minutes.


5. Grill the skewers on your preferred grill.

Street food holds a special place in the lives of Thai diners.  Street food is not an oddity housed in an Airstream trailer.  Street food is a way of life - in some cities most residents do their primary dining from street vendors.  Trying to capture street food in a place like Thailand is like fishing with a butterfly net.

Spicy fish cakes are a fairly common staple.  They are served with lime wedges and occasionally small salads.  Tod Man Pla is typically deep fried until lightly crispy.  You'll sometimes see them as fish balls, but they are more common as a patty.

This recipe is made to be doubled, if you have the fish.  This is the right size for me, but very easy to multiply for a party.

The real trick here is the red curry paste.  If you decide to pull it out of a jar, its going to take no time at all to make these, but you'll lose some taste and color in the Tod Man.  There are brands with more local flavor than what you'll find at Whole Foods, but its easy enough to make your own paste.

When you make the paste, you can decide how much you want to leave the vegetables  whole.  I use a hand processor so that I get a choppy, inconsistent paste.

Spicy Fish Cakes (Tod Man Pla)

Patty

1 lb fish (I pick what I can get - salmon works well but so does Tilapia)

1/4 cup Thai Red Curry Paste or fresh curry paste (see below)

1 tsp salt

1 egg

3/4 cup diced green beans

1 basil leave, diced

Directions

1. Use a food processor to blend the fish, curry paste, salt and egg.


2. Fold in the green beans and basil.


3. Form into patties and fry in a vegetable oil over medium.  It takes about 3 minutes per side

Thai Red Curry Paste

3 Shallots or heirloom red onions

1 in ginger or galangal

4 in lemongrass

1 Tbsp cilantro, diced

2 cloves garlic

1 tsp salt

1 Tbsp kaffir limes leaves

1 1/2 tsp sugar

1 tsp soy sauce

1/2 tsp fish sauce

2 fresh red chilis

Blend in food processor to the consistency you like.