Zaru Soba 日式蕎麥涼麵

Let’s slurp the simplicity of chilled soba noodles with just a handful of ingredients and minimal cooking time. It’s a light and refreshing delight that’s simply delicious!

Curious about the term “Zaru (ざる)”? It’s a nod to the traditional bamboo tray or strainer used to serve these chilled noodles. This handy tool allows excess water to drain away, ensuring your noodles stay cool and perfectly textured. (While I may not have a bamboo soba strainer, I’ve found an easy-cleaning alternative that helps me recreate this perfect cold soba dish.) And stay tuned for more refreshing cold noodle content! ✨

INGREDIENTS
- 1-2 bundles of soba noodles
- Seaweed flakes for garnish
- Ice cubes to serve (optional)

TO MAKE DIPPING SAUCE
-3 tbsp soy sauce
-2 tbsp mirin
-1 tbsp sake (or cooking wine)
-12 tbsp cold water

OTHER INGREDIENTS FOR DIPPING SAUCE
- Grated ginger
- Spring onion
- Sesame seeds

METHOD
1. Cook soba noodles in boiling water for 5 minutes (according to packaging instructions). Once cooked, drain and rinse under running cold water to get rid of the excess starch.

2. Transfer the rinsed soba noodles to a large bowl of iced water and let them chill for a few minutes. Drain and set aside.

3. Prepare the dipping sauce by combining soy sauce, mirin, sake, and cold water.

4. Serve soba noodles with dipping sauce on the side. Add ginger, spring onion, and sesame seeds to the sauce. Dip soba noodles into the sauce and enjoy!

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Cold Peanut Sesame Noodles 花生麻醬冷麵

This is one of my popular posts on instagram and I know you all love it! SAVE this mouthwatering cold noodle recipe to chill out this summer.

INGREDIENTS

-1 pack Asian noodles of your choice

-Cucumber strips (optional)

-Sesame seeds to garnish

 

FOR THE SAUCE

-1 tbsp Gochugaru (Korean red pepper powder)

-1 tbsp sesame seeds

-1 tbsp chopped spring onion

-1 tbsp chopped garlic

-2-3 tbsp vegetable oil

-2-3 tbsp soy sauce

-1 tbsp white vinegar

-2 tbsp peanut sesame paste

-2 tbsp water

 

Feel free to adjust the ratio for your liking.

 

In this recipe, I used Taiwanese peanut sesame paste (花生麻醬). You can easily find other similar peanut sesame paste options in most Oriental supermarkets. Alternatively, regular peanut butter can be used as a substitute. Not recommend using Tahani as I feel its flavour is quite different.

 

 

METHOD

1. In a heatproof bowl, combine Gochugaru, sesame seeds, spring onion, and garlic.

2. Heat 2-3 tbsp vegetable oil over medium high heat until it shimmers, then pour the hot oil over the spice mixture.

3. Add soy sauce and white vinegar to the spice mixture, stirring well until thoroughly combined.

4. In a separate bowl, mix peanut sesame paste with water until smooth. Adjust the water amount to achieve the desired sauce consistency.

5. Combine peanut sesame sauce with spice mixture sauce together.

6. Cook noodles until al dente, then rinse them in ice-cold water to halt the cooking process. Drain the noodles and place them in a noodle bowl.

7. Pour the sauce over the noodles. Top the dish with cucumber and sprinkle additional sesame seeds before serving. Enjoy!

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You can also pour this mouthwatering sauce over steamed vegetable like this. It's an ultimate sauce!

Pepper Lunch Style Mushroom Fried Rice 黑胡椒菇菇炒飯

I made this Pepper Lunch Style Mushroom Fried Rice for my vegetarian day!

Pepper Lunch is a famous Japanese sizzling steak restaurant franchise, their significant pepper beef rice has become one of the most popular recipes, I also made it before and absolute love it.

This is my take on no meat version, the ingredients are pretty simple, I made an easier recipe for the sauce mixture as well, it was so good and tasted so so delicious!

