Asian Shrimp Noodle--PHO

Problem:  

How to create a reasonably authentic Vietnamese Pho for Number 1 Son to make on his Alaskan salmon fishing expedition?

This picture below is of Mr. Artifact approving of the solution. And it must be good. 
He is wearing a Greek fisherman's cap! :)

Considerations:

Keeping in mind that boiling water on a boat is verboten and uber dangerous; knowing that fishermen don't have time, patience or stomach for rich foods that require retirement to the salon for brandy and cigars; understanding that nutrition, hydration and salt/electrolyte intake are essential for peak physical performance.

Viola!  I think I my be developing something that will work.

Mr. Artifact and I test drove this tonight, and it seemed "do-able", tasty and nutritious.  Of course, Mr. Artifact warned that if this resulted in his demise that he had not yet refilled the transmission fluid or oil on the Herbie, so no one should attempt to drive it in the event he expired.

Basics gathered: sauces, veg and noodles

Cut the veggies into smaller bite-sized piecs.

Important:  lime, garlic and the protein!

Main ingredients:

• about 12  raw or cooked shrimp (I prefer raw, cleaned and shelled--frozen section is great or catch them!)  You could substitute any meaty fish like salmon, or chicken or thinly sliced steak or pork.

• 6 oz mixed stir fry veg (broccoli, carrots, snow peas) from the refrigerator section.  You can get these fresh also, in which case you would chop up about 2 C total. . . or. . . go with a frozen mix of same variety.  (The grocery store fresh veg come bagged in 12 oz  packages.)  Make sure to chop into soup size pieces if they are large.

• 1 bundle Udon noodles (they come in a pack of 3 bundles)

• 4 C chicken broth (one of those big square boxed broths is about 4 C)

• 1 T peanut oil (or other clear vegetable oil)

• 1 t sesame oil

• 1 t chopped fresh garlic

• 1 T Korean hot sauce

• 2 T fish sauce

• 1 T soy sauce

• 1/2 t five spice mix

Garnish:

• 1/4 C chopped cilantro
• lime wedges
• 2 diced green onions on the diagonal
• (you could also add avocado!  I did not have any . . . alas!)

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Pre cooking tips: helpful and paranoid:

Getting ready for fishing or an extended picnic or just planning for the weekday? The noodles will last a week in your fridge once cooked.  YOU NEED TO DO THIS ONE WAY OR THE OTHER.  Why not do it on shore?.  This makes cooking so much easier if you can just pull out a baggie of pre-cooked noodles.

Here is how to do it:  when you are on shore, cook the Udon noodles, drain, cool, and put into a baggie for use on the boat.  Noodles cook for 12-13 minutes in lightly salted water.  Drain, cool (run under cool water) and bag.

a useless picture of noodles boiling.

cooked and bagged noodles for the chippie who is on the ball.

• chop up cilantro, green onions and quarter the limes.  Put in baggie  (These will last about 4 days.)
• chop up veg and the garlic and put into baggie (a 3-4 day window)
• shrimps should be frozen before taking on board unless you get them fresh.  If fresh, eat or freeze within 24 hours.Thawed/fresh shrimp last about 24 hours.  .. don't fart around with raw meat.  Freeze if it will be longer.

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Process:

• heat peanut/veg oil and sesame oil in large saucepan/pot 

• Saute veggies and garlic for 2 minutes until veggies start to color more deeply

• Turn OFF heat and add hot sauce, fish sauce, soy sauce, and five spice

• Add shrimp (if raw. . . if they are precooked, add when you add noodles)

• Add chicken broth

• Heat to a simmer/slow boil

• Add noodles (and shrimp if it is already cooked)

• Continue to simmer/boil 1 minute

• Take off stove. . .let set 2 minutes

• Ladle into big mugs (you might want some tongs to grab out the noodles)

• Add cilantro and green onions (if you have avocado slices, now is the time to add them)

• Serve with extra hot sauce

• Enjoy!

The finished pho with garnishes.  YUM

Whammo! Tom-Clam-O!

After passing through the grocery store aisles for years and eyeing the Clamato Juice cocktail with curiosity, I finally broke down and bought some.  I actually resisted buying it for a long time, since its ingredients included high fructose corn syrup and food coloring.  (Why high fructose corn syrup is bad.) It was also sort of a suspicious unnatural red color. 

However, I couldn’t stand it anymore.  One day I bought some.  The whole idea of clams and tomatoes together was actually very appealing.  Afterall, weren’t they the stars in my favorite Italian clams dish?

I have to say that I really loved the stuff.  It was/is the perfect morning jolt, with enough flavor and salty sweetness to get me moving.  I guess you could say I became addicted to Clamato.  Have a midnight craving?  Drink Clamato.  Thirsty after eating a bag of pork rinds while working on the computer?  Drink Clamato.  Happy?  Drink Clamato.  Mad?  Drink Clamato.  Pregnant?  But, at nearly $5 a bottle, it was more expensive than fricking orange juice.  I went through 2 bottles a week.

As much joy as it was giving me, I cringed every time I put a bottle into my grocery cart or took one out of my fridge.  Still high fructose corn syrup in there?  Yep.  Still strange coloring?  Yep.  Despite channeling subliminal requests (a la Richard Gere) to the Mott’s Company to amend their recipe, my favorite beverage was becoming a serious source of cognitive dissonance. 



