All posts tagged sirachi

By Jessica | February 12, 2009 | Main Courses, Recipes | 7 Comments

Yes, I do like ramen more than the average person which is half the reason I make and eat it all the time. But I’m not going to lie to you. The other half of the reason I make ramen is because people look up that shit on the interwebs all day long and get to my blog because of it. And, who am I to not give the people what they want. (One time? someone got to my blog by searching for “roast beef vagina” – I shit you not. The world wide web is a beautiful thing.)

The other half the reason I make ramen (I studied art in school – not math) is because I can put a poached egg in it. And if you been reading Go Meat Yourself at all, you would know that I’m trying to pour egg yolk all over my everything. So on and so forth.

Ramen with Beef, Shitake Mushrooms and A Poached Egg

2 c ramen soup base (it comes in a bottle in the “asian” section of your grocery store)
1/4 c soy sauce
noodles for two (you can use udon, lo mein, or any other dried asian noodle here. Shit, use capellini, fuck it.)
10 ish fresh shitake mushrooms
1 tbs butter
1/2 c white vinegar
2 eggs
1/4 lb roast beef, thinly sliced
2 stalks of scallion, sliced
sirachi for garnish
kimchi for garnish
Serves 2.

In a large sauce pan, add your soup base and soy sauce to 6 cups of water and bring to a boil. While waiting for that boil, remove the stems from your cleaned shitakes and cut into strips. Add the butter to a saute pan and when hot, add the mushrooms, stirring occasionally until tender and buttery. When the soup base is boiling, add the noodles and cook until you like – al dente or whatever.

Add water to a deep frying pan so it’s a couple inches deep. Add the vinegar and heat until almost boiling. While waiting for it to heat, prepare your scallions, grab your beef and get ready to plate. Basically, when your noodles are one minute from being done, crack your eggs into the frying pan of water and vinegar. Let them cook for about a minute. You are looking for a solid ish white but a soft yolk (depending on the stove, the egg and your menstrual cycle, this varies, so explicit instructions would be misleading, but I trust you – you can figure it out).

With a tong, divide the noodles into to huge bowls, then divide the soup broth. With a slotted spoon, add one egg to each bowl. Grab a pile of roast beef, a pile of shrooms, a pile of kimchi and a pile of scallions, and place on top, all in their own little groups so that the eater mixes themselves.

Now, eat that shit. The best bite is when you open the egg and drag the noodle through the yolk. Oh man.

By Jessica | December 12, 2008 | Main Courses, Recipes | 2 Comments

What makes your mouth water? For some it’s pickles, for others it’s burgers. For me it’s both those things AND spicy noodle soup. Either of these three items would cause me to do a diddy if I could eat them all day long without getting to be a total fat ass.

When I found out how easy it is to enhance the 10 cent ramen from your college days, I made it at least once a week. I have now ventured into making it from a soup base with fresh(ish) noodles. Next will be homemade stock. Watch out David Chang, I’m either going to eventually out-ramen your ass, or maybe just come to your restaurant. But you’ll have to roll me out. There!

Anyway, here is a recipe for deliciousness. If you have never cooked anything before, you should start with this.

Ramen with Roast Pork, Mushroom and Poached Egg

1.5 c of ramen soup base (find this in the Spanish/Chinese section of your grocery)
5 c of water
2 inches of fresh ginger, very thinly sliced
one jalapeno, very thinly sliced
8 fresh shitake mushrooms
1 tbs of butter
1 cup of cooked roast pork
3 scallions, sliced
1 egg
your favorite asian noodle: udon, ramen, rice, up to you
kimchi for garnish
sirachi for extra fire mouth
This serves two.

Bring a big pot of water to boil for your noodles. You will also be using this boiling water for poaching the egg but more on that later.

I would really recommend you pause in your sheffin and go buy a mandolin right now. The mandolin has become the love of my kitchen life. But, if you are really not going to do that, grab your jalapeno and ginger and slice the shit out of them – you want them really thin. If you slice really thinly, you can get away without peeling the ginger. Combine the soup base and water in a medium sauce pan and add the ginger and jalapeno. Put on a slow to medium heat.