INGREDIENTS

- 250g mushrooms *I use 2 types of shimeji mushrooms

- 5 baby corns, diced

- Spring onion

- Sesame seeds

- Rice

　　

SAUCE

- 2 tbsp tomato sauce

- 2 tbsp vegetarian oyster sauce

- 2 tbsp soy sauce

- 1 tbsp sugar

- 2 tbsp water

 

OTHER INGREDIENTS

- 1 tbsp black pepper

- 1 tbsp slurry

 

METHOD

1. Mix all the ingredients for the sauce.

2. Heat oil in a small sauce pan over medium heat, stir in black pepper.

3. Pour the sauce in the pan, cook over low heat until everything mixed thoroughly and bubbles appear.

4. Add slurry and keep stirring until thicken, turn off the heat and set aside.

5. Heat up sufficient oil in another pan, stir fry mushrooms and baby corns over medium to high heat until browned or to your liking.

6. Put the rice in the middle, add spring onion and pour black pepper sauce.

7. Mix everything together, sprinkle more spring onions and sesame seeds as preferred, enjoy it!

 

You can check my cooking video on my instagram:

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Wan Ting | My Homecooks & Eats（@iswanting）分享的貼文

And this has become my Vegetarian Day's stable! I made it another day simply with mushrooms and sweetcorn, quick, easy and absolutely satisfying to eat.

 

Natto Rice Bowl 納豆蓋飯

Have you tried Natto?

 

Natto is famous Japanese superfood, made from fermented soybeans and is often eaten for breakfast in Japan. Some people might find natto unappetizing at first glance due to its pungent smell and weird texture, it’s just like Marmite, you either love it or hate it. I remember my first time trying natto was when I had a traditional Japanese breakfast in Japan, since I have seen it a lot on many Japanese food/cooking shows, I was quite familiar with natto and just loved it on my first bite! Yes, the texture is slimy, stinky, sticky and maybe with a bit funky smell (However, strong-flavoured cheese is smellier to me.) but at the same time the taste that fermentation brings is unique, natto is also super nutritious loaded with vitamins, probiotics and rich in protein.

 

If you are interested to find out how it tastes like, you can get prepacked natto from Japanese or some Asian grocery stores. Best to eat it with a simple bowl of rice first. I love mixing natto with spring onion and raw egg, this is also a very classic mixture to enjoy natto with rice. So just being open mind to give this iconic taste a try, you probably would get addicted like me!

 

INGREDIENTS

-Steamed rice

-Store bought pack natto (thawed)

-1 egg yolk

-Finely chopped spring onions.

-Sesame seeds to garnish

 

SAUCES (Optional)

-Soy sauce

-Mustard

-Sesame oil

 

PREPARATIONS

1. Open natto package, stir in the included soy sauce and mustard, mix thoroughly with chopsticks.

2. Stir in chopped spring onions.

3. Add more sauces if you need more flavour.

4. Serve over rice with an egg yolk and more spring onions, garnish with sesame seeds.

 

 

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Watermelon Onigiri 西瓜飯糰

I know summer in London is unlike any other in the world but this year…the heat was on for one week only and the autumn is coming, can you believe that? And I have been wanting to make this Watermelon Onigiri, not sure if I still have chance for summer picnic but I do need to get my hands on it, otherwise this post would be set for next summer…in 2022.

 

INGREDIENTS

-Cooked short grain rice

-Pink vinegar mixture from radish pickles

-Aonori seaweed 

-Roasted black sesame seeds

 

The ingredients are simple. I use pink vinegar mixture from my homemade radish pickles to colour the onigiri. (Add less water than usual when cooking the rice to avoid watery while mixing with the pink vinegar.) Alternatively, you can mix the rice with Mentaiko明太子(cod roe), kimchi, or salmon seasoning to give it a shade of red. Shape it in triangle and leave the bottom with white rice. (Onigiri mold just made my life easier here!) Cover the bottom part with dried seaweed and decorate some black sesame seeds on top in the end. Aren’t they just looking so lovely?

