E-Fu Noodles with Shiitake Mushrooms and Chives

I've been trying to figure out how to make these noodles for about 10 years, and I finally did it!

This dish is the last course of the 10-course banquet at East Ocean City, one of my favorite restaurants in Boston's Chinatown.  I love the spongy texture of the noodles.  The dish is very simple, but even after I've eaten 9 other courses, I always find room for them in my stomach.

Given the light, spongy texture, I figured that the noodles were fresh, but every package of fresh noodles from the Chinese grocery store didn't have the sponginess to soak up the sauce.  I spent years feeling discouraged.  Due to my limited Chinese, I even had trouble ordering the dish in restaurants.  However, I had the noodles at East Ocean City again on my birthday this year. They were so delicious that my determination to learn how to make them was renewed!

My sister-in-law told me that the Chinese name for the noodles is "e-fu," and I read about them online, learning that the noodles were usually sold in the dried form.  I had hoped I could just order some online and have them delivered, but alas, Amazon Grocery hasn't started selling them yet.  My friend Chris confirmed that her husband had purchased this type of noodle from our local Chinese grocery store.  None of the store employees speak English, so I thought about asking Chris's husband to come on a shopping trip with me.  However, today I went to the grocery store to see what I could find on my own.  I asked one of the employees for "E-fu? Yi mein?" in my terrible accent, and then I showed her the Chinese characters from the Wikipedia page on my phone.  Success!

I thought that I'd just use the packet of soup base that came with the noodles, but after some scrolling through Google search pages, I found a recipe for the exact dish I was looking for.  I did actually weigh the ingredients on my fabulous kitchen scale (which also helps my husband be very accurate with the postage when mailing out packages), but below I tried to estimate how much to use if you don't have a scale.

I think the dish came out as good as East Ocean City's, and I made it for less than a third of what they charged us last time!

E-Fu Noodles with Shiitake Mushrooms and Chives
adapted from tastehongkong.com

200 g dried e-fu noodles (I used 3 packages of dried noodles)
150 g garlic chives (about a bunch 1-inch in diameter), cut into 2-inch segments
10-12 dried shiitake mushrooms
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1/2 tsp cooking wine
1 tbsp vegetable oil

For sauce:
1 1/2 tbsp oyster sauce
2 tsp soy sauce
1/4 tsp salt (or to taste, because saltiness of oyster sauce varies)
1/2 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp sesame oil

1.  Fill stock pot or water with about 4 cups of water (enough to cover one package of dried noodles).  Add mushrooms and bring water to a boil.  Then add one package of dried noodles, blanching noodles for 30 seconds to 1 minute.  Immediately remove noodles from water. Drain in a colander and rinse with cold water.  Repeat for each package of noodles.  Remove mushrooms and let cool.  Reduce mushroom water to about 1/2 a cup.  (If you don't have time to reduce the mushroom water, just substitute a 1/2 cup of chicken broth in other steps.)  Thinly slice mushrooms.

2. Mix together sauce ingredients with 1/2 cup of reduce mushroom water.  Set aside.

3. Heat wok or large nonstick skillet on medium high heat. Sauté garlic until fragrant, and then add sliced mushrooms.  Stir-fry them until lightly brown, about half to one minute. Add chives and sprinkle wine on side of wok and give a few quick stirs until chives soften.  Remove mushroom and chive mixture to plate.

4. Pour in mixed sauce in center of wok. Bring it to a simmer, then put in noodles and mushroom and chive mixture. You need to constantly flip and turn them to avoid sticking to the wok. Stir well and until all the sauce is evenly coated to the noodles.  Serve immediately.

Time: about 30 minutes
Yields: 2 servings if main course, maybe 4 servings if side dish

Chocolate-Dipped Macaroons

I'm not much of a baker, but even I like to bake around the holidays.  I searched the internet for some easy cookies to make for my office and came across this macaroon recipe.  

The macaroons themselves were easy to make, but I had to consult my husband when it came to how much chocolate to put on them.  He declared that drizzling chocolate over the macaroons didn't provide enough chocolate flavor, so I ended up dipping about half of the macaroons in chocolate.  This made the process a little messier, but I agree that more chocolate makes them even yummier.