When the water for your noodles starts to boil, add the noodles.

Remove the stems from your mushrooms and slice. In a small sauce pan, add a tablespoon of butter and a bit of olive oil. Saute the mushrooms until soft. Set aside.

As your soup stock is simmering and your noodles are cooking, cut your scallions, heat your pork if it isn’t already, and get out your eggs and kimchi. I make my kimchi myself. It isn’t entirely traditionally but easy as shit. Check it here.

When your scallion is cut, and your pork is warm and your kimchi is no longer cold from from sitting in the fridge, maybe your noodles are ready, depending on the noodle you are working with. You are going to have to judge that for yourself. When they are done, it’s about moving quickly to assemble your bowl.

When the noodles are done, don’t drain – grab them with a tong and put them in the serving bowl. Add the broth to the noodles. Keep the water from the noodles boiling and very gently crack two eggs into the water. While those cook for 2.5 minutes, add the scallion, pork, mushroom, and kimchi to the soup bowl in pretty little clumps. Leave room for the egg. After 2.5 minutes, with a slotted spoon, carefully take each egg out of the water and add to the bowls. You are looking for a solid egg white but a soft yoke. It will be hard to tell but you’ll get better with practice. Swear.

Serve your ramen with sirachi sauce for the freaks and pop a beer cause this one is hot and spicy.

When you are ready to eat, crack your eggs with chop sticks and with each bite, swirl your noodles through the yoke. This will be the best bit of food you ever done had.

By Jessica | November 21, 2008 | Recipes, Snackin, Salads and Apps | 4 Comments

It was a friend’s birthday recently so we decided to give a peck of pickled perfection. The tasty treat was a trifecta of Bob McClures Spicy Dill, Rick’s Pick’s Mean Beans, and JJ’s Homemade Tried and True Super Tested Fire Butt Kimchi (that’s the new name). Check my recipe for the least traditional kimchi you ever done heard of. But, for any of those losers that think they don’t like kimchi, give em my version and they’ll be thanking you for turning their ignance around in a big way.

Kimchi is a typical korean condiment eaten with many a meal. Generally it’s fermented cabbage, pickled with rice vinegar, sirachi, ginger, scallion, and/or garlic. I’ve also had this with daikon or radish instead of the cabbage, maybe it’s called something else, don’t know. All are great. But for mines, I’m not trying to use garlic, and I don’t ferment the cabbage, and I added extra cayenne pepper just to make sure my mouth burns when I eat it.

Oh, AND? I make huge amounts at a time. It’s really cheap to make and lasts forever. Kimchi can be eaten as a snack, condiment, garnish, and depending on spice level, a dare.

1 small white cabbage
rice wine vinegar
fresh ginger, finely diced
1 bunch of scallion, sliced to the top
Sirachi to taste
cayenne pepper to taste, I use about 3 tbs.
the largest size mason jar

Quarter the cabbage with a slice through the stem. Each quarter should have a piece of the center stem which you need to cut out and toss. Proceed to dice the cabbage into big bites. Cut your ginger and scallion. After everything is cut, begin to layer the cabbage with the scallion and the ginger in your large mason jar. Ideally you are looking for an even distribution of the three ingredients cause you won’t be able to stir the shiv once it’s in. Pack your cabbage tight. (pervert) There is more room in there than you think.

Now please forgive me for really inaccurate measurements. It’s hard to give precise measurements for this recipe because everyone is going to have slightly different amounts of liquid depending on how much cabbage you shoved in there, how much of the other ingredients you want, how pickled you want it to be, how spicy you want your ass, etc. You get me? But no worries, you can’t eff this up. Generally mix about 3 cups of vinegar with 1 cup of water and a quarter cup of sirachi. Mix well and pour into the jar. If you need more brine, create another batch with the same ratio. If you want extra spicy kimchi like this sweet baadasssss here, play with the amount of sirachi and/or add cayenne pepper. That’s what I do every time.

