Cold Chicken & Noodle Salad

There are versions of noodle salad here and there in cook shows and recipe books or blog. The basic ingredients are quite similar. Noodle, protein, various fresh herbs and salad; for seasoning, of course its the soy sauce and sesame oil.

Perfect for a warm day or as a quick light meal or serve as side. You could prepare a day ahead, just make sure that you keep the cooked and fresh ingredients in separate containers and bring everything together just before serving. Here is my version and it changes depending on what I can gather from my fridge.

Ingredients:

Noodle:
1 - 1 1/2 portion thin rice noodle, alternately instant noodle or glass noodle could work.

Protein:
1/2 Chicken breasts, cooked;
4-8 cooked shrimp;

Fresh Ingredients:
1/2 to 1 Red Chilli (spicy or sweet)
1 stalk Spring Onion
Cook Shiitek mushroom or black ear fungus
6 - 8 Mint leaves
1 handful of Basil leaves
1 handful of coriander
few leaves of Iceberg salad
1/2 Onion
1/2 stalk Lemon grass

Seasoning:
2 - 3 Tbsp Olive oil
1/2 tsp Sesame Oil
2 Tbsp Lemon or Lime Juice
Soy Sauce
Chilli Oil (optional)

Preparation:

• Cook Thin Rice Noodle as per the packaging instruction;
• Shred, sliced or cut the cooked chicken breast into long strips. You could use left over boiled or roast chicken;
• Sliced the cooked shrimp into half or quarter;
• Thinly sliced the red Chili, mushroom/black wood fungus, onion, spring onion, lemon grass and iceberg salad;
• Cut mint and basil leaves into long strips;
• Coarsely chopped the coriander leaves;
• Place the noodle, protein, fresh ingredient in a large salad bowl and toss to mix. Season with soy sauce, lemon juice, chilli oil, sesame oil to taste.

It is more likely to find shiitek mushroom here in Athens than black ear fungus. I have manage to buy both dry and fresh shiitek mushroom from the Supermarket across Kiffisias ISAP station. If you are using fresh shiitek mushroom, I would suggest to cook it in boiling water with a few slice of ginger to rid off the moldy taste. 

Home Made Noodles with Mince Meat Sauce

When I was a student, this noodle dish was perhaps one of the most popular among us students. It is easily available from the hawker stall, doesn't involve hot soup (although the soup version is always available) which is ideal under the constant hot weather and more importantly, it will definitely keep hunger at bay for the next hours. Another thing I like about this dish is that every stall would make the noodle fresh (well not exactly, the dough is prepared ahead of time) and cut it into which ever thickness or shapes you like it. The choice was narrow or wide noodle or small hand tear (literally translated, we call it "flour pieces" and it requires you to just tear a rolled out dough into pieces).

Fresh noodle are not that hard to make. The easiest method to make fresh noodle is exactly the same way as making fresh pasta. All you need is flour and water or egg, some effort (think about it this way, you will replace the calories you lost later) and that is about it.

A nice bowl of comfort

The sauce for this noodle dish, I will say its the Asian version of Bolognese sauce. Here's my recipe, it is enough to feed 2 very hungry adult (but I often find that I could have make it a bit more).

To prepare mince meat sauce:

250g Mince Pork or Beef
1 Tbsp Soy Sauce
1/2 Tbsp Oil (add if your meat is very lean)
1 Tbsp water
Black Pepper to taste

The simplest way is to marinate the mince meat with soy sauce, oil, water and black pepper for 30 minutes. Alternately, first add the ingredient into the mince meat and then with a pair or 2 chop sticks, mix the marinates into the mince meat with a circular motion until the mince meat absorb in all the liquids. This will keep the mince meat juicy and more bite when cooked.

While you marinate the mince meat, work on the dough for the fresh noodle:

Preparing fresh noodle dough:

2 1/2 cup plain flour
1 tsp salt
About 1 cup of water (luke warm water on cold days and cold water* on hot days)

Mix the flour and salt in a large bowl. Make a hole in the middle. Slowly add in the water while you mix the flour with the water until you can form a large dough. Use just enough water to turn the flour into a workable dough. It may be less than 1 cup or more, depending on the weather condition and how dry is the flour.

On a floured surface, knead the dough until it is smooth. Rest the dough on a floured surface covered with a damp towel to let it rest (this is important, it will give your noodle a nice bite to it) for at least 5-10 minutes.

Knead the dough until smooth

While you rest the dough, prepare the mince meat sauce:

Cooking mince meat sauce:

1 large Spring Onion, chopped (including the green part)
1 tsp finely chopped garlic
2  - 3 Chinese dry mushroom, soaked until soft and julienne, keep the water. Alternately, you can use supermarket bought dried sliced Shi-take mushroom.
1 tsp finely chopped ginger (optional)
1 1/2 Tbsp Dark Soy Sauce
3 Tbsp Soy Sauce
1 cup stock or water from the soaked mushroom
2 tsp corn flour mix with 1 Tbsp water (if required)
2 - 3 Tbsp cooking oil
Chilie flakes (optional)

Dilute the dark soy together with the soy sauce in a small bowl. Coat a heated pan or wok with the cooking oil. Under a medium heat, add in chopped ginger and give it a few stir before adding in the chopped garlic and chillies flakes. Turn to high heat, add in the marinated mince meat and stir occasionally cooked.
Add in the mushroom and stir-fry for about half a minute before adding in dark soy sauce and soy sauce mixture and mix.
Add in stock, season with salt and black pepper before bringing it to a boil, reduce to medium heat and let simmer. When the sauce has been reduced to just covering the meat, add in chopped spring onion (keep aside about 1 table spoon for garnishing) and turn to high heat and bring to boil. Stir in the corn starch gradually until the sauce has slightly thicken (about the same consistency as Bolognese sauce). You can skip this step if the sauce is already thicken from the simmering or you don't mind a thin sauce.
Keep it warm over very low heat while you cook the noodles.

