Fish noodle soup

The search for tasty, quick mid week meals continues and this one is fantastic.  It's dead easy to make, tastes incredible and goes from the fridge to the bowl in about 20 minutes.  You need a few specialist things in the store cupboard, like mirin and sake, but if you buy them in a big bottle you'll be able to make this a dozen times before you need a refill.  

It's a Nigel Slater recipe originally but I've adapted it a little bit and rarely make it the same way twice.  As long as you get the marinade sorted then you can do what you want with the rest of it.  As with many things I cook there is nothing authentic about it, but I guarantee you can make it quickly and it'll taste great. 
  • One salmon steak per person - other fish will work too so try what you fancy and see how it goes
  • 2 tbsp of dark soy sauce
  • 1 tbsp light soy sauce
  • 2 tbsp sake
  • 2 tbsp mirin
  • 2 cloves of garlic, minced
  • 1 tsp sugar
  • Piece of ginger cut into thin sticks
  • 2 spring onions sliced
  • Noodles - whatever type you fancy
  • 500ml of chicken, fish or veggie stock - cubes/liquid are fine
  • couple of handfuls of greens - spinach, bok choy, pak choy etc 
  • Any other toppings you fancy - snow peas, green beans, corn, beansprouts, bamboo shoots, pickled ginger
Take the skin off the salmon and marinade it in the soy sauce, sake, mirin, garlic and sugar.  You can leave this as long as you want, but it still tastes good if you use it straight away.  Put the stock on to simmer in a pan and cook, drain and rinse the noodles.  I usually steam the greens over the noodles while they are cooking because I like them more just warm as opposed to cooked.  Make up a couple of bowls with noodles in the bottom and some of the greens on top.

Now heat some peanut oil in a pan and stir fry the ginger and spring onions for a minute.  Then add cook fish and a couple of tablespoons of the marinade.  Generally speaking I like my fish pretty rare so, depending on thickness, a minute or two on each side is plenty.  You can add as much or as little of the marinade as you like at this stage; leave it at a couple of tablespoons and the final dish is pretty light, add the whole lot in and it's dense and rich.  

Add the fish to your bowl, pour over the stock and finish it off with the rest of the toppings.  Perfect with a cold beer.

If you are organised enough you can do almost all the prep the night before and throw it together in the time it takes to cook the fish and heat up some stock.  It doesn't get much faster than that.

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Tagged Japanese Quick Dinner Recipe

Homemade Tantanmen

Is ramen addictive?  I think it maybe is.  There is something about the deeply savoury broth, slippery noodles and fresh toppings that results in me having withdrawal symptoms if I don’t indulge at least once a week.  I’ve had conversations with Weepix along the lines of ‘Well we could move back to the UK, but where will we get decent ramen?’.  Suffice to say I’m a bit of a ramen junky.

Before I even came to Australia I was drooling over blog posts about Sydney ramen shops and noodle bars.  Ryo's Noodles in Crow's Nest became almost like a second home when I lived just round the corner.  It was right between my apartment and the library; not much can compete with the double pleasure of a new book and a deep bowl of miso ramen.  

Alas we've now moved away from Crow's Nest and Ryo's isn't as regular occurrence as it once was.......so it's just as well that my office is five minutes from Ichi Ban Boshi in Galaries Victoria.  I take it as a good sign that both Ryo's and Ich Ban Boshi have long queues outside them every single day without fail.  A restaurant must be doing something right if people are prepared to wait for an undetermined period before being allowed in.  I've got to say it's a master stroke in heightening the anticipation; there we stand waiting for our number to be called, the smell of broth and tapping of chopsticks nearly driving us crazy.  As soon as you're called there is an instantaneous change of mindset from 'hurry the hell up!' to 'I'm going to savour every minute of this and who cares about those still waiting'.  If you want to witness basic human nature then simply observe the queue outside Ichi Ban Boshi. 

Despite the current quality noodle abundance I'm still worried that at some point in the future I may have to do without.  The only solution is to learn how to make some of the best dishes myself.  At Ichi Ban Boshi I'm a freak for the Tantanmen.  A quick Google search results in about a hundred definitions and recipes for tantanmen, but basically it's a spicy pork ramen (often tonkotsu) with sesame, pork mince and various veggies.  It's actually a Szechuan dish but usually served in Japan as ramen.

The recipe I used was a bit of a hybrid of many different sources and I've no idea how authentic it is, but the end result was not too shabby.

 

The Means

Stock:

  • 900ml of torigara soup stock (or chicken stock)
  • 2 Tablespoons of red miso

The Rest:

  • 1 Tablespoon of sesame oil
  • 1 minced garlic clove
  • 1 minced piece of ginger
  • 1 minced dried chile pepper
  • 1/2 Japanese long onion, minced (substitute scallions)
  • 200grams minced pork
  • 1/2 of a small bamboo shoot, minced (I missed this out)
  • 1 teaspoon tobanjian (Chili bean sauce)
  • 2 teaspoons tenmenjian (Chinese sweet black miso)
  • Noodles

The Method

First cook the noodles, drain, rinse well in cold water and set aside.  Then prepare the stock, add in the red miso, give it all bit of a stir and let simmer for a while.