This is going to be ready to eat in about a day.

By Jessica | October 8, 2008 | Main Courses, Recipes, Snackin, Salads and Apps | 1 Comment

What do you get when you combine homemade dumplings and spring rolls, wine flowage, and tequila shots to boot? Our house on Saturday night. Oh. Yeah. And I’m not going to lie to you people, the food was banging. Even C said the food seemed easy enough to make at home and her culinary skills peak at choosing a stinky cheese and a dope wine – not that thats anything to laugh about. I can’t taste the difference between merlot and shiraz but give me a blind pork test and I’ll school you. Anyway, make these things at your house to impress your friends.

Steamed Pork and Scallion Dumplings

1/2 lb of ground pork
2 scallions, sliced
1/4 cup of tamari
3 tbs of sesame oil
dash of vinegar
fresh pepper
wanton wrappers
Makes about 12.

Mix the first 6 ingredients together. Drop a spoonful of mixture on to the center of the wrapper. Wet the exposed edges with water. Grab all the corners, bring to the middle and scrunch together. Steam for 20 minutes. Dipping sauces below.

Steamed Ginger and Beef Dumplings

1/2 lb of ground beef
1/4 cup of finely chopped ginger
1/4 cup of tamari
salt and fresh pepper
wanton wrappers
Makes about 12.

Mix all ingredients together. Drop a spoonful of mixture on to the center of the wrapper. Wet the exposed edges with water. Grab all the corners, bring to the middle and scrunch together. Steam for 20 minutes. Dipping sauces below.

Fried Cabbage, Shitake and Carrot Dumplings

1 carrot, diced
1/4 cup of white cabbage, shredded
1/4 cup of shitake mushrooms, diced
wanton wrappers
veg oil for frying
1/2 cup of water
Makes about 12.

Dice your carrot, cabbage and shrooms and combine in a bowl. Drop a tablespoon or so (you’ll begin to feel it out) onto the wrapper. Guess what you do here. That’s right. Wet the edges, grab the corners, bring together, scrunchy scrunchy. Here is what is different. Heat a frying pan and add a bit of veg oil for frying. When very hot, place your dumpling to fry for 5 minutes. When they have a nice crispy brown bottom, pour in a 1/2 cup of water and cover immediately to finish cooking through with a nice steam bath. Let it do its thing for 5 minutes. Should be ready at this time. Dipping sauces below.

Fresh Spring Rolls

1/2 carrot, julienned (that means cut into thin strips at about 3 inches)
2 scallions, cut down the middle middle and cut at about 3 inches
1/2 bunch of cilantro
1/2 bunch of chinese or (uh, american? or italian?.. dunno) basil
rice paper rolls

Cut your veggies and clean and dry your herbals. Add the rice paper to a bowl of very warm water and let it soften for about 30 seconds. Make sure you get all the edges under the water so it doesn’t roll up and crack. When the paper is soft, very gently pull it out and lay flat on a cutting board. Throw a bit of each of your ingredients into the center towards the bottom of the wrapper. Begin to roll the fatty towards the center. Halfway up, grab the right and the left and fold over the rolled half. Then continue to roll up. As soon as the paper dries, it will stick to itself. To serve, use a very sharp knife to cut 2 or 4 slices and stand up if possible.

Dippin Sauces

sirachi
wasabi paste with tamari
chopped ginger in tamari
sesame oil with red pepper flakes (or without)

Let me mention that I particularly like the wasabi with the beef and the sesame oil with the spring rolls. Let me also mention that these are damn easy to do, cheap as all get out and fun to eat. I am not afraid to cater your next dumpling affair. Gimme a date and a time and I’ll be there. You provide the tequila.

