We had Oriental Noodle workshop last Saturday.
The 3 noodles we used are rice vermicelli, Soba noodle and Shirataki noodle.
With them we made:
- Rice vermicelli salad spring rolls
- Soba noodle Ying-Yang soup
- Shirataki Stir Fry
Usually I use cilantro for spring roll, but this time we tried Shiso and basil from our local organic farm Wild Rose Farm.
And guess what? That WAS a hit! I should make this for the Open Farm Day next year.
Another new introduction was the “Ying-Yang” cooking. Well, actually I don’t know if it’s the politically correct name or not for that cooking style, but anyway it works very well for me.
It’s said that by layering the ingredients in a certain order following the Ying-Yang rules, the ingredients enhances the flavour each other and the result becomes more delicious. And believe me, it is delicious!
The basic order is, from the bottom of the pot, like this:
- Mushrooms and/or seaweeds
- Fruit vegetables (tomato, summer squash, cuke, peas, beans)
- Leafy vegetables, stems and flowers (broccoli, kale, cabbage, spinach)
- Potatoes and starchy vegetables (potato, yam, sweetpotato, winter squash)
- Root vegetables (turnip, radish, beet, carrot, onion)
- Grain (rice, oats, quinoa, barley)
- Meat and/or seafood (beaf, pork, poultry, fish, shrimp)
- A little bit of sea salt
Simply cut the ingredients into your desired size and shape. Place them in a pot in this order.
Add no to a little water for steam cooking and thick sauce, depending on how juicy the ingredients are.
Add more water for stew and soup (just to cover all).
And, here is the fun part. Place your palms over the pot and send your love to make them turn out delicious!
I know it sounds silly for some people but just pretend you are a 6 years old and enjoy this rite.
Cover and cook until the vegetables get tender.
I should mention the unique noodle Shirataki. It has very, very low calories. In Japan it is well known as the great food for weight control. You can easily substitute all or part of your pasta noodles to Shirataki and then it becomes healthier. Ta da-!
This video will give you some idea how it turns out into a dish.
In the workshop we made a simpler and healthier version – no meat, no sweetener.
Actually the sweet-and-salty taste, typically sugar and soy sauce like Teriyaki sauce, is Japanese signature taste.
This time to somewhat create that taste, we used naturally sweet vegetables such as carrots and sweetpotatoes (beet roots works great, too). It was very simple and tasted great.
I never thought of the noodle workshop, but thanks to one of my inspiring customers, this things materialized. Many many thanks for Ms. T!!!
For simple, healthy and delicious homemade meals, we’ll keep searching for the ideas and offer more creative workshops.
Hope you join next time!