Mushroom Bean Thread Lo mien with Onion

A variation of a recipe from purple carrot.com many meals there with recipes for a jumping off point. Substituted ingredients of course!

Purple carrot
Bean thread Lo mien with mushrooms and onions

Ginger garlic paste

Assorted dried oriental mushrooms

Chopped white onion, scallion more appropriate.

Cornstarch

Dark black soy sauce

Rice wine rice vinegar

Chilli paste

Gauge the ingredients by the size of serving, I tended to go with a good amount of mushrooms and less of the noodle, in this case I had some bean thread noodle from the shelve. Egg, rice or another type can be used.

Using your hot coffee machine for hot water, reconstitute the dried mushrooms in a cup.

In a small pot full of cool water, soak the bean thread noodles on the stove.

Prep an additive of cornstarch, water and soy sauce for a thickening agent. I use double black soy sauce so this is a strong dark recipe.
Course chop lettuce , fine chop onion for prep

Drain the mushrooms, course chop

Add the mushrooms to a broad pan or wok with oil and stir fry for several minutes.

Add the ginger garlic paste to taste , now go off heat and stir to distribute the fragrance. 
Depending on the noodle, bring the water to boil to soften , don’t overcook.
Add the lettuce and onion to the fryer/ wok and stir fry.

Follow with the rice wine and rice vinegar, stir till lettuce wilts and onion cooks to preference.

Add the soy cornstarch mixture bring to high heat very briefly to congeal.

Season at this point with salt, pepper , I add chili paste mix for some heat.

Drain the noodle with cold water rinse. 

As for plating I toss the bean thread noodle in the pan and plate.

Strong soy flavor , maybe not as light as your accustomed to.

Would be good with a peanut, cashew garnish.

Habanero paste/ chicken strips

From the farmers market what to do with the large bag of assorted color habanero hot peppers ?  The purchase from farmers market gives you fresh produce and as you would pick from your own garden the shelve life is short, shorter than that of the supermarket variety, that is the peak of freshness only last so long after picking.

Vendors  sometimes offer various spice pastes and jellies at some of the farmers markets , so I took a cue and blended some habanero paste. Some of the other Habaneros were blanched and frozen.

Somewhat a mix by eye of the red/orange  hot peppers, leeks, garlic, and ginger.
Pulse to a fine mince than add olive oil/vinegar and or sweetener to taste to bind and process to pasty consistency.

Store in a jar , refrigerated for use. Can be used as a dip, very very spicy hot. Most often I use  for  a paste as a marinade, adding some items such  as onions, wine and vinegar . Indian/oriental  spices can also be an addition.

Sliced chicken strips from chicken breast are a example. Treat with the paste mixture , let sit several hours and broil or grill outdoors. A dipping sauce would be a good finish but I found them to be tasty without. 

Wrap in lettuce leaves with some grains for a spicy treat. Some chicken was plain with BBQ sauce for those unaccustomed  to the heat of the Habaneros.

Quick meal

Having ingredients on hand makes it easy to prepare a quick meal, a bowl of soup is nourishing in the fact that it  provides you with some liquid supplement instead of drinking just plain water along with the ingredients.

broth

shredded carrot

diced precooked duck meat

chopped spinach

ginger garlic paste

rice, (cooked previously)

chopped onion

smoked dried jalapeño peppers (Optional per bowl)

 

 

 

 

Focaccia with Rosemary and Onion

Not exactly, but just a slight change from this recipe,

https://recipereminiscing.wordpress.com/2017/07/07/focaccia-with-rosemary-and-onion-focaccia-med-rosmarin-og-lk/

Other focaccia type bread made in the past.

https://pmetro.wordpress.com/2014/11/02/rosemary-and-garlic-fococcia/

https://pmetro.wordpress.com/2013/06/01/bread-dough-focaccia/

 

White flour, sea salt, semolina flour, and the water/honey proofed yeast.

Flour by weight.

A  recent gift  I am learning to use, a new food processor, mixing the dough in this versus a mixer.

process the dry ingredients together

add the proofed yeast,

Just a couple of pulses and the dough comes together.

hand kneaded for about 5 minutes…

let rise in a bowl for about an hour

Pan roast some garlic

added some parsley (or whatever sprung from my parsley plant outside)

and some slightly ground rosemary

After an hour, the dough is very soft and flexible, stretch  and form into pan with depressions made with your  fingers.

Top with the garlic, rosemary, a bit of parsley, drizzle with olive oil.

Even though is was hot weather , just baked the dough in the oven, 375 degrees for about 20 minutes.

Though I baked it covered as the recipe indicates, I uncovered it for about the last 5 minutes of cooking.

It’s been a while since I’ve made a thick crust pizza. This focaccia was excellent The semolina gave it  a very soft crumb and crusty base. I would have preferred to have this run under the broiler for a bit of extra crunch.

Beer marinated smoke roasted chicken half

Back to the grille,   Tandoor oven

 1/2 of a chicken

Beer marinated smoked chicken….

 1 , 12 oz can beer, light American ale

Measured by eye

Rice wine,

rice vinegar

Parsley

Red peppercorns

Black peppercorns

Ginger garlic paste

Chopped onions

Water to top off

Place chicken in 1 gallon bag or suitable container.

Let rest several hours refrigerated.

Mesquite smoke pellets added periodically as necessary to charcoal embers some pellets soaked with water depending on smoker temperature. About 350-400 Fahrenheit 55 minutes.

The next day leg and thigh served with rice, shredded broccoli and Brussels sprouts.

with BBQ sauce.

green peppers stuffed with broccoli and rice.

Usually stuffed peppers contain some sort of meat, this time a cheesy rice with broccoli filling was used.

Other stuffed pepper recipes:

https://pmetro.wordpress.com/2012/03/25/stuffed-peppers/

https://pmetro.wordpress.com/2013/04/19/stuffed-peppers-2/

Prep the broccoli (and garlic ! of course)

I chose to steam instead of saute.

I usually zap the peppers in the microwave a bit to soften them up.

cut off the top and remove the seeds and ribs (but you knew that!)

as you would prepare some rice, use stock instead water for a kick of flavor.

Prepare a bechamel sauce (butter and flour with milk or for a rich sauce evaporated milk), seasoned as you would prefer.

add the broccoli mixture to the sauce.

mix in the rice

Add some grated cheese, in this case Parmesan to complete the stuffing.

in a baking dish big enough for the peppers, fill the peppers carefully and put them in the dish.

need some bread crumbs ? I chopped up some pretzels for the topping

Into the oven they go ….

run up the broiler after the peppers are hot and bubbly to get the brown crunchy top.

Seafood and veggie pasta

A bit of seafood coated and fried, served alongside some veggies with home made pasta. 

Since I make pasta, I have usually stored some in the freezer for later use . It’s easier to store a batch for later use than make pasta for every dish.

   
Toss the seafood pieces with some cornmeal and slightly fry them in a small amount of oil.

Some bacon  and veggies, garlic and leeks with grape tomatoes prepped for the pan.
Sauté the leeks first, then the garlic… Add the tomatoes, of course after bacon is rendered. 

Finish with cheese……..

Add the boiled pasta….

Toss and serve.