Believe me. This so much easier than it seems. With the help of a slow cooker, you can do this without even thinking twice.
If you can't find fresh noodles, just grab a packet of instant ramen and use the seasoning pouches for something else. (Popcorn? Onion dip?) In an attempt to recreate the ramens I've enjoyed at noodle bars, I tried to boil my eggs in a mix of water and soy sauce. The eggs came out decidedly unsoylike. Upon research, I found that you can accomplish this by soaking the eggs in soy sauce overnight before boiling them. So by all means, give that a go. Also, if I had nori (dried seaweed), I would have topped my bowl with that. So if you do, go for it!
Ingredients
for the broth...
3 pounds meaty pork bones 1 large onion, quartered 1 large carrot, cut into a few chunks 2 stalks celery, cut into chunks 1 bunch scallion bottoms 3 whole cloves garic A knob of ginger 1 piece star anise 1 bay leaf 1 tsp peppercorns 1/2 tsp coriander seeds Salt for the ramen....
2 tablespoons miso 12 oz ramen noodles, preferably fresh 1 cup tinned sweetcorn 4 eggs Chili oil, to garnish Tagarashi, to garnish Scallions, to garnish If you want ramen for lunch, start the night before. If you want it for dinner, start in the morning before you go out for the day. In a crockpot, combine all of the broth ingredients. Cover with cold water, put the lid on, and set the temp to "low". Forget about it and get on with your day. If you do find yourself in the kitchen later, give it a skim.
About nine hours later, return to the kitchen. Put your eggs into a small pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and cook for 7 minutes. Remove, chill with cold water, and peel. Cut each egg in half. Turn your crockpot off. Using a pair of tongs, transfer all the bones to a sheet tray. Be gentle, as to not let all the meat fall off! Cook noodles according to packet instructions, drain, and divide between four bowls. Using your hands, remove all the meat from the bones. Put a good handful in each noodle bowl. Save the rest for meat pies, homemade pulled pork sandwiches, or whatever else you want.
Strain the rest of the broth into a pot. Add the miso, and bring back to a boil. Pour over noodles and pork. Add an egg to each bowl, and a generous heap of corn. Garnish with a drizzle of chili oil, a sprinkle of tagarashi, and some sliced scallions. Enjoy!!
05 January 2015
Cucumber Salad
This Eastern-European salad takes on a more Middle Eastern vibe with the addition of pomegranate and mint.
Ingredients
2 Persian cucumbers, sliced
1 tbsp rice vinegar
1 tsp sugar
3 tbsp chopped dill
2 tbsp chopped mint
1/4 cup pomegranate seeds
Salt
White pepper
Combine ingredients in a bowl. Season with salt and white pepper, to taste. Serve chilled.
28 May 2014
Passionfruit is my favourite food. More than noodles. More than crispy duck. More than any charcuterie, any fresh pasta, more than even hummus; I love passionfruit! It's so tangy, so sweet, so beautifully vibrant in colour. But it goes beyond that for me. In my head, this simple, pulpy fruit represents the exotic, adventure, and the unknown. At the age of nineteen, a whirlwind of unexpected events led me to spend a few months in Israel. I had never traveled outside of the US or Canada before, and, I really had no idea what to expect from this new country. The flight was long and uncomfortable, but I passed my time with a book, and eventually went to sleep. When I awoke, the flight attendants wheeled over a cart, and gave me coffee, hot towels, and microwaved bagels with hummus and egg. I filled out my customs card, ate my breakfast, and soon enough, we were touching down in Tel Aviv. I pressed my nose against the window like a child, watching my first glimpse of foreign land get closer and closer. I sat in the airport, ate a falafel, and waited to be picked up by my cousin Alan, a man I'd never met. When he picked me up, the sky was blue with twilight, and I couldn't believe, in January, how warm the air still was. We drove into the Negev desert, and he spoke of Israel and it's culture. "There is an old joke," I remember him saying, "That the shortest amount of time you'll ever have to wait for anything in Israel is between a traffic light going green and somebody tooting their horn." Maybe an hour into our drive, Alan pulled into the dusty parking lot of a small kibbutz. They had a wonderful produce market, he told me, where everything sold was grown right there. The shop was brightly lit and casual, with a curly haired young woman in purple linen pants perched on a stool by the register. "Pick out something you haven't seen before, and we'll buy it." Alan instructed me. I wandered the crates of fruit and vegetables until I saw a box full of little blackish purple orbs. They were about the size of eggs, maybe a little smaller, and quite wrinkly. I sniffed one and was surprised by it's punchy, sweet aroma. Alan informed me that they were passionfruit, which I'd heard of but never tried. We bought a kilo, said toda, stepped back into the still, inky night, and headed back to Alan's for dinner. That evening, I sat with Alan and his wife around their kitchen table, drinking cherry tea and eating passionfruit with a spoon. This exotic new fruit gave me such a sense of wonder; I didn't know fruit could even taste like that! There, in that lovely little house in southern Israel, it occurred to me for the first time just how much of the world there was for me- for anybody- to see. Travel is such a significant part of who I am, and that night, the night my cousin Alan split a passionfruit open for me to taste, the world opened itself up to me for my first time.
