Carefree Cooking

Miso Fried Noodle

Fried rice is one of those dishes that allow you to clean up your fridge of leftovers. You can pretty much put anything with fried rice (as long as you cut them into smaller pieces). If you don't have anything, but still want to have fried rice, you can just use eggs (we all have that in our fridge right?) and any canned food you have.

Aside from fried rice, fried rice noodle is another dish that can be made up of any leftover food. Any noodle you have in the pantry will do, but just make sure you don't over cook it. Italians call it Al Dente, or "cooked enough to be firm but not soft". The easiest way to tell if noodles are cooked just right is to taste it. If the noodle feels firm but yo don't see any sign or taste of flour, then you're good to go. For pasta noodles, some people have different techniques. I saw once on TV that they would cut a piece and throw it to a fridge. If the noodles stay, then you're done. I prefer to just taste it, that way you don't feel like you're wasting food.

To make the fried noodle, I just boiled some dried noodles. While the noodles are boiling, you can start creating the flavouring for the noodle. I had some chinese sausage and asparagus so I cut those into little pieces and sauteed them with a little bit of oil. I set them aside and left the little bit of oil and fat (from the sausage) in the pan. Once the noodles are cooked, I placed them in the pan so that it can fry a little bit with the leftover oil from the sausage and asparagus. The sauce is what combines all the ingredients. I didn't have any "stir fry" sauce available so I knew I had to make my own. I took some miso paste (the same stuff you use to make soup), dissolve it in some soy sauce and add some oyster sauce and a little bit of Mirin. Ever since I got the bottle of Mirin, I've been trying to find recipes where it will go well in. In this recipe, I didn't taste any Mirin flavour so I don't think you should bother putting it. The sauce was a little thick due to the miso paste. This is necessary for the sauce to stick to the noodle. If it's too wet, then the sauce will not stick to the noodle and that won't be good eats. Combine the sausage/asparagus mixture into the noodle and cook for a minute or so.

One other trick when boiling noodles (or vegetables). After you take them out from the pot, rinse it with cold water. For vegetables, you can put them in a bowl of cold water. This will stop the noodles (or vegetables) from further cooking due to the residual heat. The culinary term for this is "shocking". Doesn't sound very "culinary" doesn't it. Anyways, feel free to experiement with your own carefree cooking dishes and remember to share your recipes and experiences.

posted by carefreecooking @ 7:35 PM