Next you need to heat up the sesame oil and stir fry the garlic, ginger, chili and scallions.  Give them a minute or two and add the pork mince.  Stir fry until the mince browns and add in the tobanjian and tenmenjian and about 200ml of the stock.  Let it simmer for about ten minutes or so, until the mince is cooked through.  

To serve put the noodles in a deep bowl with your favourite toppings (I like corn, boiled egg, pak choi, bean sprouts, bamboo shoots....not generally all at once though). Pour over enough stock to cover the noodles and then add a few spoons of the pork mince.  

I'm afraid my lack of skill as a photographer is evident with these shots but the final dish was damn tasty.  It didn't have the depth of flavour of the store bought tantanmen but then they actually know what they are doing and simmer stock for hours.  I might try to make some genuine (free range!) pork stock next time and report back how it goes.

 

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Tagged Japanese Recipe Restaurant

Sashimi at Masuya

Some eating experiences have to be written about no matter how busy work, no matter what is distracting you on tv and no matter how lazy you are.

Just another Friday yesterday; busy end to the week, quick beer at work and then off home to some chili crab linguine and a glass of wine.  Weepix had other ideas however and decided that some sashimi was the order of the day.  Why not?  It was a lovely evening after a cloudy day and you gotta embrace these things when you have the chance.  That's why we headed for Masuya........which is in a basement.....with no windows.  Ah well, sometimes it's worth missing a beautiful sunset for promises of culinary treats to come.

I'm not much of an authority on sashimi and sushi.  I know the stuff I used to buy from the supermarket in the UK is to sushi waht a pot noodle is to ramen.  That's a damn shame when you consider how much incredible fish is caught in the UK, but there you go.  I know fresh is obviously good, mandatory in fact.  Could I tell one day old tuna from 12 hour old tuna though?  Could I tell you when the lobster is sliced incorrectly?  Nope, not a chance. What I am certain of is that the sashimi and sushi I had last night was the best I've ever eaten.

We wandered into Masuya at about 6.30pm as we had no reservation but a real hankering for fish.  Apologies were offered as the only seat available was at the sushi counter.  Oh no!  The opportunity to sit in front of beautiful, artful stacks of freshly sliced fish and watch as the chef expertly and amazingly quickly rolls, presses and stacks them into an incredible range of tasty treats.  Damn.  I'd pay extra for that.

After ordering a bottle of saki we sat looking at dozens of mouth watering options, including fantastic looking crab hot pots and beautiful bento boxes, and at length decided upon the chef's tasting plate, a sashimi selection plate and Wagyu in miso.

While waiting Weepix realised that we could just ask the chef directly for whatever we fancied from the vast array of fish in front of us.  Oh dear.  You have to understand I'm a total fool in situations like this.  Unless I have somebody to control me I'll keep ordering just to watch the chef making the food.  I don't usually stuff myself but when the food is truly good and has that 'hook' that makes me grin from ear to ear I'm like a man possessed. 

First out the gate was some stunningly fresh mackerel with a sprinkling of chopped spring onion stalks.  I adore mackerel and this is light, clean and wonderfully fresh.  Following this was some swordfish sushi that was blasted with a blowtorch for about a second and finished with a dab of curry mayonnaise.  Delicious also but the curry was a little overwhelming.

I never thought I'd be indifferent to Wagyu, but when our sashimi plate arrived I barely even glanced at the beef.  We got a mix of tuna, salmon, kingfish, deep sea bream, scampi, john dory, scallop and snapper.  

Tuna, salmon and kingfish are all staple sashimi dishes but they were still extremely welcome.  The salmon in particular was glorious; meltingly tender, robust but fresh and wonderfully familiar.  I actually prefer the flavour of fresh salmon sashimi to the smoked salmon I grew up with.  

Thin slices of scallop with salmon roe was fantastic, nice and sweet and then a little blast of fishy goodness as you squeeze the roe against the roof of your mouth until it bursts.

The real champion was the fresh scampi though.  Simply put it's one of the finest things I've ever tasted; soft and silky with a stunning sweet prawn flavour.  Two more of these were immediately ordered and scoffed in double quick time.

It does have to be said that the wagyu was also fantastic, but after all that sashimi it seemed....crude?  It was like listening to Metallica after Leonard Cohen.  Both wonderful but not not necessarily the best of companions.

Sitting there, fully stuffed and ready to waddle home the chef presented us with a couple of complimentary bonito nigiri.  Well it's be rude not to accept.  I've never had fresh bonito before and it was intensely flavoured, very fishy and highly tasty.

As far as I know this could have been totally run of the mill sashimi and sushi but it's the best I've ever had without doubt.  If the much lauded otoro, uni and ankimo are as good as I've been led believe then I could be in big trouble.  Moving country for food this good is not as crazy as it sounds.