On another note, I do apologise for the incredibly long wait between posts; I moved, my mother moved, and I started a new job. I've been spread pretty thin. But I'm back on track, and will post a new interview tomorrow.
Passionfruit Curd Cake
This was a rainy day activity for me. It has been freezing here in Boston. This cake was nice with a big cup of tea while I stayed inside and watched Mad Men....
The passionfruit curd I made was the exact same recipe I posted last year.
For the cake:
1 cup butter, softened
1 1/4 cups sugar
4 eggs
3 tbsp passionfruit pulp or puree
2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
2/3 cup passionfruit curd, to finish
For the passionfruit curd:
1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 cups passionfruit pulp or puree
4 eggs, whisked thoroughly
Make the curd:
1. Boil a pot of water for a double boiler. Place a large, heat-proof bowl over the boiling water and reduce heat slightly. Melt butter and eggs together.
2. Meanwhile, beat together passionfruit and egg. When the butter and sugar is completely melted, add passionfruit mixture, and cook, stirring constantly.
3. When the curd has thickened and can coat the back of a spoon, remove from heat and transfer to a sterilised jar.
Make the cake:
1. Preheat oven to 350°F/180°C. In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar. Add the eggs, one by one, beating thoroughly. Add passionfruit pulp and incorporate.
2. Sift together flour and baking powder. Combine wet and dry ingredients and beat until smooth.
3. Spread batter evenly into a prepared pan. Pour over passionfruit and use a spatula to spread over the batter. "Swirl" the curd into the batter a bit.
4. Pop into the oven and cook for 30 minutes. Top with powdered sugar and serve with passionfruit curd.
29 April 2014
My chat with Boris got me thinking about my own visit to Belgium.
I spent a week in Ghent with my lifelong friend and travel buddy, Lisa. We had been overseas for not even two weeks, unaware of the new adventures and life changes that, over the years, would come from our jaunt around Europe. We took a train from Amsterdam; watched the countryside, drew little pictures of our adventures, ate some hastily purchased bitterballen.
Then, we were in Belgium. We were set to meet our Couchsurfing host at the train station, so we chatted with a sausage vendor, who sang us an aria from his favourite opera.
Our host was a wry young woman with blonde dreadlocks and bright, colourful clothing. We spent many happy evenings with her. On our first night, we accompanied her to a localtaverne, where her friends held an underground "pay what you can" dinner party. We dropped some euros into a jar next to an enormous pot of stew, and sat at a big, crowded table. We clinked glasses of beer, and tucked into deep bowls of lentil soup as wisps of smoke and the snippets of Flemish floated around us. We chatted with many people that night, and though we'd just eaten, we of course we began asking about food. Lisa and I had spent a good portion of our train journey discussing how excited we were to try frieten, which are Belgian style chips, served hot in a paper cone. When we asked our new friends about where to get the best ones, they all agreed on one thing; no matter where we go, we must get speciaalsaus.It was, of course, the first thing we did when we were on our own in the city the next day.
So, what is speciaalsaus? It's a combination of mayonnaise, ketchup, and curry, with a bit of chopped onion. It's easy to make and absolutely delicious on chips. I'm sure this would also be good with sausages, burgers, or pretty much anything fried. In my interview with Boris, he says he prefers his fries late at night, with "just salt", but the mention of Belgian frieten evoked such fond memories. The other day, it was really slow in the restaurant where I cook, so I made myself some fries and decided to try and make some sauce. One taste, and I was transported right back to Ghent, sitting in a little shop with my best friend, giggling over our travels, wondering what was ahead, and dipping hot frites into speciaalsaus.