Chocolate-Dipped Macaroons

adapted from Bon Appetit via epicurious.com

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons finely grated orange peel
3 large eggs
24 ounces sweetened flaked coconut (about 6 cups firmly packed)
8 ounces bittersweet chocolate, melted

Position rack in center of oven; preheat to 325°F. Line 3 large rimmed baking sheets with parchment. Using electric mixer, beat butter in large bowl until smooth. Add sugar and salt; beat until blended. Beat in orange peel, then eggs, 1 at a time. Mix in coconut. Drop batter onto sheets by tablespoonfuls, spacing 1 1/2 inches apart.

Bake macaroons, 1 sheet at a time, until golden on bottom and browned in spots, 25 to 30 minutes. Cool completely on sheets.

Drizzle chocolate over macaroons or dip them. Chill on sheets in refrigerator until chocolate is firm, about 30 minutes.

Yield: 45-50 pieces

Deviled Eggs: My Bedtime Snack!

Searching online for good Thanksgiving appetizers was making me really hungry last night, and then the internet suggested deviled eggs.  Once the idea was in my head, I couldn't get it out.  I had to make them!  I had to make them right away!  It was 9:30 pm, but I went for it.

I've been using the same deviled egg recipe since I started my love affair with Epicurious in 2002.  That was the year that I branched out beyond my three cookbooks: Chinese Cooking for Dummies, 365 Ways to Cook Chinese, and the Betty Crocker Cookbook.  I still have and use all three, but I use the internet for most of my recipe needs now.

I don't pipe my deviled egg filling so that it looks pretty.  I just boil the eggs, scoop the yolk out, mix yolk with other ingredients, spoon mix back into egg, and devour!  The husband and I devoured this entire plate before bed yesterday.  Silly me, I thought we might have leftovers to eat today.

Deviled Eggs
adapted from Gourmet via epicurious

6 large eggs
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper

Cover eggs with cold water by 1-1/2 inches in a heavy saucepan and bring to a rolling boil. Reduce heat to low and cook eggs, covered completely, 10 minutes. Transfer eggs with a slotted spoon to a bowl of ice and cold water to stop cooking and let stand 5 minutes.

Peel eggs and halve lengthwise. Carefully remove yolks and mash in a bowl with a fork. Add mayonnaise and mustard and stir with fork until smooth. Sprinkle cayenne pepper over the top.

Yield: 12 pieces
Total time: 30 minutes

My Version of Afghani Kaddo (Butternut Squash with Meat and Yogurt Sauce)

One of our favorite restaurants in Cambridge is Helmand particularly for their roasted pumpkin dish, kaddo.  I've been looking for a recipe to replicate that delicate balance of sweet pumpkin, savory meat and tomato sauce, and tangy yogurt sauce for years. I tried a recipe found online last year, but it came out way too sweet.  Knowing me, I probably didn't halve all the ingredients correctly since I doubt I had two sugar pumpkins, but it was also a pain to roast the pumpkin for 3 hours and baste it.  Have you ever basted roasted vegetables???  Anyway, even if I fixed the sugar issue, I wasn't up for that time commitment again.

Apparently there's a shortage of sugar pumpkins in New England this year because of Hurricane Irene, and our farmer warned us not to keep our squashes around too long because of this year's growing conditions.  With multiple butternut squashes sitting around my kitchen from our vegetable share, I decided to give a different kaddo recipe a try with butternut squash.

I'm happy to report that this recipe came out fabulously, and it was a lot easier and faster than the last recipe I tried.  Peeling went super fast with  my new carbon steel C-peeler, so now I don't look like I'm about to chop off my fingers when trying to break down winter squashes.  I didn't bother adding garlic or salt/pepper to the yogurt but instead just added it plain to the rest of the dish.

