Spicy Pork and Udon Soup

This is the finest spicy Asian soup this side of momofuku, urban belly, or whichever place combines delicious broth, noodles, meat, herbs and veggies where you live.  The udon was bought at Target (just bear with me)—and you should run (not walk) to buy a few packages before they sever their relationship with Myojo (as Bridget believes they eventually will).

Some folk don’t appreciate udon: too thick? too chewy? too…????  I don’t understand those folk. Udon, for me, is like “Well, I really like spaghetti and egg noodles and…but do you have anything more noodley”.  So yeah, I don’t understand those folk.

Anyway, on with the recipe. Shit, it’s a real hodgepodge pot of things now that I think of it. Do you have mirin? Lemon grass?  Sesame oil? Sriracha? Some trusty sambal oelek (garlic chile sauce)?  Well, they’re not necessarily vital to this soup, but if you answered “no” you ought to seriously consider having them on hand if you like things that taste good or spicy or genuinely Asian.

Ingredients (you can add some or leave some out—it’s really just about what flavors and the rating on the spice index you wish to achieve). Here is what we used and loved:

2 packets udon noodle soup mix

½ cup Cilantro

½ large Carrot

4 cloves Garlic

1 Tblsp sliced Lemon Grass

1 lime

1 small onion

~1 cup meat (shrimp, chicken, pork or beef work well)

Salt & Pepper to taste

Soy Sauce

Mirin

Garlic Chili sauce (or Sriracha)

For this particular round, which is decidedly the best we’ve ever made, we combined one package of “spicy” and one of the “oriental”-flavored udon noodles “from the Target”. Get the requisite amount of water going, add some lemon grass.  Meanwhile, chop ½ cup cilantro, crudely knife up a protein if you like, dice about 4 cloves garlic, shred ½ a large carrot, and thinly slice 1 small onion.  Sautee onion and optional meat (in our case some previously prepared and thinly sliced pork tenderloin) in sesame oil over medium-low heat.  Once the onions are softening and fragrant, you should add the garlic, toss in about half the cilantro, a splash of soy sauce, mirin, and the juice of ½ a lime into the pan.  Let this mixture simmer for a few minutes, adding the shredded carrot last for about 1 minute. Then, transfer entire sauté pan into broth and add udon noodles and flavor packets.

Serve in bowls with either chopsticks or a spoon-fork combo (Bridget’s Thai habit), depending on both your level of stick mastery and desire to slurp.  Garnish with the rest of the chopped cilantro and, according to your tolerance for heat, some Garlic Chili sauce or Sriracha and then get your bibs on.

Watching Too Much Chopped is Not a Bad Thing

Being slightly competitive people who like to cook, the TV show Chopped is an obvious choice for weeknight couch time.   If you're unfamiliar with the show, the premise is that contestants each get a basket filled with random "mystery ingredients" that they must then use to cook a dish in a set amount of time, which is something ridiculous like 20 minutes.  It usually takes me 20 minutes to figure out where I put the bottle of  olive oil when I am cooking dinner, but no matter. 

Last week we combined the random odds and ends in our fridge to make the above: Goat Cheese and Sun Dried Tomato Chicken.  Our ingredients weren't nearly as bizarre as the ones on Chopped, but I was quite happy to have a delicious dinner and clean out the fridge at the same time.

4 chicken breasts (we planned on leftovers)
~8 tablespoons goat cheese
A handful of sun-dried tomatoes, finely chopped
2-3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tablespoon capers, rinsed and chopped
1/2 small onion, finely diced
Salt & pepper

Mark seasoned the chicken breasts and browned them a bit in a pan.  Meanwhile, combine the rest of the ingredients and mix well.  Preheat the oven to 375.  Once the chicken is browned and cooled a bit, spread the cheese mixture on top and pop in the oven.  We cooked them for 10 minutes or so and then turned on the broiler for a few to brown up the cheese a bit.  We served them with Israeli couscous and sauteed broccoli and probably ate them while placing bets on mystery ingredients while watching Chopped.

Potato-Bacon Gratin

I'll miss summer and Sunday mornings filling our bags at the farmer's market, but I'll take a crisp fall afternoon spent checking out pumpkins and eating apple cider donuts still warm in the paper bag (like we did today).  I also love the excuse to cook and eat big warm meals.  I can't remember exactly what the occasion was last year around this time, but Mark and I decided to spend a Saturday night making a complicated, multi-course dinner for ourselves.  We'd never cooked duck at home before, so that became our project. 

The duck was fabulous, but I'll save that for another post.  Today I'm going to share the recipe for one of our sides, a recipe we've made again since and shared with family: Potato-Bacon Gratin.  The recipe comes from Sunday Suppers at Lucques by Suzanne Goin.  I love that this cookbook divides itself not by ingredient or course, but by season.  For this meal, we also made a great salad from this book, Barbara's apples and Asian pears with radicchio, mint and buttermilk dressing.  That also deserves its own post. 