Belgian Speciaalsaus
2 tbsp mayonnaise
1 1/2 tbsp ketchup
1 tsp curry powder
1/4 of an onion, diced
Combine ingredients. Enjoy. I know this isn't much of a recipe, but hopefully it will be of good use to you.
Boris Gronemberger, the drummer of Belgian band Girls in Hawaii was such a delight to interview. He even provided his recipe for ham quiche, which I will be posting later this week!
If you'd like to see Boris and his bandmates in action, Girls in Hawaii are playing at a variety of music festivals in Europe over the summer. And definitely give their newest video, Rorschach, a watch.
There will be recipes inspired by this interview coming soon. Enjoy!
Patchwork Tablecloth: What are your favourite foods?
Boris Gronemberger: Beside French or Belgian traditional food, I love Italian, Lebanese, Indian and Mexican food.
PT: What sort of food do you like to cook?
BG: Any kind of pastas but I also like to make quiche. My favourite is leeks, carrots and ham quiche. I do the pastry myself, using olive oil, flour, water and salt.
PT: What are your favourite holidays or celebrations? What foods do you associate with them?
BG: Summer holidays are my favourite because of the barbecues. I love salads, grilled meat and vegetables and bananas as desert.
PT: What are your favourite fruits and vegetables?
PT: Are there any foods you dislike? What are they?
BG: Seafood, all of it. I'm definitely not a seafood fan.
PT: Where do you consider yourself to be "from"? Please tell me a bit about the food in the place where you grew up, the place you live now, and, if you'd like, anywhere else that is important to you.
BG: I usually say that I come from the woods. I'm coming from a small town located in the Ardenne, a region in the south of Belgium.It's called Bouillon. It has a very nice middle age castle and it's surrounded by the Semois river- famous for its tobacco and its trouts.
The town of Bouillon. Photo by Boris Gronemberger.
I don't really see any specific meal. We love meat as it's mainly a hunting area.Maybe the most specific thing would be the sauce we use. It's called sauce Ardennaise or 'Ã l'Ardennaise.
It's mainly made of cream, butter and slices of bacon and maybe some parsley.You can find any meat, or fish or even mussels à l'Ardennaise. Even Salad. All you need is to put that creamy sauce on top of anything or just some slices of bacon.
Now I'm living in Brussels and pretty much ironically I got to know about vegetables here... It's much easier to find vegetarian restaurants here and I was part of a local farming support group. That helped me a lot discovering lots of unknown or forgotten vegetables.
PT: What is your typical breakfast?
BG: Breakfast is my favourite moment of the day. I mainly eat toasts and jam but when I have time, I have my two favourites that are extremely opposite:
One; Eggs, bacon, beans, toast.
Kousmine Budwig Cream. Photo by Boris Gronemberger.
Two; the Kousmine Budwig Cream. It just helps me feel better sometime. It's like a magic potion!
When you have this in the morning you can be sure it's gonna stick to your body for half a day.
PT: What are your favourite beverages?
BG: Japanese green tea; genmaicha. Coffee.
Beer. We have thousands of them in Belgium but for now it's Guldenberg. Whisky...I like Singleton pretty much.
PT: Which sweets and desserts do you like best?
BG: Chocolate cake is my favourite ever.
PT: What is your favourite combination of flavours?
BG: I recently went to a Cuban restaurant and had what they called El Nacional. It's made of pork meat, plantains , rice, black beans and a creamy peanut sauce. That was a real kick for me.
PT: What is something interesting that you've eaten during your travels?
BG: Pollo mole in Tucson, Arizona. Chicken breast with beans, rice and spicy chocolate sauce. Simply amazing.
PT: What is the best thing you can remember eating?
BG: This pollo mole in Tucson is probably one of my best.
PT: Do you have any food-related family traditions? What are they?
BG: For my birthday, I used to ask my mother to cook roasted pork topped with a tomato, wine and bacon sauce. Another variation of the Ardennaise sauce but without cream.
PT: Are there certain foods you like to cook or eat during certain seasons? What are they?
BG: I love barbcues but I also like winter courses. Any simmered course is welcome. like blanquette of veal with rice.
PT:What is your favourite food related smell?
BG: Toast and coffee in the morning.
PT: What do you like best on pizza?
BG: I like pretty much ham, cheese, tomato, pineapples. We call it the pizza Hawaii.
But there is one place in Brussels where they serve pizza with potatoes and a creamy truffle sauce. That's what I have every time I go there.
PT: You're throwing a party. What are you serving?
BG: Some cheese, crisps and guacamole, dried sausages. White pudding and some raw vegetable; carrots, zucchinis.