My Version of Afghani Kaddo (Roasted Butternut Squash with Meat and Yogurt Sauce)
adapted from Chowhound

One 2 to 2.5 pound sugar pumpkin or winter squash (such as butternut or acorn), peeled and cut into 2-inch chunks
4 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 cup plain yogurt
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 medium onions, chopped
1 pound ground meat (I've made with beef or pork, but I think even ground chicken would work)
1 cup tomato sauce
1/2 cup water

1. Preheat over to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a large oven-proof skillet or dutch oven that will fit all the pumpkin/squash. Brown the pumpkin/squash pieces, turning frequently, until golden brown (about 5 minutes.)
3. Mix sugar and cinnamon, and sprinkle over pumpkin/squash. Cover with foil or pan cover. Bake for 30 minutes, or until tender.
4. While pumpkin/squash baking, make meat sauce: In a skillet, heat 2 tablespoons of oil and cook the onions until lightly browned. Add ground meat, garlic, and salt and pepper. Mix well and cook until meat is browned. Add tomato sauce and water, mix thoroughly and bring to a simmer, lower heat, and cook about 20 minutes until it cooks down to a thick sauce.
5. To serve: plate portion of the cooked pumpkin/squash, top with meat sauce and dollop of yogurt. 

Yields: 4 servings
Total Time: 45 minutes, all active

Vegetable Week Continues: Turnip and Turnip Green Risotto

What to do when you pick up your weekly veggie share and you get enormous turnips with even more enormous turnip greens?  Turnip risotto!

I made turnip risotto last year, but I can't seem to find the recipe anywhere.  I scoured the internet, and I found one on epicurious that looked pretty close to the one I remembered.  Too bad I didn't have any bacon!  Well, I had some frozen turkey bacon on hand, but I didn't think rendering fat from turkey bacon would be the same.

Most of the time I don't have arborio rice handy. Once I substituted brown rice, and the risotto took forever!  However, I do usually have some sushi rice on hand, and it seems to work just as well as arborio rice.  Long-grain white rice also works but take a bit longer.

I couldn't really add both of my enormous turnips to this recipe due to the volume of the turnip greens.  If I did, it would have been turnip and turnip greens with some rice garnish!  I'll have to find another recipe to use my other turnip in.  Any suggestions???

Turnip and Turnip Green Risotto
adapted from epicurious.com

2 tbsp olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
2 medium turnips or 1 large turnip, preferably with greens, cut turnips into 1/4-inch dice and chop steps (about 3/4 pound total)
5-6 cups chicken broth
1 1/2 cups Arborio or short-grain sushi rice
1 tbsp butter
parmesan cheese, grated (optional)

1. In a saucepan bring broth to a simmer and keep at a bare simmer. 
2. In a 3-quart heavy saucepan heat olive oil over medium heat. Add onion and stir for about 2 minutes. Then add turnips and turnip greens and stir from another 2 minutes.
3. Add rice to onion and turnip mixture and stir constantly for one minute. 
4. Stir in 1 cup of broth and cook, stirring constantly and keeping at a strong simmer, until absorbed. Continue simmering and adding broth, about 1/2 cup at a time, stirring constantly and letting each addition be absorbed before adding next, until rice is tender and creamy-looking but still al dente, about 18 minutes total.
5. Remove from heat.  Add butter and stir until melted.
6. Garnish with parmesan cheese (optional)

Lentils with Broiled Eggplant

It's definitely the time in the CSA season when I am looking for some new ways to cook vegetables.  As much as I like vegetable stews and soups, I just wasn't in the mood for them tonight.  I had bookmarked a recipe from thekitchn.com a few weeks ago, and this week's vegetable share allowed me to try it out!

I've simplified some of the directions, but feel free to look at the original recipe.

Lentils with Broiled Eggplant
adapted from Yotam Ottolenghi's Plenty via thekitchn.com

2 medium eggplants
1 1/2 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 cup small dark lentils (such as Puy or Castelluccio), rinsed
3 small carrots, keep 1 whole and make 3/8-inch dice with the other two
3 celery stalks, keep 1 whole and make 3/8-inch dice with the other two
1 bay leaf
1 tsp dried thyme
1/2 white onion, chopped
3 tbsp olive oil
12 cherry tomatoes, halved
1 tsp dried parsley
1 tsp dried dill
2 tbsp sour cream or plain yogurt
salt and black pepper

