Avocado coconut miso soba noodles

Who's kept up with their NY resolutions?? Not me >.<! I've been on a very relaxing elective for 2 weeks and I promised myself that I would actually work out erryday all day (since I come home at noon :P). I don't know what it is, but I've been sleeping like 8+ hours a day and I still feel tired haha. I have surgery starting next week, so I probably won't have time to exercise, let alone eat and drink gahh....

Since my roommate and I are on the same rotation and both end our work at noon, we've been hitting up some all you can eat Indian buffets. No exercise and gluttonous eating is a bad combo though (naan and butter chicken is soo difficult to resist :\). So, I'm trying to be more health conscious about eating and reducing my snacking. I even got a fit bit for my birthday from the BF and it's making me feel guiltier about taking the elevator or sitting on my butt all day!

Here's a totally vegan dish with healthy buckwheat soba noodles. The soup is actually very creamy from the finely mashed avocado (using the amazing smood masher from Dreamfarm), coconut milk and lots of umami from a touch of miso paste and shiitake broth. That's the water the dried shiitake is rehydrated in. I usually keep a few mushrooms in water in the fridge, because I can just add a little bit of the mushroom broth into any soup I'm making and it will add some depth to it. I even add it to some sauce bases like if I'm making spicy Korean rice cakes (tteokbokki) or steamed egg (gaeran jjim).

I made a gif!

Avocado Coconut Miso Soba Noodles

adapted from tastingtable
serves 2-3

handful dried soba noodles
1 cup mashed ripe avocado, about 1.5 avocados finely mashed
2 tsp lemon juice
4 dried shiitake mushrooms rehydrated in 1 cup water
1 cup water
2/3 cup coconut milk
1/2 tbsp white or red miso
salt to taste (I added about 3 tsps)
pepper to taste

Toppings
1/2 firm tofu package, cubed
pinch of cornstarch
2 tsps soy sauce
1 tsp sesame seed oil
1/2 zucchini, cut in quarters
rehydrated shiitake mushrooms, sliced
few slices of avocado
sesame seeds

1. Make toppings first: In a small nonstick pan, heat a little bit of oil in medium heat. Sprinkle cornstarch on each side of the tofu cubes. Add tofu to the hot oil, and add soy sauce and sesame seed oil. Gently turn them so that the cook on all sides until golden brown. Set aside and keep the pan hot. Toss the zucchinis in there with a pinch of salt, pepper and garlic powder.  Once blistered on the edges, set aside. Lastly, sauté rehydrated shiitake mushrooms with a pinch of salt as well until cooked through
2. Bring a medium pot of water to boil. Cook soba noodles according to package directions. Rinse with cold water to stop the cooking process and set aside in a colander
3. In a small saucepan, combine shiitake water, water and coconut milk on medium heat. Using a fine mesh strainer, add the miso so that it loosens easily. Bring to a simmer
4. Reduce the heat to low and stir in the mashed avocado. I used an immersion blender in the end to make it super creamy. Whisk occasionally until it thickens slightly (about 3-4 minutes). Add lemon juice and season with salt and pepper. Makes about 3-4 cups of soup
5. Pour avo broth into a bowl, fold noodles into it to coat. Garnish with sautéed tofu, zucchini and mushrooms. Sprinkle with black pepper, sesame seeds and serve

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Homemade matcha udon noodles

I thought making udon would be like making kalguksu (or Korean knife noodles), but it definitely required a lot more arm muscle. Maybe it's because I tried to make 4 times the amount and my biceps have atrophied from disuse :( I did have a lot of fun stomping on it though. Yas, with my feet. Don't worry, the dough was heavily wrapped in a sturdy gallon ziplock bag ;)

But, you seriously need your body weight to smoosh the dough down. If you have kids then use them, plus you'll also get them tired so they'll sleep early! Tiring out my little brother out everyday by making him fetch things used to be my strategy back in the days (not because I was lazy haha).

I separated the dough in half so I could have normal udon noodles and some matcha ones. For the matcha noodles, the flavor shines if the broth is kept simple (like the soy sauce dashi one below). I may have to up the amount of matcha though by about 1/2 to 1 tsp next time and try a cold udon version. I also prepared a miso version by diluting the broth I made below in a 1:3 ratio with water and adding miso paste to it. When you try the freshly made noodles, the texture and flavor is so so so......handmade(?), unique(?), bouncy (haha it's hard to describe), I guess all the arm grease and time that went to making this was worth it!

