Culinary Adventures of MadZak

When I was in Taiwan I had a very delicious beef noodle soup and have been longing for a soup to that caliber. Luckily January is when I started to perfect my vegetable stock and figured I’d give it a shot with some vegetable noodle soup.

The broth is what really seals this dish as the ingredients do nothing but soak up the flavor. If you can make the broth yourself, you are better off as store bought just won’t cut it!

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 cups vegetable broth
• 2 cups water
• 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon pepper
• 1 carrot (peeled)
• 1 onion
• 4 cloves garlic
• 4 wood-ear (any fungus like mushrooms)
• 1 tomato
• 1 tablespoon basil
• 1 tablespoon thyme

METHOD:
Combine vegetable broth and water in a pot and bring to boil. Add frozen udon noodles, carrots, onions, wood-ear or mushrooms, tomatoes, garlic, basil, and thyme. Once frozen udon noodles start to break apart, go ahead and add the sesame oil, rice vinegar, and soy sauce.

Once vegetables and noodles are soft, remove from heat, add salt and pepper, and serve.

Green curry and rice is a personal favorite dish of mine and I’ve seen it served as soup or as a thick sauce on the rice. It is super great to warm you up during the winter and no one should be afraid of curry as it’s easily adjustable. The flavor from the green curry is what makes this dish, combined with coconut milk and you get a nice sweet heat. Not only will all the ingredients soak up the flavor but the rice will absorb whatever is left leaving you with a dish to remember. You can adjust the green curry paste based on your heat tolerance. I’ve found that 4 seems to work good for Judy who doesn’t like heat at all and is still a bit hot for my medium tastes. Play with the ingredients, most everything will work fine!

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 1/2 cups coconut milk (1 can)
• 4 tablespoons green curry paste
• 1 cup water
• 1 cup broccoli
• 1 cup cauliflower
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon pepper
• 4 cups rice

METHOD:
In a skillet, bring 1 cup of coconut milk to boil with green curry paste. Reduce to medium and add everything but the chicken into the milk/curry mixture. Cook the chicken separately and add into the soup mixture once done. Cook for 15 minutes or until vegetables are soft and serve on rice.

Having a bunch of turkey left overs from Thanksgiving, I’ve spent most of the week working on utilizing it as much as I can. Last Night, I made a nice turkey fried rice for my wife and as always it was super simple and super tasty.

As with many of my recipes, it is a bit of a blank canvas and you can use any type of meat you’d like. Enjoy the great mix of carrots, green peppers, turkey, and egg as it melts in your mouth and warms you up. This is what fried rice should be, notice the lack of that weird yellow color? I still haven’t figured out why that’s added to the take outs! Make a big batch as you can warm this up for quick dinners or lunches as well.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 1/2 cups turkey (pulled/shredded)
• 1 carrot (vertical sliced)
• 1/2 green pepper (horizontal sliced)
• 4 cloves garlic (diced)
• 1 egg
• 2 cups rice (cooked)
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon rice wine
• 1 tablespoon garlic (diced)
• 1/4 cup green onion (sliced)

METHOD:
Warm a skillet on medium-high heat. Once warmed, add oil and garlic then sauté for 30 seconds or so. Add carrots, green peppers, pepper, and turkey. Turn heat up to high and fry for 5 minutes stirring to make sure things don’t stick to the pan.

Add rice, rice wine, and soy sauce and mix well. Make a small hole in the center of the skillet and crack the egg in the middle. Mix the egg until it is cooked, add green onions and then mix the whole skillet up, remove from heat and serve.

I first had this dish at Siam Cafe in the “chinatown” of Cleveland, Ohio and I immediately fell in love! The noticeable difference between an american and chinese eggplant is a sweeter flavor and this dish helps show that along with a great characteristic of a sponge. The eggplant soaks up the blend of sauces, soy/vinegar/wine, and provides a consistent flavor on each bite.

For about 20 minutes of cooking time, you will get 4 servings, a great smelling house, and a delightful dinner with plenty of lunch time leftovers. You can also add some hot sauce if you want to kick up the spice.



INGREDIENTS:

• 4 japanese eggplant
• 1/4 cup garlic (diced)
• 1/2 green pepper
• 4 green onion stalks
• 2 tablespoon cornstarch (mixed with 1 tablespoon water)
• 2 tablespoon soy sauce
• 2 teaspoon black vinegar
• 2 tablespoon rice wine (cooking wine will do)
• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 4 cups rice

METHOD:
Wash outside of eggplants and cut off vine end. Cut eggplant in half at the middle, then slice each half lengthwise. Cut each eggplant piece using an angle, you want the eggplant to be chunky but not too big. Turn the skillet to medium-high heat and when heated, add half of the oil, the garlic, and the eggplant chunks. Cook for 5 minutes.

Slice the green pepper and add to the skillet along with the remaining oil. Cook for 5 minutes. In a bowl combine the cornstarch and water and set aside. Add to the skillet the soy sauce, black vinegar, and rice wine. Bring the added sauce to boil, then add cornstarch. Once the sauce is boiling again, remove skillet from heat and continue to stir until sauce thickens and coats all the eggplant.

Place 1 cup of rice in a bowl, pour 1/4th of the eggplant over the top and sprinkle with 1/4th of the green onion. Repeat for the the remaining 3 bowls and serve.

This dish is somewhat of a stable in our household. Switching between rice and noodles helps keep things lively but in the end, I love me some noodles! This is a standard stir fry with just soy sauce. The vegetables are delicious as shown, but feel free to change our add whatever you are in the mood for. Try some nice hot green tea with this meal and break out those chopsticks!