1. Pierce the eggplants with a sharp knife in a few places. Put them on a foil-lined tray and place directly under a hot broiler for 20 minutes, turning at least once. The eggplants will deflate, and their skin should burn and break.
2. Remove the eggplants from the heat, and turn the oven down to 275°F.  Cut a slit down the center of the eggplants and scoop out the flesh into a colander. Leave to drain for at least 15 minutes.  Then add 1/2 tablespoon of vinegar and 1 tablespoon olive oil to the drained eggplant.
3. Mix chopped celery and carrots with 1 tablespoon of olive oil and season with salt and pepper.  Bake in oven for about 20 minutes until carrots just tender. 
4. Place the lentils in a medium saucepan with whole celery stalk and carrot, bay leaf, thyme and onion.  Cover with plenty of water and bring to the boil. Simmer on a low heat for up to 20 minutes, or until the lentils are tender.  Drain lentils and discard carrot, celery, and bay leaf. Transfer the lentils to a mixing bowl. Add 1 tablespoon of red wine vinegar, 2 tablespoons of the olive oil, and salt and pepper to the lentil mixture to taste. 
5. When cooked vegetables are done, mix them with the warm lentils, followed by parsley and dill. Taste and adjust the seasoning. Spoon the lentils onto serving plates. Pile some eggplant in the center of each portion and top it with a dollop of sour cream or yogurt.

Yields: 4 servings

Active and total time: about an hour

The Last of the Summer Vegetables: Veggie Enchiladas and Black Beans and Rice

We had a wonderful 4-day weekend in Buffalo, but I came home to a week's worth of vegetables from our CSA still to cook!  I searched the internet to figure out what I could make to consume the most number of vegetables.  Since my night classes have started again, I was hoping for a good casserole dish so that I could make something ahead of time and reheat for the rest of the week.

I ended up combining a few different enchilada recipes I found online. There are definitely easier and faster ways to make enchiladas, but my goal this week was purely consumption of maximum vegetables.  If you want to make this faster, you can use a canned enchilada sauce or a simpler enchilada sauce recipe.

Vegetable Enchiladas with Black Beans and Rice
adapted from epicurious, allrecipes, Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything, and the back of a Goya can of black beans

Filling
1 tbsp butter
3 cups coarsely chopped zucchini and/or yellow crookneck squash
1 cup chopped onion
1 1/2 cups fresh corn kernels (about 2 ears) or frozen
1 4-ounce can diced mild green chilies
1/2 cup sour cream
1 cup ricotta cheese
2 cups shredded Monterey Jack cheese

Sauce
2 large fresh medium-hot dried chiles, cored, seeded, and minced
3 tbsps corn oil
2 large onions, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 pounds tomatoes, cored and chopped with their liquid (about 3 cups, can also use canned)
1 cup water or chicken broth
1 tbsp sugar
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 tbsps freshly squeezed lime juice

Black beans and rice
2 tbsps olive oil
1 green pepper, chopped
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 15.5-ounce can of black beans (undrained)
1 tsp chile powder
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp oregano
3/4 cup water or chicken broth
cooked rice

10 six-inch corn tortillas

1. Preheat oven to 375°F.
2. Make filling.  Melt 1 tablespoon butter in heavy large skillet over medium-high heat. Add zucchini and onion and sauté until vegetables are just tender, about 4 minutes. Mix in corn, canned chilies.  Remove filling from heat into bowl.  Stir in sour cream, ricotta cheese, and 1 cup Monterey Jack cheese.  Set aside.
3. Make enchilada sauce.  Put oil in medium saucepan or deep skillet over medium-high heat.  When hot, add chiles, onions, and garlic.  Stir occasionally until onions soften, about 5 minutes.  Add tomatoes, sugar, water or chicken broth, salt, and pepper.  Cook for about 20 minutes.  Stir in lime juice.  Taste and adjust seasoning.  Puree in blender or food processor.
4. Make enchiladas. Heat a skillet over medium heat.  Warm each tortilla for about 15 seconds or until flexible. (Can also microwave each for about 30 seconds in a damp paper towel). Place about 1/4 cup of filling in each tortilla.  Roll up, and place seam side down in a 9x13 inch baking dish. Pour enchilada sauce over the top, and sprinkle with the remaining cup of Monterey Jack.  Place pan into oven and cook for 30 to 40 minutes or until cheese begins browning.
5. Make black beans and rice. Heat oil in medium saucepan or skillet over medium heat.  Add onion, pepper, and garlic.  Cook until tender, about 5 minutes.  Stir in remaining ingredients and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes.  Serve over rice.

Yields: 10 enchiladas
Total time: about 2 hours
Active time: about an hour