30 Days of Pinterest: Day 13

Today was mainly spent being fascinated by the colour of my phlegm (Bordering TMI, I decided I’d spare you the horrible details). Anyway, the rest of my day was spent dreaming that I had a Wagamamas near by so I could have some yaki soba. The nearest one is about 2 and half hours away so I had to do with 2nd best- make it myself. I’m waiting on getting the recipe book from the library but luckily I pinned the recipe from Big Spud blog last week.
The recipe has two main steps. One, the making and use of the marinade sauce (the yakitori sauce) and two, the stir frying of the veg and other ingredients.

Wagamama Yaki Soba Recipe
Adapted from Big Spud
Ingredients
2 chicken breasts, already cooked and chopped up (I just used George Foreman)
2 portions soba (medium) or udon noodles
1 onion, chopped
1 red and green pepper , diced
2 eggs, beaten
For the yakitori sauce:
250 ml light soy sauce
3 tablespoons dark soy sauce (I didn’t have this so I added some hoisin sauce instead)
1 teaspoon sugar
Pinch of salt
Method
1. First off, make the yakitori sauce. Place all the ingredients into a saucepan and boil gently for about ten minutes (until the back of a spoon is coated).
2. While the sauce is cooking, bring a pan of water to the boil and cook your noodles (if not already precooked).
3. Once the noodles and sauce are done, combine in a bowl along with the chicken and keep near pan.
4. Heat your wok or frying pan as hot as it can get. Add a tablespoon of oil and fry the peppers and onion for about 3-4 minutes until slightly tender. It’s important to keep the pan moving to prevent burning so do not walk away.
5. Add the noodles and chicken and stir fry until the noodles have lost their rubberiness.
6. Add the eggs and cook for another 45 seconds until egg has disappeared. I kept the pan moving so the egg would coat the noodles.
7. Take off the heat and serve!
The link above has more ingredients, like spring onions, bean sprouts and sesame seeds but I didn’t have them with me. I was really impressed with how it turned out, the plate above really filled me up. The amount I made was enough for two of us and we’ll definitely have enough for lunch tomorrow too. I’m quite looking forward to it to!

Vodka Pasta!

 

Ever had a recipe just follow you around? One you keep seeing and then find yourself dreaming about? I’ve had that recently.

It started when I saw the Pasta Alla Vodka Recipe on The Pioneer Woman a while back. I was intrigued by it but put it to the back of my mind. I was reminded of it again though when I watched the recipe being cooked on YouTube by Laura Vitale, from Laurainthekitchen.com. Then on Wednesday, I saw it on Babaduck Babbles and was drooling at, even looking at the recipe on Thursday to drool some more. Friday I treated myself to Donal Skehan’s new book, Kitchen Hero and lo and behold, what’s the very first recipe in the book? Vodka Penne! So that night I made myself a dish and it was so good I made it again Saturday for lunch!

And one of the best things about it is it’s super quick and super simple to make!

Vodka Pasta

Serves 4

Ingredients

350g Penne

25g Butter

125g bacon, chopped (or pancetta)

1 onion, diced

2 cloves of garlic, crushed and chopped

4 tbsp Vodka

200ml Double Cream

3 tbsp tomato purée

Salt and pepper, to taste

Freshly grated cheese (parmesan is best, I only had cheddar)

Fresh parsley, chopped (optional)

Method

1. In a large saucepan, cook pasta as instructed.

2. Heat butter in a large frying pan over medium heat. Add bacon bit and fry for 3-5 minutes, until golden.

3. Add in onion and garlic to bacon and fry for 1 minute or so.

4. Add the vodka and allow to simmer for a minute before adding tomato purée and cream. Simmer gently for 5 minutes until sauce has thickened.

5. Test the sauce for taste and add salt and pepper accordingly.

6. Drain pasta and add sauce. Mix well to make sure the sauce clings nicely to the pasta. Place in serving bowls and garnish with grated Parmesan.

7. Dig and enjoy!

Adapted from Kitchen Hero by Donal Skehan (who in turn thanks Lorraine Fanneran of La Cucina restaurant in Limerick).

This sauce is beautiful, the right combination of creamy and tomatoey. It’s thick and clings to the pasta nicely. Don’t just use penne, in fact I didn’t either days I made it. First night I used Fusilli (a mixture of white and brown) and on Saturday I used Tripoline. And I’d just like to point out that while I may not have had any fancy pants Parmesan to use, the vodka I added was Grey Goose *increases fanciness of dish x10*. Though saying that, I don’t think it really wants what kind of vodka is used (correct me if I’m wrong!).

Go on, try it, you won’t be disappointed. I’m not the only one enjoying the craze these days, Mammy’s Kitchen had a bowl yesterday and was equally impressed as I was!