PT: It's 2 am and you're making your way home after a big night out. What are you eating?
BG: If i'm on my way home, I'll definitely go for some fries... only with salt. But if I'm home, I might make myself a big sandwich with ham and cheese.
PT: Please tell me about a memory- any memory- that somehow relates to food.
BG: It was in Beiruit. I was on tour and we had dinner in a small restaurant where two guys were playing traditional music and there were only local people, no tourists.
After a while, everybody was singing and smoking narghile, men and women together. It was just after the civil war and everybody was laughing. Such a wonderful experience and the food was excellent. Lebanese food is one of the finest in the Mediterranean Sea and also one of my favourite.
18 April 2014
"I can cook curry! Curry rice...and I can make very easy cake... Noodles, noodle soup..."
Ming
Curry rice
This sweet and spicy "curry rice" is from Japan, but has become popular in Taiwan as well. I used a recipe from a blog called Taiwanxifu, with only a few changes made. It was a different way of preparing curry than I'd made before; by making a tomato and curry based roux and thickening it with chicken stock.
This is such a delicious dish, and it goes a long way!
1. In a large, heavy bottomed pan, heat a knob of butter with a good splash of oil. Add the ginger and garlic and cook briefly, until aromatic. Meanwhile, bring a pot of your chicken stock to boil.
2. Add flour and cook for a bit, stirring frequently. Once it's gotten a bit of colour, add curry and tomato paste. Heat through.
3. Add a small amount of hot stock and stir to incorporate. Ladle by ladle, add hot stock to the pot, stirring constantly.
4. Add remaining ingredients and bring to the boil. Reduce heat to low and cook for about a half hour, stirring occasionally.
Ming Tapei, Taiwan I met Ming while picking grapes on a small vineyard in Australia's lovely Barossa Valley. She was one of the 4 other young backpackers volunteering on the farm, and I liked her immediately. After two days of rain preventing us from picking, we spent this particular night amongst the vines until the sun went down. A caravan filled with French backpackers had shown up that morning, asking to work for the day in exchange for a few bottles of the vineyard's wine. Our host, Sabine, agreed, and as the day got longer, she offered them to stay the night and to have some dinner with us. Ming and I prepared dinner for everybody that night. I believe it was sausages with tomatoes. While we sat in the kitchen together, tired but accomplished, I spoke to her about food.
Patchwork Tablecloth: What are your favourite foods?
Ming: Seafood. But a lot. I eat everything. Seafood is my
best one and I like rice. Curry. Desserts! Cookies, chocolate, all fruit.
PT: Do you like to cook at all? What sort of things do you make?
M: I can cook curry! Curry rice… and I can make very
easy cake. Noodles, noodle soup.
PT: What are your favourite holidays or festivals? Do you eat anything special for them?
M: Usually
Christmas, but only I celebrate with friends. Chinese New Year; you cook some
traditional food. A child will have a red envelope. Everyone comes back and we
will have some gamble; mahjong. It’s traditional. Rice cakes. Fish. A lot of
vegetables. And dumplings! Eating dumplings bring a lot of money for the new
year. And fish, we will cook fish, but we will not finish the whole fish. You don’t
eat the head and tail so you make a lot of money in the year. If you finish it, it
means you will have nothing. You must leave the head and tail.
There are three important
festivals. Rice dumplings for Dragon Boat Festival; triangle shaped, use a leaf
to make it. We put some sticky rice and some mushrooms, egg, meat, and we make
and boil it. In Dragon Boat Festival, we will have activities. Boat on
a river and a game; different boats, one flag in a river and all boats race to
grab flag. All family will get together. 5 May on lunar
calander. The other one is 15 August; Mid-Autumn Festival. We will eat mung
cake! And pomelo. And barbecue. Every family barbecues. And we will sit outside
and see the moon. Family will get together. These three are the most important in Taiwan.
PT: What's your favourite vegetable? M: I think cabbage.
PT: Fruit? M: Cherry.
PT: What did you eat when you were a little girl? M: All fruit and cookies, chocolate, yoghurt. Pudding.
Ice cream. Chocolate.
PT: What do you keep in your fridge? M: Fruit, vegetables, seafood. Milk and yogurt. PT: Do you dislike any foods?
M: I like everything!
PT: What is the food like in Taiwan? What do you associate with home?
M: Night markets. Stinky tofu! The smell is not good but
it tastes really good. Blood rice cake. Oyster pancake. We will put egg, oyster
and some vegetables and put some flour and some sweet sauce or spicy sauce.