Now, To make your noodles:

Briefly knead the rested dough on a floured surface. Divide the dough into 2 - 3 portion. Roll out each small dough and fold. Repeat the for at least 6 times. Finally, roll out to about 1/3 cm thick flat dough. Cut into 1 cm stripes or thinner to your own preference. Dust the noodles generously with flour to prevent the strands from sticking with each other. Set aside and cover with a clean dry cloth. A pasta maker definitely make this task much more easier.  

Fresh noodle ready to cook and my trusty pasta maker

Cooking fresh noodles:

Just like cooking pasta, bring a large pot of water to a boil, drizzle some oil in the water before adding in the noodle. When the noodle floats, do a taste test before removing it straight into a serving boil. Serve the mince meat sauce on top the noodles and garnish with spring onion and chilies oil if you like it spicy. Serve immediately. Depending on the size of your pot, you may want to cook the noodle in batches.

Just a few tips:
1) Instead of fresh noodle, you can use store (supermarket) bought egg noodle w
2) Dark soy sauce may be available in large supermarket however, they could be sweet or salty. Which ever that you got, just have a taste test when you first use and adjust your seasoning accordingly. Add a teaspoon of sugar if the dark soy sauce you buy is on the salty side.
3) Cold water here means tap water. The tap water here is relatively cold even in summer unless it starts to pour out lukewarm water, you can just use tap water.

Easy Stir Fry Rice Noodles

I haven't forgot that I have got a blog and I haven't stop cooking. Just that most of the time, I was too tired to take photos and haven't had the time to sit down and write.

Doesn't this look delicious even in summer?

 Any way, I made my own fried noodle recently and because of the heat of summer, I decided on something quick and easy for myself. It tastes better than the one ordered from the Chinese place! Here's how I do it.

Ingredients for 1 person:
1 - 2 large Cabbage leaves, julienne*
Pork, about a match box size, sliced
4 shrimps, cleaned and shelled

1/2 carrot, julienne
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
half an onion, julienne
125g rice noodle^, soaked
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/2 Tbsp dark soy sauce
1/2 Tbsp soy sauce
1/2 chicken stock cube
cooking oil, as needed
salt & white pepper to taste
1 large spring onions, sliced (for garnish)
half chilli**, sliced (optional)

I use thin rice noodle but you can use flat rice noodle. Here's it has been soaked in water and softened

From top, clock wise: carrot, cabbage, spring onion, shrimp, pork

Directions:
Heat wok until hot, drizzle in a few table spoon of cooking oil. Under medium heat, add in half of the sliced onion and fry until brown and crispy. Remove and set aside.
 
Dilute the dark soy sauce together with a few table spoon of water, soy sauce and chicken stock. Set aside.

In the remaining oil (add a few more table spoon if require), add in the chopped garlic and give it a few stir. Turn up to high heat and add in chicken meat and shrimp and stir until the chicken is cooked. Move the ingredients aside, making sure that there is enough cooking oil in the wok, pour in the beaten egg. When the egg starts to solidify, give it a few stir to break it up. Fry the egg until it is almost cooked and move aside together with the other ingredients.

At this point, make sure that there is a few table spoon of oil left in the wok. Add in the rice noodle, shredded cabbage, carrot, remaining sliced onion and the sauce mixture. Stir and toss everything together, add a few table spoon of water if it is too dry. Continue to stir fry for about 5 minutes or until the noodle is cook. If the noodle starts to stick or look too dry, add in a table spoon of water at a time, as required.

While you toss and stir, make sure that you coat the noodle evenly with the sauce mixture and all the ingredients are nicely mixed. Season with salt and white pepper and heat off. Move the noodle to a plate and garnish with sliced spring onion and chilli on top. Serve immediately or at room temperature.

One thing I would like to suggest to you though is that, it is easier to cook in small batches if you are cooking for more than 1 person, leaving a lot of room to toss all the ingredients in the wok. It cooks faster and allow you to mix much easier.

notes: *Julienne means cut into long thin stripes.
            ^I use Blue Dragon brand rice noodle. I find it a better option for stir fry as it doesn't break easily or stick to the wok too much (my wok is not that non-stick you see). You may want to break them shorter (about 8 - 10 inch in length), it does make it easier to toss.
          ** I got these small chilli (about 1 - 1 1/2 inch) which is very spicy from the lady at the Chinese restaurant in Marousi, Athens. She told me I can get it in Exarxia, Athens. Unless you are a season chilli eater, I suggest that you either use the Greek red pepper or the normal Asian chilli.