Spicy miso pork ramen

I need to find a way to make you want to make this. I can offer taste tests, evidenced-based reviews and margaritas. It's a Jamie Oliver recipe and if you're not a fan of him, I beg you to put that to one side and give this a crack. 

Its beauty lies in its simplicity. And cleverness. The ability to create such depth of flavour with so little expended effort. And so few ingredients. 

Now I'm a fan of the complicated. Hard to find ingredients where I need to walk down a side alley in Fortitude Valley and knock a secret code on a door to have a parcel of obscure spices slipped out. Or drive upwards of 50km in a north, south, east or westerly direction (well not really east because that would land me in Moreton Bay but you get my enthusiasm) to garner one of the six available black truffles. 

Everything on this list I could bang together at my local Woolies at Morningside. And I truly believe that if I stretch it, I could find identical ingredients at Woolies at Cannon Hill and Woolies at Wynnum Plaza. I'm not too sure about Capalaba. Or Logan. But these days you never know. If you're a Brisbane eastern suburbs local, you'll be nodding by now. Happy to hear feedback from Kallangur and Morayfield. 

Measurements have never really been my thing so take what I provide as a guide and use your instinct. And bloody keep tasting it ok. That's one thing Manu gets right in his world with too much affected accent and colourful jackets. He repeatedly tells cooks to taste. Bloody taste. 

Best you make it before the daytime temp starts hovering around 30 or save it for next winter. It's not really a summer dish. 

You can buy these from Woolies

Serves 4. Or 2. Depending on how hungry you are.

Ingredients

Oil (rice bran, sunflower, vege, whatever)
2-6 garlic cloves, finely chopped (I've been known to use 7 hence the wide arc)
3-6cm piece of ginger, grated
250g pork mince
¼ cup mirin
2 tablespoons soy sauce
¼ cup red miso paste
1 tablespoon chilli paste (I used that sambal olek - see pic - and it was magnificent)
1 litre chicken stock (Campbells is fine but don't get salt-reduced)
2 eggs
Ramen noodles (use the whole three bunches, fuck it)
2 bunches pak choy or bok choy

Method

Heat oil in a frypan over medium to high heat. Now this can be on the stove, or you can use your electric wok.

Add garlic and ginger and cook, stirring occasionally for 2-3 minutes until that fabulous aroma fills your kitchen and your heart.


Now you need a bit of commitment for this next bit. Consider a soothing beverage to keep you company.

Add the mince and continually stir, breaking it up and getting it brown all over.

Combine the mirin, soy, miso and chilli in a bowl then pour it over the nicely browned pork. Keep with it, on a reasonably high heat, stirring and turning, stirring and turning, until the mince is a really rich brown and has started to caramelise. When that happens cook it for another 1-2 minutes despite your instincts telling you to get it the fuck off the stove. Now you can take it off the heat.

Please listen to me. It may take a few minutes to work with this mince but trust me when I say it will be worth it. Just keep the heat to it and keep turning it. You can certainly do other things while you're chained to the stove - watch Netflix, scream at children, drink wine, scroll through Instagram. Better still, post a pic to Insta. Tag me.

Pour the stock into a saucepan and bring it to the boil then it can simmer patiently until it's needed.

Meanwhile (back at the ranch) boil some water in a saucepan so you can cook the eggs - if possible, you want the eggs to be at room temperature before you put them in the water. Once they're in the water, cook them for four minutes and not a second longer. When the buzzer goes (because I am assuming you have set the timer on your iPhone X), get them out, and plunge them into some ice cold water that you just happened to have on standby. This stops the cooking process. It's like face-palming the egg.

To cook the noodles, I boil a full kettle, pour the water into a glass or ceramic bowl, add the noodles and let them do their thing for 3-5 minutes, then I strain them in a colander and give them a quick rinse.

Chop the ends off the pak/bok choy, microwave for a minute.

Now is the time to build.

Put noodles in the bottom of the bowl. Put the pak/bok choy on top. Then divide the mince between the 2 or 3 or 4 bowls. Pour over the hot stock. Peel and halve the eggs and pop on top of it all. Wait about 2-3 minutes and then watch how the stock takes on the properties of the chilli and becomes rich and dark and so full of intense flavour.

Thank you Jamie. Sometimes you annoy me. This is not one of those times.

You want to be eating this baby with chopsticks and one of those fabulous Asian spoons.

