Somen

This is the recipe of a very thin Japanese kind of spaghetti, called "Somen". My mom taught me how to make it and she was taught by my Japanese grandma (Obatchan). As I couldn't find "somen", I had to replace it with "soba", which is very, very similar, but made of wheat pasta (which is better, in my opinion). The thing is, somen is a very, very thin noodle and it's normally white. The one I used, is more brown, because it is wheat and buckwheat pasta. I found mine at Ralph's, in the Japanese aisle.

Somen (or Soba)

Ingredients:

Somen or soba
Soy sauce (shoyu)
Eggs
Water
Knorr's Vegetable Bouillon (if you are not vegetarian, pick the chicken one)
Aji-no-Moto (I don't know where to find this one)
Green onion, very small diced

How to:

First boil the water. Then put the noodles in and cook it for just a little while (as they are thin, they can't stay long in the water). They will come to the water surface and you stir the water, so they go down. They will come up again and you stir the water again, so they go down again. They will come up again and so you will stir the water once again. In the third time they go up, you will know they are done. As they came up very soon, I let them cook just a little more, making 6 minutes (but remember that I used wheat pasta, which is denser than normal pasta. So if you are using "somen" instead of "soba", remember this rule of letting them come up for 3 times before taking them away. That is more important than counting the time.).

Drain the water onto another pan (you want to save some of the hot water, so you can keep the noodles hot). Put the drained noodles on top of this pan with the hot water and cover. If the noodles get cold, they will get sticky. As I have a pan that is a steamer, I turned the noodles on the "steamer" (and this was on top of a bowl, smaller than the pan) and the hot liquid got into the bowl. You don't need to save all the water, because it's just to keep the noodles warm. Then I poured the water back into the steamer pan and put the noodles (that were in the drainer of the steamer pan) onto the pan again and the water in the bottom of the pan kept them warm. To help keeping them warm, I let them simmering, in a very very low heat.

While you wait for the noodle's water to boil, you can start making the "sauce". You will get a big pan and fill it with water, but not until the top, because you'll be adding eggs and soy sauce to it. Throw in 2 or 3 cubes of Vegetable Bouillon (or chicken bouillon), depending on your taste. As I like it very well seasoned, I used 3. My mom uses 2. When it's dissolved in the water (the water will be boiling by then), you add soy sauce. Go on tasting until it gets to your paladar. Before the water boils, you can start preparing the eggs you will use in this sauce.

Eggs: Put the 2 or 3 eggs (I used 3) in a bowl and mix the egg whites with the yolk. Pay attention: you are not really "mixing" them - you're just breaking the yolks so it blends with the egg whites. You don't want to stir it because it's not supposed to look like "omelet". Do it gently, just enough to get them slightly blended.

After pouring the soy sauce in the water, put the eggs in the pan. When the eggs come up to the surface of the water, they are done. You can use medium heat for this, if you wish.

Season it with a little bit of aji-no-moto (this is the picture of it on the right).


Serve in a bowl (japanese bowl). Put the noodles into the bowl and then pour the sauce on top of it (yeah, with the eggs!). Throw some green onions on top of it and enjoy!

PS: It should be eaten hot.

Mango Sorbet

This is my own recipe. As I was doing it by looking, without any recipe, I don't have an exact measurement. This is more of a "by-eye" recipe.... it really works, though. If you have questions, please email me (or just send me a comment). This recipe can be used with other fruits, such as Strawberries ( I used to make them with strawberries). The recipe is below the mango recipe.

Light Mango Sorbet

Ingredients:

- frozen mango (in pieces ) - this should be enough to cover the bottom of the blender, but not much.

- fat-free milk ( or soy milk) - just a little; just enough so the blender can work.

- splenda for cooking (if you like very sweet, cover the mango with the splenda. But only if you like it really sweet).

How to make it:
Put the fruit in the blender. Then add splenda and milk. Blend it slowly, opening sometimes to stir it with a spoon (of course, turn the blender off before!). When it's creamy, but there still are pieces of mango, turn it off. The idea is that it's not as creamy as an ice-cream, but something "in between" being totally solid and creamy. It should be a "little hard" cream.

Put it into individual glass recipients (can be a glass, a dessert bowl...) and decorate it with 4 or 3 chocolate chips (milk chocolate) in the center and spread around the chips some powder cocoa ( just a little, enough to trace a circle around the chocolate chips). Serve immediately, before it starts to turn liquid (and this happens fast!)

Strawberry Sorbet

Basically, it's the same way you make the mango sorbet: the ingredients are the same, just changing mango for strawberry (frozen - it's better if it is sliced, but you can use whole strawberries, if you want). But I decorate it differently: after putting it in the glasses, I covered the top with light whipped cream and put some few slices of strawberry on top.