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Tagged Japanese Restaurant Sydney

Japanese Hotpot at Dontack

When Weepix and I decided that we were going to move to Australia our first choice of new home was Melbourne……stay with me Sydneysiders, for my story gets better.  Neither of us had ever been to Australia so we had no personal experience to draw upon.  When we consulted friends and various internet forums both cities got a great write up.  Both cities are often judged to be in the ‘Top Ten Cities’ in the world with regard quality of life.  Sydney is more beautiful people said.  Sydney has better weather said others.  You’ll get paid more in Sydney some suggested.  Melbourne has better food said most.

Melbourne it was then.

I’m not being flippant here.  Ultimately the decision to go for Melbourne over Sydney was made purely on the basis that we’d heard better things about the food in Melbourne.  Folk said that coffee was better, the café culture was more prominent and that Melburnians just simply cared more about their food.  When you’re making a blind move to the other side of the world you need to get your priorities straight.

As it turns out I was offered a job in Sydney and not Melbourne.  And you know, for a little while we were slightly disappointed by that.  Seems crazy, but we’d formed a bond with Melbourne based on restaurant reviews, foodie websites and reports of the Queen Victoria Market.  We hadn’t invested that time in Sydney.

Well we’re eighteen months in now and I’ve not been to Melbourne yet, but it would have to be truly sensational to trump the foodie experiences that Sydney has offered to date. 

The food here is cheap and of an extremely high standard.  The first time I bought a leg of lamb for $20 I nearly fainted.  It cost that in pounds back home (and it wasn’t as good).  We’ve gone from eating out maybe once a week at home to eating out two or three times a week here.  And why not when a good Thai meal in Sydney is about a third of the price we used to pay at home?  The range of cuisine is incredible; within five minutes walk of our apartment we’ve got Thai, Spanish, French, Malaysian, Indonesian, Indian, Greek, German, Japanese, Vietnamese, Modern Aussie, Mexican, Chinese, American…the list goes on.  With several of these cuisines, Japanese for example, we have a choice of five or six places within walking distance.  Good job too as we both love Japanese food and in Edinburgh it’s a) rare b) crap and c) expensive. 

(I feel bad reading this first bit back as I’m painting a pretty bleak picture of back home.  That’s not my intention as the standard of food in Edinburgh can be extremely high; it’s just that when it is the price tends to be too.  We don’t seem to have the knack of providing high quality food for a reasonable price in Scotland.  That’s sad as the produce available is fantastic.)

Anyway, I’m going to start writing a bit more about my food experiences in Sydney as there have been loads of recipes of late and not a lot else.  To kick us off I’m going to wax lyrical about Japanese food and particularly nabemono, which is better known as Japanese Hot Pot and is one of my favourite discoveries since moving to Sydney.  It comes in a few different varieties but the basic idea is a big pot of tasty stock to which you add veggies, tofu, noodles and meat. 

The other night we went to Dontack, a little place just up the road.  We ordered the sushi and sashimi platter ($19.50) and a Sukiyaki hot pot for two ($35). 

The sushi and sashimi are great as always.  The sashimi (salmon and kingfish) is fresh as can be and the sushi is delicate with a good proportion of fish to rice.  A bit of wasabi and soy and it’s all good.  This is the sort of sushi and sashimi that would have had me dancing with joy 18 months ago and now I just accept it as par for the course.  How quickly we adapt.

The nabemono is why we’re here though.  The sweet sukiyaki stock is a mix of soy sauce, sugar and mirin and comes with a huge platter of thinly sliced beef. The big cast iron stock pot arrives at the table already stuffed full of veggies, noodles, tofu and the stock and is sat on top of a little portable gas burner.  Now we have to sit and wait as the stock starts to bubble and the veggies cook down a little.  The smell is so incredible that the wait is a real challenge, but as the veggies are raw and the pot stuffed to bursting point waiting is the only option available.

After ten maddening minutes, when there is a little room, the first few slices of beef are tucked into the stock alongside the veg.  It doesn’t take long to cook and is soon fished out and dipped into a little bowl of raw egg before being eagerly scoffed.

This moment right here is what makes the wait worth it. 

The taste of the beef, sweet stock and raw egg is, and I pick my word carefully, sensational.  The egg is rich and buttery in direct contrast to the savoury beef and the delicious sweetness of the stock.  It’s a hell of a combination.  Dig into some noodles and veg and then it’s time for more beef.  At this point I realise we’re eating in almost total silence.  Not in an uncomfortable way, we’re just both completely absorbed in the ritual in front of us.  That’s a sure sign of good food.

It’s a wonderful way to eat and, when you’re not staring in silence into the depths of the stock pot, very social.  Despite the large amount of food we left feeling sated as opposed to stuffed and that has to be the best way to end a nice meal.

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Tagged Japanese Restaurant
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