Spicing up the Chuka standards, mabo tofu and yakisoba

Chuka, is Chinese cuisine in Japan. These 2 dishes are so boringly classic that you always want to make variations.
Beware : it’s hot today ! On the table too.

Momen tofu, cotton tofu. It’s squeezed in cotton. The mark of the fabric is visible. It’s a firm tofu. I just let it on a plate and excess water goes out (it’s possible to add a second plate + something heavy on top).

That’s a new variation of mabo tofu.
-garlic, onions, Chinese miso, chili pepper. Stir-fried.
-plus tomato paste and cooked kabocha skin. Simmered.
-plus a garam masala mix of Indian spices
-plus the water squeezed tofu

It has a Singapore curry taste. That must be the effect of black beans from miso combined with Indian spices.

home-made eggs noodles

A shahan, fried noodles. Very simple : oil, garlic, lettuce, soy sauce. Toppings are negi and shichimi togarashi (7 spice mix) plus a few drops of fragrant sesame oil.
PLUS ichimi togarashi (=pure hot chili flakes).
OOOOOOOOOCh !
The truth is I’ve confused the pure chili and the mix.

So, I’ve ended with 2 very spicy dishes. And I’ve love them to the point of licking the chopsticks.

Green and white bibinmen

A refreshing Summer lunch. With noodles. Bibinmen, mixed Korean noodles. Mixed with sauce, veggies, etc…

classic bibinmen (click on text)

Korean buckwheat (and other flour) noodles. I cooked and chilled them in iced water.

Other buckwheat noodles (click on text)

Green and white veggies.

Red fire.

As a side : Hokkaido hokke. This salted fish is just grilled.

Dring ! Dring ! It’s ready…
So let’s mix and enjoy !

Terre et mer noodles

Land and sea. 2 worlds to garnish Indonesian style mee goreng spicy stir-fried noodles. Chicken and seafood are often a good match.

3 proteins : shimeji mushrooms, chicken and oysters…

The greens are spinach and ninniku no me (garlic stalks).

Fricassée aux champignons, mushroom and chicken stew, 21st century version

Here is my fricot… That’s the typical out of fashion dish, a stew with roux. Quelle horreur ! Really, we girls, would stay away from it, when I was a teen then a student. How many million calories or bad fats and bad sugars per plate ? Daube , a name of Southern stew is even used as an insult for some art or other writing that would be fat, watery and dull. That was in France. And we had good reasons as we have seen abominable versions in : school meal stews, cheap eatery stews, prepared dish stews… Grand-ma’s home-made was totally different, but still very *rich*. That was good, too good. Something you could indulge on a Sunday dinner.

In Japan, that’s not alt-modish at all.　That’s not hip, but that’s considered as sound modern home-made food. For some weird reason. I should buy some to take a photo, but I would have to throw the object after. As “home-made”, ahem. Well that looks like white chocolate, but that’s instant shichuu (stew) roux.
So what did I pick ? Japanese or French ?

Neither !

Revised stew. The roux is made mostly of green beans, caramelised onions, white wine. After simmering with the meat, I took the chicken out, and I passed the mixer. More boiled onions and some mushrooms were added after.

Yamacha mushrooms.

There is no cream nor butter in the dish. The white topping is yogurt. And the taste is… tatata… GREAT ! All the flavors of the good ol’ fricassée, without the heaviness.

Kuzukiri are Japanese crystal noodles made with kuzu. Kudzu. Its root. That’s a sort of starch I sometimes use for desserts. They take the sauce well and are often added to dishes like sukiyaki, at the end, to profit of the rest of broth.
With a little ground coriander seed.

Caramelised veggies on Thai noodles

You’re in fusion-city. Noodle-mania ward. Abebia street, near Natto square.

Thai rice noodles, seasoned with nam pla fish sauce, a little black sugar, coriander leaves (frozen), chili… finished with a little Chinese black vinegar and sesame oil.