Ratatouille

Ok, so this one I made yesterday. I got the recipe online ( from "The New York Times") and it's the same recipe that is used in the animation ("Ratatouille"). I absolutely fell in love with this movie and couldn't take that dish out of my head. My husband bought the Art book about the animation and I was reading it when I saw the picture of ratatouille. Then I decided that that would be dinner for the night.
It worked, but it took me about 2 1/2 hours to prepare it. I guess it's because I didn't pay so much attention to the recipe when I first read it and sliced the peppers before taking them into the oven.

TIP: to prepare the "piperade", you will need yellow, red and orange peppers. You have to take them to the oven to be able to peel their skin. In the recipe, it says to leave them there for 15 minutes or until the skin starts to loose. I didn't wrap them in foil (because I was out of foil) and left them there for 15 min. Don't do it: if you're not using the foil, forget about the time and keep your eyes on the peppers. When you see the skin starting to get loose, then you take the peppers out. I made the mistake of slicing them before taking them to the oven: that doubled my work when I had to peel them. So, just put the complete half in the oven and slice after you peel them.

RATATOUILLE

FOR PIPERADE

1/2 red pepper, seeds and ribs removed

1/2 yellow pepper, seeds and ribs removed

1/2 orange pepper, seeds and ribs removed

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 teaspoon minced garlic

1/2 cup finely diced yellow onion

3 tomatoes (about 12 ounces total weight), peeled, seeded, and finely diced, juices reserved

1 sprig thyme

1 sprig flat-leaf parsley

1/2 a bay leaf

Kosher salt

FOR VEGETABLES

1 zucchini (4 to 5 ounces) sliced in 1/16-inch rounds 1 Japanese eggplant, (4 to 5 ounces) sliced into 1/16-inch rounds 1 yellow squash (4 to 5 ounces) sliced into 1/16-inch rounds 4 Roma tomatoes, sliced into 1/16-inch rounds 1/2 teaspoon minced garlic 2 teaspoons olive oil 1/8teaspoon thyme leaves Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

FOR VINAIGRETTE

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oi

1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar

Assorted fresh herbs (thyme flowers, chervil, thyme)

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper.

1. For piperade, heat oven to 450 degrees. Place pepper halves on a foil-lined sheet, cut side down. Roast until skin loosens, about 15 minutes. Remove from heat and let rest until cool enough to handle. Peel and chop finely.

2. Combine oil, garlic, and onion in medium skillet over low heat until very soft but not browned, about 8 minutes. Add tomatoes, their juices, thyme, parsley, and bay leaf. Simmer over low heat until very soft and very little liquid remains, about 10 minutes, do not brown; add peppers and simmer to soften them. Season to taste with salt, and discard herbs. Reserve tablespoon of mixture and spread remainder in bottom of an 8-inch skillet.

3. For vegetables, heat oven to 275 degrees. Down center of pan, arrange a strip of 8 alternating slices of vegetables over piperade, overlapping so that 1/4 inch of each slice is exposed. Around the center strip, overlap vegetables in a close spiral that lets slices mound slightly toward center. Repeat until pan is filled; all vegetables may not be needed.

4. Mix garlic, oil, and thyme leaves in bowl and season with salt and pepper to taste. Sprinkle over vegetables. Cover pan with foil and crimp edges to seal well. Bake until vegetables are tender when tested with a paring knife, about 2 hours. Uncover and bake for 30 minutes more. (Lightly cover with foil if it starts to brown.) If there is excess liquid in pan, place over medium heat on stove until reduced. (At this point it may be cooled, covered and refrigerated for up to 2 days. Serve cold or reheat in 350-degree oven until warm.)

5. For vinaigrette, combine reserved piperade, oil, vinegar, herbs, and salt and pepper to taste in a bowl.

6. To serve, heat broiler and place byaldi underneath until lightly browned. Slice in quarters and very carefully lift onto plate with offset spatula. Turn spatula 90 degrees, guiding byaldi into fan shape. Drizzle vinaigrette around plate. Serve hot.

Yield: 4 servings

This blog

Hi!

The reason I decided to create this blog, initially, was completely different. I wanted to make it a kind of "forum" to discuss women's issues. But I ended up not having time to work on the original idea.
Now, that I have time to dedicate more to my hobbies, I thought about this blog again ... and, why not to make it about one of my favorite hobbies?
Cooking wasn't my favorite hobby. I didn't even consider it a hobby. But, as time went by, and as my Au Pair life was getting more and more "still", I started to have fun in the kitchen. Not that I didn't like it before - I did, but it was just something minor, that didn't have the status of "hobby". In Brazil, I had so many things to do that I couldn't give myself the luxury of cooking for the simple sake of it ( I cooked because I had to eat....lol).
Then, here, I started having so much free time that I decided to take my time and cook something a little special, a little better. And one thing led to the other. Now I have a lot of fun not only trying to do any recipe that crosses my eyes but also trying new things, creating dressings (and trying to discover the ingredients and how to make the ones I have in restaurans by using their smell and taste)...

So now I am going to post here some of my experiences in the kitchen. The good ones, of course.

Enjoy and bon appetit!