Some of the basic ingredients.  Try to get Snow's brand clams.
They are the only ones I've found with US clams.



Observing my predicament one day, Mr. Artifact suggested, “Why don’t you make your own?”  In fact, he even collected some ingredients at the grocery store for me.  I tried a number of recipes that I found on the web from souls as conflicted as mine.  But, they (the recipes) were weak approximations.  Clam juice was the recommended ingredient to get the clammy flavor into the juice, but it was not coming through once diluted in the tomato juice.  Mott’s appeared to use dried clams, which weren’t on my grocer’s shelves.  Again, Mr. Artifact came to the rescue and brought home a can of clams (Snow’s, a product of USA. Yay!).  These were liquefied in my trusty Oster Blender.  And viola!  This was a significant improvement, but still not kicky enough.  We finally settled on adding some fish sauce, a key ingredient in Southeast Asian cooking.  A few more improvements to get the tart, sweet and salty mixture resulted in the additions of Worcestershire Sauce, beef broth, catsup, vinegar, and lemon juice.

Mr. Artifact even made up an apt name and label:  Whammo! Tom-Clam-O!

So, I’m still addicted, just not conflicted.



Whammo! Tom-Clam-O! Recipe        Makes 8 Cups

(by Butternut Place blog)

·         6 C tomato juice

·         1C homemade beef broth/cooled (if you use bouillon, be warned that it may make the drink very salty)

·         6.5 oz. container chopped clams (in clam juice)

·         4 T lemon juice

·         2T red wine vinegar

·         2T natural catsup (no HFCS)

·         1 ½  T fish sauce

·         1  T Worcestershire Sauce

·         2t sugar

·         1t Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce or Tabasco (you may want less, so add only a little bit at a time and test in between)

Add clams (with juice from can) in blender and blend on high/liquefy for 40 seconds.  If you notice that your clams have not completely liquefied, blend a bit longer. Add 1 C of the tomato juice and all the remaining ingredients in a blender.  Blend until incorporated.  It may appear pinkish and cloudy due to all the air infused during blending.  Pour the mixture into a plastic or glass container/pitcher.  It will need to be about 8 cups or 64 oz in size. 

Add the remaining 5 C of tomato juice to your container with the mixture, and stir or shake to combine. 

Affix Tom-Clam-O! Label.

Taste, wait a moment for the kick to develop, widen your eyes, and with a big look of surprise exclaim “Whammo!”

 Chill and display prominently on top front shelf in refrigerator.

This drink will improve in flavor after several hours of (not to get all scientific with you, but) ‘infusing and entwining.’ It will become less opaque as the air bubbles diminish.

Sinfully Good Hoisin Marinated Pork Tenderloin

This recipe is really not so much born out of inspiration as it was out of leftoverization.  I had this really nice pork tenderloin and no particular plan for its glorification on the dinner plate.  The grocery store was having a sale, so I actually bought several of these and froze them for future  use.  Scrounging through the fridge, and looking that kimchi eye to eye, I realized I had the makings of something tasty possible. 

Hoisin sauce is made from soy and wheat.  It is a rather thick sauce, almost like a paste.  It is sort of sweet, and for a long time, I assumed that there was fruit in it.  But that was before I read ingredient labels.  Now that I do read the labels, my life is so much more marinated with information. 

I got so enthused with making this that I forgot to take pictures, and there were no leftovers except for sauce.  Number 1 son said I should not include a picture of the sauce because it looked like what his friend Luke puked up on our livingroom carpet once.  Ha, I scoff at puke. And since I am the one who has to clean it up most of the time, I declare that this looks nothing like what Luke left on the carpet.  (Hey! this blog is for fun, not profit!)

Here's the picture (of the marinade):


The marinade!

  RECIPE

1 pork tenderloin

Kimchi to serve on the side
   (see previous blog post:What's Going On? Kimchi)

1 C  beer (whatever you like)

Marinade (below)
2 T olive oil to brown the meat

               

Marinade
3 T hoisin sauce
1 T fish sauce
1 t soy sauce
1 T rice wine or apple cider vinegar
1 T sesame oil
1 T minced fresh garlic
1 t fresh ginger (use the tube!)
1 t sesame seeds
2 t Chinese Five Spice Powder
¼ t red pepper flakes

Mix the marinade ingredients and pour over tenderloin.  Let marinate for 1-4 hours.  Remove pork from marinade (reserve the marinade).  Brown the tenderloin on all sides in the olive oil, about 3 minutes per side. Put into a baking dish/casserole dish/ or cast iron frying pan (all the better if you browned your meat in this!).  Add 1 C beer and the rest of the marinade.  Cover with lid or foil.

 

Bake in a 350 oven for 15 minutes.

Remove and let rest for 10 minutes.
While it is resting, you can reduce the marinade if you want it thicker by boiling it on the stovetop.

Serve over white sticky rice (Japanese style)—prepare according to package directions.  Drizzle hot marinade over it all.  Put kimchi on the side or mound it on the top.  Serve with a crispy salad for more veggie action.  Yum.