Sue's Kitchen: Chinese

Ramen Makeover

Instant noodles are a part of our lives. Call it convenient, unhealthy, addictive, etc. etc. I have always been a victim of it myself. So sometimes I have a little fun with it by adding vegetables going hakka. Of course, I know most people would be doing this once a while. Feel free to choose your vegetables. I sauté them very little. This is just to keep its crunchiness and freshness intact. I use the same seasoning as well. Sauces of your choice again and we are done!

Ingredients:

2 packets instant Ramen noodles

2 packets of seasoning

Half of a small cabbage thinly sliced

2 carrots thinly sliced

1 green pepper thinly sliced

3-4 springs of spring onion, white and green portions chopped

2 fresh red chilies halved

2 tbsp sesame oil

1 tsp dark soy sauce

1 tbsp peri peri hot sauce

Salt to taste

Method:

1. Boil the noodles and set it aside. Do not add anything to the water.

2. In a pan, add sesame oil and once the oil is hot add the sliced carrots, green pepper, white portion of spring onions and red chilies.

3. Saute them for a minute and add the seasoning.

4. Mix the seasoning well with the vegetables.

5. Add the noodles to the vegetables.

6. Before mixing the noodles, sprinkle the soy sauce, peri peri hot sauce along with salt.

7. Mix everything together.

8. Now add cabbage and the green portion of spring onion and mix together.

Shrimp and Egg Fried Rice

There can be many ingredients to this, as in, many more vegetables. However, I have made this simply with spring onions using a lot of the green part. For a change, I have chopped them into bigger sizes. I have used very small shrimps for this one. However, you should feel free to use any size that you may have. Even for the seasoning I use only a bit of black pepper. Adding finely chopped ginger was also a good twist of the taste. Feel free to pick your sauces as well. Simple, non-spicy and very easy to cook rice dish.

Ingredients:

1 ½ cups basmati rice; cooked and made to cool

250 gms fine shrimps

2 eggs beaten

4-5 spring onions sliced

Ginger thumb size

2 green chilies deseeded

2 tbsp vegetable oil

2 tbsp butter

2 tsp red chili sauce

2 tsp cooking vinegar

2 tsp dark soy sauce

2 tsp black pepper

Salt to taste

Method:

1. Cook the rice and set it aside. Make sure it’s not overcooked and absolutely free.

2. Heat the butter and vegetable oil in a wok and add all the shrimps.

3. Add a bit of salt and let the shrimps cook through and is free of all the excess moisture.

4. Now add eggs and fry it for 3-4 minutes.

5. Add the white portion of the spring onions, along with the ginger and deseeded green chilies.

6. Add black pepper and mix them together.

5. Add rice and the sauces.

6. Add the green portion of the spring onions.

7. Mix well.

Schezwan Paneer with Capsicum

In an effort to create a restaurant makeover of a typical Chinese vegetarian dish, I came up with this paneer recipe which is made in a homemade schezwan sauce. If you get this sauce right, you can do a lot with it. You can use it for various recipes, like schezwan fried rice or any other schezwan dishes. The most important ingredient is the red chili paste made by simply soaking the dry red chilies in water for an hour and then grinding it. Usually, in a schezwan sauce, there is no Kashmiri chili powder, but I have used it for the colour as I am not very fond of using artificial colouring in food. The rest of the recipe is very simple.

Ingredients:

150 gm paneer cut into cubes

2 capsicums cut into squares

2-3 white onions cut in squares

2 tbsp coriander leaves finely chopped

3-4 red chilies

3-4 spring onions finely chopped

Green part of spring onions finely chopped

1 tbsp ginger finely chopped

1 tbsp garlic finely chopped

1 tbsp ginger garlic paste

2 tbsp red chili paste

2-3 tbsp tomato puree

1 tsp Kashmiri chili powder

½ tsp black pepper powder

4 cups vegetable stock

3 tbsp of vegetable oil

Salt to taste

Method:

1. In a non-stick vessel, heat the vegetable oil and add finely chopped white portion of the spring onions and ginger-garlic paste and cook them till the mixture turns golden brown. Don’t let it burn.

2. Now mix in the red chili paste and the Kashmiri chili paste and cook till the oil starts separating.

3. Now add the tomato puree, black pepper powder and chopped coriander and mix well.

4. Now add one cup of vegetable stock to get a sauce like consistency.

5. Add the capsicum, white onion, red chilies and paneer pieces along with salt to the sauce and mix well.

6. Add the green part of the spring onions and mix well. Leave some for garnishing.

7. Add the remaining vegetable stock and let it simmer for 5 -10 minutes. You can add bit of cornflour for thickening.

Lemon and mixed vegetable noodles

This should be a delight for my vegetarian friends and readers. Whenever I have a choice between rice and noodles in Chinese cuisine, I always go for noodles. I simply love them in varied forms. Even in my cooking, my experiment with different flavours and random choice of vegetables continues. This is nothing but a mixed vegetable noodles which I have flavoured in lemon. I use lemon sauce, lemon juice and lemon zest.

Ingredients:

500 gms plain noodles

2-3 tbsp vegetable oil

3 tbsp chopped garlic

2 medium size onions chopped in a C shape

5-6 mushrooms chopped

1 green pepper sliced

1 red pepper sliced

7-8 fresh red chilies

1 small cabbage sliced

2 carrots sliced

1 small broccoli (florets separated)

1 bunch spring onions (green part chopped)

Juice and zest of 1 lemon

2 tbsp tomato sauce

2 tbsp green chili sauce

1 tbsp soy sauce

3 tbsp lemon sauce

1 tbsp white vinegar

1 tsp pepper

1 tsp chili flakes

Salt to taste

Method:

1. In a large vessel, bring water to boiling point and add the noodles. Do not let the noodles over boil. When the noodles are slightly done, drain all the water using a strainer and immediately add cold water so that the noodles don’t stick. Set it aside.

Just before taking it off

2. In a small bowl, mix together all the sauces, tomato, green chili, soy, lemon and vinegar. Set it aside.

3. In a sizable vessel, bring the vegetable oil to a smoking point and add garlic and let it turn brown.

4. Add the anions and cook till it becomes translucent.

5. Add broccoli and mushrooms. You can add little salt at this stage to help them cook.

6. Add cabbage and carrot and mix them together.

7. Mix in the green, red pepper and the fresh red chilies. Make sure that none of the vegetables are over cooked. So add vegetables in quick succession.

8. Now add the chili flakes, salt and pepper and mix them together.

9. Now mix in the sauces.

10. Toss the noodles in the mixture.

11. Lastly add the spring onions, lemon zest and lemon juice and stir well.

Prawn in Sesame and Hot Chili Tomato Sauce

I love Chinese food. Mostly as it not only tastes good but also looks good. Colourful and Spicy. I tried making a curry using prawn and flavouring them in sesame using sesame oil and sesame seeds and a real hot tomato sauce using crushed fresh red chilies. I liked it.

Ingredients:

Our fresh prawns

250 gms fresh prawns

3-4 canned tomatoes

2 tbsp sesame oil

1 tbsp garlic paste

1 large onion pureed

5-6 fresh red chilies crushed

½ yellow pepper

½ red pepper

Our vegetable ingredients

1 tbsp ginger thinly sliced

1 tbsp fresh parsley

1 tbsp freshly ground black pepper

1 tbsp sesame seeds

2 tbsp spring onion finely chopped

Some spring onions white portion thinly chopped

Salt to taste

Ingredients for the sauce

Sasame and black pepper

Method:

1. In a pan, pour the sesame oil and bring it to a smoking point. Add sesame seeds and let them crackle. Add prawns and cook them with a little salt.