Anyway, back to bacon.  This recipe is beautiful in its simplicity, but don't be deceived by that either -- the flavors are more than the sum of their parts:

1/2 pound slab applewood smoked bacon
4 cups thinly sliced onions
1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons thyme leaves
2 1/4 pound Yukon Gold potatoes
About 2 cups heavy cream
Kosher salt and black pepper

Heat the oven to 350.  Cut the bacon into pieces (lardons) and cook in a large saute pan over medium-high heat for five minutes or so.  Remove the bacon to drain but leave the fat in the pan. 

Add the onions, two teaspoons thyme, one teaspoon salt and some pepper.  Cook for 15 minutes or until the onions start to caramelize.  Turn the heat down to low and cook another 10 minutes, stirring often, until the onions are deep, golden brown.  Remove from heat.

Use a mandoline to slice the potatoes into the thinnest rounds you can handle.  We bought our mandoline specifically for this recipe and we use it all the time now; I recommend investing in one! 

Pour 1/2 cup cream evenly onto the bottom of a 9x9 gratin dish.  Place one layer of potatoes side-by-side, slightly overlapping, on the bottom.  Top with a third of the onions, scatter a third of the bacon on top.  Arrange a second layer of potatoes, drizzle 1/4 cup cream over it, season with salt, pepper and a pinch of thyme.  Press the potatoes down to let the cream soak up through the layers.

Top with another layer of potatoes, onions and bacon.  Drizzle over a little more cream and salt and pepper.  Press down again.  Drizzle with 1/2 cup cream and two layers of potatoes, salt and pepper.  Press.  Scatter the rest of the onions and bacon over the potatoes and drizzle with 1/3 cup cream.  Season one last time.  The cream should cover the potatoes but not be soupy. 

Cover tightly with two layers of foil.  Bake an hour and a half.  Uncover and turn the oven up to 425 and bake for another 20 minutes or until the top is golden brown. 

Roasted Tomato Salsa

Alright, something simple and universal for the first recipe.  I'd told Bridgie about a place my brother Brian took me a long long time ago (I think when I was visiting him for my 21st birthday) in Berkeley, CA. Well, thoughtful gal she is, I wound up with a cookbook from the place for Christmas this past year.  She has a knack for remembering things you tell her in passing and then BOOM-- you have an argyle vest you may have mentioned you thought you might like after a bottle of wine.  Anyway, the place in Bezerkeley is called The Cheese Board Collective, and the eponymous cookbook has amazing bread recipes, cheese pairing advice, etc-- and here all I knew was that you waited in line for a good half hour for a great pizza.  We tried out some time-consuming but delicious and crowd-pleasing breads, but the thing we've been using most from the hippy tome is their salsa recipe. It is actually more liquid than chunky in texture, like something waiting on the table for you at a great mexican joint. It can be tweaked to be as spicy or as mild as you want it.  It's easy and it rules. Here it is:

from "The Cheese Board Collective Works"

Roasted Tomato Salsa

5 Roma Tomatoes
3 Jalapeno chiles, stemmed
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 cup finely chopped green onions
1/2 cup loosely packed fresh cilantro leaves, chopped
1/8 teaspoon kosher salt


In a cast-iron skillet over medium heat, roast the tomatoes and chiles until the tomato skins are blackened and beginning to fall off, about 10 minutes. Put the tomatoes and chiles in a food processor with the garlic and green onions and pulse for 15 seconds, or until the salsa has a chunky consistency.  Pour the mixture into a bowl and stir in the cilantro and salt. Taste and adjust the seasoning.

and Here are the Main Players of SightTasteSound....

Mark

Mark



 Bridget

Bridget



Millie

Millie



Our new blog!

Hello and welcome to SightTasteSound!  Bridget, Millie and I are going to be writing about, linking to and photographing a wide variety of topics and things that interest us. The name of the blog is pretty lame, admittedly, but I chose it in a hurry and it seemed to best encompass the senses we'll be focusing on. Some thoughts on music, some recipes we're working on, some books we're reading, some places we've visited...you get the idea. We're not reinventing the wheel here, just putting our brand of fancy rims on it.

We have been together about a year and a half now and have already had some really wonderful experiences together, with many many more planned for the future. We do a LOT of cooking together and like to stretch ourselves in the kitchen, and so we've been thinking about doing a cookbook for friends and family before the holidays.

Onto the title of the blog, then:

SIGHT- some pics of places we go, food we eat, drinks we love, us hugging, our pup Millie doing funny things.

TASTE- I'm thinking we'll be putting some recipes on here, some pics of food, some thoughts on restaurants and bars in Chicago and elsewhere, and-- well, we can use the term "taste" figuratively here and include basically anything that has to do with style, opinion or preference.

SOUND- Music has been of huge importance to us both independently and as a couple. It was one of the things we quickly discovered we had in common that brought us together, and one we have subsequently enjoyed as a couple. We can agree to disagree about the importance of 1980's kiwi pop just as effortlessly as we can make up words to "Alouette" that concern Millie and her eating habits or "aromas".  SO yeah, expect some reviews (from 2 totally unqualified people) of shows we go to, albums we're digging, podcasts, whatever.

I hope you'll check in on us once in a while, cook something we've made and enjoy it, check out a band you may otherwise not, give us some suggestions of places to visit, and just interact with us and be a part of this fun experiment.