 

Hope these onigiri cuteness would bring the summer back. At least once before autumn kicks it off.

 

Also here is the Reels to show you how I made it!

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Taiwanese Three Cup Tofu 台式三杯豆腐

‘San Bei’三杯, or ‘Three Cup’ is a classic Taiwanese sauce recipe which refers to three main ingredients : Soy sauce, rice cooking wine, and sesame oil. Three Cup Sauce is like Japanese Teriyaki sauce that you can homemade and use it as go-to sauce for stir-fry dishes such as Three Cup Chicken. The sauce is sticky, savoury, aromatic with bold umami flavour.

 

When speaking of Three Cup, it usually includes the equal amounts soy sauce, rice cooking wine, and sesame oil. The ratio, however, could be tweaked slightly or deviated from the original proportions to balance the flavour and that’s what I did today for making my Three Cup Tofu! It’s fairly easy to make and the result turns out absolutely delicious. Another speedy supper you need to try.

INGREDIENTS

-400g firm tofu @cauldronfoods

-5 garlic cloves, smashed.

-7-8 pieces of sliced ginger.

-1 chilli, sliced. (Remove the seeds to reduce the heat.)⁠⁠

-Small handful of Thai basil

 

SAN BEI/THREE CUP SAUCE

-2 tbsp sesame oil

-2 tbsp soy sauce

-2 tbsp mushroom sauce/vegetarian oyster sauce

-3 tbsp cooking wine

 

METHOD

1. Mix San Bei/Three Cup sauce ingredients together until well-combined.

2. Drain and pat dry tofu with kitchen paper, then cut into thick slices.

3. Heat oil in a pan over medium high heat, sauté ginger slices until aromatic.

4. Add garlic and chilli, continue to sauté until fragrant and slightly brown, then transfer to another bowl and set aside.

5. Use the same pan to pan-fry tofu over medium heat until golden brown on both sides.

6. Pour San Bei/Three Cup sauce mixture, add sautéed ginger, garlic and chilli back, reduce the heat to a low simmer for about 5-10 minutes.⁠
7. Stir in Thai basil to finish, serve immediately over rice.

Go and check my Reels to see how I made it!

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Easy Scallion Pancakes with Dumpling Skins 餃子皮蔥油餅

⁠⁠
After making 10 chubby siu mai, I still have plenty of dumpling skins left but I don’t really want to put them back to the freezer. So I decided to make scallion pancakes, yes, with dumpling skins! ⁠⁠
⁠⁠
The recipe only requires 5 ingredients and won’t take you much time and effort. The cheat version actually came out flaky and crunchy, just so quick and easy to make. Trust me, you will definitely love this shortcut.⁠⁠
⁠⁠
INGREDIENTS⁠⁠
-Dumpling skins⁠⁠
-Chopped spring onions⁠⁠
-Salt⁠⁠
-White pepper⁠⁠
-Oil⁠⁠
⁠⁠
METHOD⁠⁠
1. Mix chopped spring onions, salt, white pepper and oil together in a bowl.⁠⁠
2. On a clean work surface, take one dumpling skin and spread a thin layer of spring onion mixture on top.⁠⁠
3. Cover with another dumpling skin, repeat the process to produce 3-5 layers.⁠⁠
4. Press down and roll the layered dumpling skins with a rolling pin into a thinner long piece.⁠⁠
5. Use a knife to slice a few cuts, fold it over and roll into a round shape, then press and flatten it again.⁠⁠
6. Heat oil in a pan over medium high heat, pan fry the scallion pancake until golden crispy on both sides.⁠⁠
7. Enjoy it with dipping sauce.⁠⁠
⁠⁠

⁠⁠
Watch my Reel to see how⁠⁠ I made it!
⁠⁠
⁠⁠

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