Everybody Loves Ramen!

We've had some cold weather around these parts, and a freezer full of turkey meat and turkey stock. So to kill two birds with one stone and use up our turkey, and warm our bellies, we decided to try our hand at making our own ramen.  We transformed this American fall classic into a Japanese-influenced cold weather delight.

To our basic stock, we added some mirin, garlic, soy sauce, and some white pepper.  Since our stock was pretty thick, we also added some water to give it the right consistency.  Let it simmer and reduce to about half.  We also threw in some of the shredded turkey we had on hand.

Once your broth has reduced, throw in your noodles.

Once they started to soften, we added in our chopped baby bok choy and some sliced scallions.  We wanted to keep some crunch to the bok choy, so we added them at the end.  If you want them to soften more, you can add them earlier.

Once the noodles are al dente, you're ready to serve!  We topped our ramen with some strips of nori for some added umami punch.

It was a nice and hearty bowl of soup, perfect for a cold winter's day!  It was a great change of pace from other turkey leftovers, and the flavor was comparable to the real thing.  Look for us to try a more traditional tonkotsu ramen in the future.

Braised & Enthused

Sorry for the brief hiatus!  Between work, and the upcoming holidays, it's been a bit crazy around these parts.  We've mostly been cooking easy, standby recipes, so there haven't been many new recipes to post here.  However, we did receive some nice looking short ribs in a recent share and put those to good use, cooking them low and slow.  This method of cooking leaves the meat nice and tender, practically falling off the bone.

We're big fans of Top Chef, and Edward Lee, a contestant from the season based in Texas, just put out a cookbook combining his Korean roots and southern tradition called, Smoke & Pickles.  We followed his recipe for the short ribs, and it was quite delicious.

If there's a lot of excess fat, you'll want to trim some of it off.  Then parboil the ribs in a dutch oven for about 8 minutes, in about 4 cups of water.  Once they start to cook, pull them out of the water, and set them aside.  You'll want to skim some of the fat out of the liquid, and then reserve 2 cups of the cooking water.  The rest of the water can be dumped out, and you'll want to dry out your pot.

Once your pot is back on the stove, heat a couple tablespoons each of sesame oil and vegetable oil.  When it's nice and hot, drop in a few short ribs at a time.  You want to get a nice sear on all sides of each short rib, so you'll want to do them in batches.

Once all of the short ribs are seared, place all of them back in the pot, add your chopped onions, ginger and garlic, and let it cook for a few minutes.

Next, add your soy sauce, chicken stock, mirin, and the 2 cups of reserved cooking liquid and bring to a slow simmer.  To balance out the saltiness of the liquid, stir in some sugar and honey.

Then just let it simmer away, giving your short ribs a turn every now and then.  After an hour, add in your carrots, parsnips, and pine nuts.  The recipe also calls for raisins, but I'm not a huge fan, so we left them out.  There was enough sweetness already from the sugar and honey.

Let everything simmer until the short ribs are tender, and the liquid has thickened.  This will be about another hour or so.

While we were in the final stages of braising, we whipped up a side dish of roasted Brussels sprouts.  We halved the brussels sprouts and tossed them in a marinade of miso paste, ponzu, rice wine vinegar, and sesame oil.  We also stumbled upon some black garlic at Trader Joe's, so we sliced up a couple cloves and added them to the sprouts.

Black garlic gets it's color from being fermented for weeks.  It develops a nice sweet flavor, with hints of balsamic vinegar.  It may look a bit unappetizing, but it's quite delicious.  Once your sprouts are evenly coated, place them on a baking sheet and let them roast in the oven for about 20 minutes.  We topped them with some sesame seeds and bonito flakes, for a punch of umami.

Rice would be the traditional accompaniment for this dish, but Edward Lee pairs his short-ribs with edamame hummus. We went in a similar, but different direction, and  whipped up some roasted garlic mashed potatoes with some spuds we got in our share. They were a great way to soak up the delicious gravy.

The meat was super tender, and fell right off the bone.  The Asian flavors in the braising liquid really soaked into the meat, and was a nice balance of salty and sweet.  We will be making this recipe again if we get more short ribs, or if they're on sale at the market (if Justin gets his way!).

Magnificent Miso Mollusks

If you're looking for a quick weekday meal, look no further than some seared scallops.  They don't take much time to cook up, and make for a very tasty meal.  The sweet scallop is perfectly complimented by the salty and umami from the miso paste.

You'll want to start by patting your scallops dry.

Then we mixed up a marinade of miso paste, mirin, rice vinegar, ginger, and a touch of sesame oil.  We used this recipe as a guide.  We let the scallops marinate in the sauce for about 30 minutes while we prepped our sugar snap peas and toasted up some almonds.

When you're ready to cook your scallops, get your pan nice and hot.  Place your scallops in the pan, and let them get a nice, golden brown sear before flipping them.  Searing them gives them not only a great taste but nice textural component as well.  Be sure to keep your attention on the pan, they only take a few minutes to cook on each side.

We topped our scallops with some freshly chopped scallions, and had a nice little salad of mixed greens, sugar snap peas, and almonds.  The outcome is a fresh, sophisticated, warm weather dish that looks as great as it tastes.  That's it--quick, simple, and delicious!