Jamie suggests topping it with bamboo shoots, spring onion, sesame seeds etc. I couldn't be fucked but you go right ahead.

Salmon poke bowls

This is the one I made last week

Now I quietly think the Japanese pinched this idea from me. Despite this blog eulogising my adoration to food, food prep and all things gourmet, I secretly have a penchant for chucking random stuff in a bowl. Usually this random stuff is left over, on its last legs or was something I forgot I had. I've thrown strawberries and sultanas in with left over curry and topped the lot with avocado and ricotta. That sort of thing. 

My daughter loves to eat this way too and thinks we should co-author a recipe book called "Chuck Shit In". I think it would walk off the shelves and make all those Masterchef wannabes a little nervous. Plus I love books with swear words in the title. The Subtle Art etc. 

Wakame - Japanese seaweed salad

Anyway these little puddles of gorgeousness are my absolute favourite thing to make. They can be brunch, lunch, dinner or all three. The best part is they need very little cooking and you can go a little rogue on what you put with the salmon. The colours are captivating. 

But always eat them with chopsticks. It's way more fun. Just nick some from Sushi Station. 



Ingredients (Now, remember I said you had options with what you put with it? Well, I'm putting down what I use but don't be led by me. You too have an imagination.)

Sashimi grade salmon (I live close to the Fish Factory on Lytton Rd which is an excellent stockist of sashimi products) (If there's two of us, I use one fillet. If there's more of you, you'll need to do some  maths.)
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 teaspoons sesame oil
2 teaspoons mirin
1 teaspoon freshly grated ginger
Brown rice (go on, be lazy, buy the tub you heat for 40 seconds)
Edamame (shelled, cooked, cooled)
Wakame (the fancy name for that fabulous Japanese seaweed salad)
Cherry tomatoes, quartered

This is a pic I got from the internet and it's fabulous

Avocado, cubed
Cucumber, sliced then quartered
Grated carrot
Corn kernels
Pickled ginger (out of the jar or nick some from Sushi Station)
One boiled egg, halved (nice if the centre still a bit soft and runny)
Toasted sesame seeds

Method

Cut the salmon into 2cm cubes, or thereabouts.

Which the soy sauce, sesame oil, mirin and ginger in a bowl then toss through the salmon.

Heat the rice, or cook it if you're being good, and put it in a noodle bowl.

Decorate around the top of the rice with the edamame, wakame, tomatoes, avocado, cucumber, carrot and corn.

Heap the salmon on top, you don't need to drain the liquid. Top with the ginger, egg and sesame seeds.

Serve with green tea.

YUM! 

Soba noodles with tofu & miso dressing

To me, this dish is like that pathetic friend we all had one of at school, where they'd do anything for you just to hang with your group. They'd buy you your lunch, give you their lunch, carry your bag and feed you compliments, as long as they were with your group. To paraphrase Selina Meyer, they'd be happy if you shot them in the face. That's the best analogy I can give you about this.

It's not quite a salad, yet you could have it as a stand-alone meal. It's not quite a side, but you could put it with some rare roast beef and some steamed greens. Or slice some salmon sashimi and plonk this on top. You can have it cold straight from the fridge, or warm it up a bit. Take it to work for lunch and if you get a better offer, it will still be happy to see you the next day. 

It takes longer to poo than it does to make this, that's if you take your phone in with you. For fuck's sake, the directions only have two steps! Enjoy, it's nice to be back xo

Ingredients

270g dried soba noodles (that whole packet of three)
2/3 cup frozen peas (I used edamame as well)
150g snow peas, halved diagonally
¼ cup lemon juice
¼ cup white miso paste
1 tbs horseradish cream
¼ cup rice bran oil
2 cups firmly packed rocket
1 carrot, coarsely grated
3 spring onions, thinly sliced diagonally
200g packet Japanese marinated firm tofu, cut into thick strips (get this from Woolies)
some dried nori, shredded

Method

Cook noodles in boiling water according to packet instructions, adding peas and snow peas for the last minute of cooking time. Drain. Refresh under cold water. Drain.

Meanwhile, whisk juice, miso, horseradish, 1 tbs water and oil in a large bowl until combined. Add noodles, peas, rocket, carrot and onions and toss to coat. Serve salad topped with tofu and scattered with nori.

(I keep forgetting to take a pic of mine so this is the one from the Woolies website, where I found this recipe. Mine looks a lot sloppier than this pic, so if yours does too, don't worry.)