Very delicious; traditional food in Taiwan. Offal; stomach, heart.
PT: What do you eat for breakfast? M: Oats.
And sandwich. But I usually eat oats at home first and then when I go to the
office, on the way, I will buy a sandwich. Tuna.
PT: How about lunch? M: I always eat lunch box. And sometimes it’s dumpling,
sometimes its noodle soup.
PT: What's a typical dinner?
M: Sometimes I eat at home…my mom will cook rice and
some vegetables or fried fish….I think similar to lunch. Sometimes I eat outside;
noodle soup and lunch box. Snacks. I eat at my market. Or hot pot!
PT: What do you like to drink? M: I like water. I don’t like too sweet beverage. Tea; green tea, no sugar!
PT: What's your favourite dessert? M: Red bean soup.
PT: It's 2 am and you're drunkenly heading home. What are you eating? M: I eat fried chips! And some fried…we also eat
fried…stewed seafood or shrimp and we will drink beer.
PT: What is the most important thing for a person to have in a kitchen? M: I think a pot.
PT: If you were making dinner for just yourself, what would make?
M: I think just noodle soup for myself…its easy!
PT: What's your favourite combination of flavours? M: Avocado with
honey! It’s the best one! And you put in the toaster. It’s very very delicious.
I like it. It really tastes good.
PT: What's your favourite ingredient? M: Seafood!
PT: What is the best thing you've ever eaten? M: Butter, cheese, lobster. In Taiwan. In a steak restaurant.
I think it’s your country’s food.
PT: Do you have any family traditions or recipes? M: At home, my mother cooks very simple food.
Just stews, some vegetables and fried eggs. Fried rice. Chicken soup.
PT: What do you eat in the winter? M: Hot pot.
PT: Autumn? M: Sesame oil noodles.
PT: Summer?
M: Sushi. Mung bean soup. Bamboo shoots with mayonnaise- after being in fridge. Like a
salad. Only in summer.
PT: What is your favourite food smell? M: Baked
cheese. Garlic and ginger. Kimchi.
PT: You walk into the party and are delighted to see this on the table: M: Dessert! Cheesecake…chocolate cake…pudding…ice cream.
PT: What do you like to eat on your pizza? M: Seafood.
PT: Finally, please share a food-related memory with me. M: I made
cookies; chocolate cookies and coffee cookies. The first time I make
coffee cookie and I put too much coffee and everyone eats just maybe two or
three piece and they can’t sleep at night! It’s too strong! So everyone can’t
sleep! But it smelled really good...but too much coffee.
04 April 2014
"Then there are the things I rarely ever say no to: spicy pasta; fresh seafood; moules marinières; fresh bread and olives; French black pudding and apple; roast lamb with garlic and rosemary; grilled goat’s cheese salad."
Joanne Harris
Food styling and photographs by Annalise Muller
When I travel long-term, I try to spend a bit of time helpx-ing wherever I go. It allows me to spend time in the countryside, learn new skills, and meet amazing people.
While in France a few years back, I spent a couple of weeks in the Pyrenees, helping an English couple renovate an old bergerie into a bed and breakfast. They were such a cool couple, and my time with them was so enjoyable and educational! If you are thinking of a trip to France in the future, I recommend staying at their B&B. I can only imagine how lovely the final product is, and they are truly magnificent hosts.
The bergerie was located just outside of a tiny village called Galey.
I tried black pudding on the bergerie, served crumbled and hot with apples and cabbages fresh from their garden. It was perfect. I was hooked.
When I saw black pudding mentioned with apples again, I knew one thing I'd be cooking this week. I also included rhubarb, because it's tangy and cuts through the richness of the pudding, but also because it's finally spring and I freaked out when I saw it at the market.
Black pudding with apples, rhubarb, and spiced cabbage
1. In a large pan, heat some oil or butter. Add cabbage and cook for a couple of minutes.
2. Add wine and spices. Stir and cook until liquid has evaporated. Stir through lemon juice, and remove from heat.
3. In another, medium pan, heat a large knob of butter with a bit of oil. Add apples, rhubarb and sugar. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally to prevent any burning, until apples are soft but not mushy.
4. Meanwhile, heat a fair amount of oil in a heavy bottomed pan. Cook the black pudding on both sides, in batches if you need. Transfer to a lined plate to drain.
5. Serve all three together, perhaps with a bit of bread.