Matcha Udon Noodles

adapted from instructables.com
serves 4-5

Noodles (Sanuki style)
2 1/2 cups bread flour (plus more to dust)
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
3 tsps salt
1.5 cups water, at room temp
1 tsp culinary grade panatea matcha (for 1/2 the dough)

Broth
5-8 dried shiitake mushrooms, rehydrated in 2 cups water overnight
1 5x5" piece of kelp (aka konbu or dashima)
3 cups water
10 pieces dried shrimp
10 pieces dried anchovies
1-2 tbsps soy sauce (or to taste)
1 tbsp mirin

1. Noodles: dissolve salt in the water and set aside. Mix the flours together in a large bowl. Add salt water to the flour and mix with your hands until a shaggy dough is formed. If it doesn't come together, you can add a little water each time. The dough will feel hard and crumbly, just try to knead it so it comes together.
2. Put the dough in a gallon size zipper bag and stomp on it until it is flattened. Like use your feet and stomp! I seriously tried to knead with my hands and a kitchen aid mixer, but the dough is just too hard. Once it has flattened. Take it out of the bag and separate the dough into two pieces. For one half, I kneaded in 1 tsp matcha. This will be difficult and it will looked streaky (but no worries, it will blend all together with subsequent stomping)
3. It will still be hard at this point. So with half of the dough, roll it up like a cinnamon roll and place it back in the bag to stomp and flatten. I alternated between the two halves of the dough, so that I could give the dough a rest for 10-15mins if it was too difficult to work with. You'll be stomping on this about 5-6 times until the dough is really smooth and rubbery
4. On the last flattening/stomping, pinch the edges of the dough together to make a ball, it may not come together on the bottom but as long as the top is smooth, it's okay. Wrap the dough in seran wrap tightly and place in a warm area for 2-3 hours. I preheated my oven slightly and switched it off to mimic a really hot summer.
5. While the dough rests, time to make the broth! In a large pot, place rehydrated shiitake and the water it was soaking in, kelp, 3 cups water, shrimp and anchovies. Bring to boil and let it simmer for 15 mins. Add soy sauce and mirin and adjust to taste. Fish out the shiitake to slice up and use for later and then strain your broth.
6. Now the dough should be well rested (you can test this by checking if it remains indented after you poke it)! Dust your work area with a generous amount of bread flour. Working with one ball of dough at a time, roll to a rectangle that is 3mm thick. Fold the long edges in like you would fold a letter in thirds to put in an envelope.  Cut 5mm thick strips for noodles. Toss cut noodles in bread flour so they don't stick.
7. To cook the noodles, bring a large pot of water to boil and then place them in there for 7-8mins. Separate them with chopsticks at the start and middle of boiling because they can stick together. Drain and serve with the broth, plus toppings including green onions, naruto (Japanese fishcake), mushrooms or eggs
8. You can store the cut noodles in the fridge for 2-3 days.

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Bulgogi Potato Noodles - 불고기 당면

Hello from DC! I'm here to visit my BFF before flying off to LA (yay!). It so happens that my arrival coincides with my college's alumnus event and the DC bike party pride ride! My thighs are extremely sore from biking all day and night. But, it was sooo much fun. So many pink wigs, loud music, fluorescent garb and tandem bikes! It did start raining though, so my colorful makeup ran all over my face. Kind of looked like I was hit by a sparkly unicorn...how nice.

I'm excited to go back to LA, eat some decent Cali mex and ethnic foods. Stuff I miss sorely when I'm in Richmond. I also get to see my lovely mum, who promised to cook whatever delicious Korean food I want. Yahoo. So to start of the summer with lots of Korean cooking is this ever popular bulgogi recipe straight from my mum.

Bulgogi Dang Myun

makes 4-5 servings

1 lb rib eye, sliced thinly

Marinade
1 asian pear
1/2 onion
3-4 cloves garlic
5 tbsp soysauce
3 tbsp mirin or cooking wine
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 tbsp sesame oil
1 tsp pepper

2 green onions, diced
1/2 onion, sliced into half moons
1/2 bag of potato noodles (can be bought in a Korean Store; here's a pic)
sesame seeds, jalapeños or red dried chillies (optional)

1. In a food processor, grind the pear, onion and garlic until minced. Pour in a wide bowl and mix in soysauce, mirin, sugar, sesame oil and pepper
2. Marinate rib eye slices for at least 2-3 hrs (overnight is better). Make sure all the meat is covered with the marinade (I used food gloves and really massage it in)
3. Boil the noodles according to package minus a minute, drain and rinse with cold water
4. Heat a frying pan on medium high and heat a little bit of oil. Saute the onions until a little softened. Add the meat and also 3/4 cup of the marinade and discard the rest. Cook for 4-7 mins, stirring often
5. When the meat is not quite pink, add in the cooked noodles. Add the green onions (hot chillies if using) and saute for another 2 minutes or until heated through
6. Sprinkle sesame seeds and serve hot with a bowl of rice

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