By Jessica | September 27, 2008 | Main Courses, Recipes | No comments

I guess I been getting my asian on lately. Got a wok. Now, usually, I am mo patient in the kitchen and I enjoy the projects. But when seasoning my new wok, I thought I would chuck the fiery ass iron out the window onto someone’s cabesa. Lucky R came to my rescue and finished it up for me. Basically, when seasoning a wok, after the initial washing and drying, you wanna wipe a thin coat of veg oil and over a low flame, and heat the metal so it absorbs the oil. First of all, you got to do this 4 times before using. Second of all, if you want an even browning, you have to hold it over the flame to get the sides, I swear you have to be freakin brooke hogan to do that shiv. But you know what? It was worth it, sore arms and all cause shortly after the seasoning debackle, we made some very serious fried rice.

Fried Rice with Carrots, Snow Peas, Chicken and Egg

3 cups cooked white rice (I dare you to try it with brown rice)
handful of snow peas, knotty bits at the end chopped off
1 chicken breast, cubed
1 carrot, sliced
1/2 cup white onion, chopped
2 eggs
1/4 cup tamari sauce (or more if you are into salty)
1/8 cup sesame oil (or more if you are obsessed with that flavor like I am)
sirachi to taste
veg oil for frying
This serves two.

Have all your ingredients cut, ready and accessible cause this shiv is going to go fast like a girl gone wild.

Heat your wok. When the veg oil starts to smoke, throw in your onion and stir like a madman. After 30 seconds, throw in your chicken. It will start to turn white immediately. After 1 minute, add your carrots. One minute later, the snow peas, all the while stirring furiously. When the heat gets back up, toss in your rice. Add tamari, sesame sauce and sirachi. When everything seems to be tasting delicious, make a hole in the middle of the pan and drop your eggs directly onto the wok. Left them fry a bit by continuously giving them real estate on the pan. As the egg hardens, scrape and add to the rice and veg in the pan. Do this until the egg is fully cooked.

Serve immediately in a big ol’ bowl. Offer your guests extra sirachi just in case they like fire mouth.

The key is to have very high heat, so you cook quickly, sear the outside, mainstain crispy veg and make hot food. That’s why the wok is so dope. Hey China, thanks for the wok (you can keep the milk).

By Jessica | September 22, 2008 | Projects, Recipes | 3 Comments

So we like to eat pork, wanna fight about it? We also like to eat bite-sized. I think it’s cuter that way. Pretty sure R just thinks it’s more fun to eat with his fingers. I got a steamer recently, and since we like dumplings around here, and pork is our heart, we churned out some pork dumplings like we were a tiny little dumpling-eating factory.

All the ones that look like dumplings, R made. My anal ass (ha, didn’t even think about that when I was typing but it stays) liked the straight lines of the stars, so those are mine. Also see the lone tortalli I made. :( Not sure why I did that.

I’m not going to lie to you, R’s were better and I would recommend that shape with this recipe. Something about the bunchy dough at the top that was mmm mmm good.

Steamed Pork Dumplings

1 lb of ground pork
1/4 cup tamari
3 tbs of sesame oil
2 tbs of sirachi
one small splash of vinegar
1 shallot, finely chopped
wanton wrappers (as I said before, shut up)
salt and pepper
Makes about 24 dumplings. Perfectly serves 2 as an entre if you’re fat.

Combine all the ingredients in a bowl. Mix with your fingers (please wash them first, gross). Drop one scoop of pork, roughly the diameter of a quarter in the middle of the wanton wrapper. Brush water on the exposed parts of the wrapper to act as a adhesive. Gather the corners and edges and pull to the top. Smoosh together. Keep uncooked dumplings beneath a damp paper towel while finishing up. Wet the steamer a bit before putting the dumplings in or they will stick to the wood after cooking. Put the steamer on top of a pot of boiling water and let the dumplings steam for 20 minutes. If there are two stacked baskets, as most steamers are, switch the order halfway through.

For dipping, serve with individual bowls of tamari sauce, sirachi sauce, and sesame oil with red pepper flakes. I hear duck sauce would do yourself good, as well. Again, if you’re going to use your fingers, please wash them?