These last two days of "happy chicken week" are just to
show a couple different, interesting uses for the stored up chicken stock.
Our idea this past weekend was to cook something that looked like a totally
different food than it actually was.
A few weeks ago at the Grillin and Chillin event we had a dish by Chef Shaker Estephane where the Mango was cut into what looked like stringy little noodles. This gave Mandi the idea that she wanted to make an entire dish where everything was shaped like noodles. I had also been thinking about it when reading Morimoto's cookbook that I got for Christmas. He loves what he calls "visual food puns". So we first thought of a food we have often, spaghetti and meatballs. It got us thinking... what if the meat was the noodles, and the pasta was the meatballs? What we ended up with was pretty awesome. For the "meatballs" we knew we wanted corny and doughy, and them to be fried and have Thai flavors. We put all that into Google and got this and said, ok, lets go for it.
This is a mostly original recipe with the help of Jamie Oliver's
fragrant green curry as the sauce, and that corn fritter recipe we found online
for the "meatballs"
Also, these are the first food pics I have posted with my
new camera and I am very happy about it.
I really love the camera and think it will be a great improvement on the
posts. There are still one or two sets
of pictures kicking around from the old camera that I have yet to post, but
after that, it will be mostly the new one. There are a ton of pictures so hopefully people don't get ADD and stop reading cause it is awesome
- Basil
- Cilantro
- Bean sprouts
- rice flour
- baking powder
- onion
- carrot
- Parsnip
- Thai chiles
- lime
- garlic
- ginger
- asparagus
- eggs
- lo mien noodles
- tofu
- coconut milk
- soy sauce
- turmeric
- peppercorns
- coriander seeds
- whoops I didn't use this
- cayenne
- chicken stock about 2 1/2 cups
- cabbage
- red pepper
- half a green pepper
- spring onions or scallions
- corn
- happy beef
- NOT PICTURED - fish sauce
- NOT PICTURED - lemongrass
Mandi seeding and dicing the peppers for the curry
Ya got a little something there... to the left.
Into the blender - cilantro and Thai peppers
Scallions
Lime juice
Ginger
Pepper and coriander. Whole seeds are much better in this case. I wrap them with parchment and hit with a hammer.
Lemongrass
A picture is worth 4 words
Not too much though! You want it pasty not oily
At this point in the process, you will be very excited to eat because what stands before you in said blender is magical
Get it into the beef "noodles" and let it sit for a good half hour at least
Here is Mandi making some more noodles parsnip noodles
How could you forget carrot noodles?
And the staple- cabbage noodles.
MMM Asparagus noodles. These were tougher because the peeler didn't do a good job on them. Knife skills upgrade! + 3
We put them all into an ice bath because that's what Morimoto does in one of his recipes for a shaved asparagus salad.
We figured onions were a different texture and cooking time than the rest of the "noodles" so we put them on earlier
This is the beginning of the batter for the "meatballs" or Thai corn fritters. It is Tofu, scallions, cilantro, eggs, soy sauce, and fish sauce.
And corn
We quickly roasted 2 red peppers under the broiler for some more noodles.
Rice flour and baking powder into the fritter batter
And a few more diced Thai chiles
The chicken stock getting ready
Take the onions off when they are done
It smells good in here
The back is the oil, right is the chicken stock with lo mien noodles in it. We used a few real noodles to add more depth.
That looks like a perfect meatball
The meatball frying up nicely
Add the coconut milk when the beef is browned
Then the noodles and stock. This needs to be timed well so they are almost cooked when they are needed in the wok.
Some meez
So many noodles of all kinds.
At this point I was still unsure about this working
then suddenly I knew we had stumbled upon something great.
Add some bean sprouts. you can put the roasted red peppers and onions in now too
Wait I'm confused... what's a noodle? What is a veggie? What is meat?
The "meatballs" came out great, but could have sat a few min longer in the oil. I did lower oil temp (315) cause I thought they would need longer to cook through but I think 350 would have been better.
Perfect Thai "spaghetti" and "meatballs"
I want to make this again right now it was SO good.
This picture is what Mandi had a dream about and made her want to make this. "I want to pick up noodles with my chopsticks and have it all be vegetables."
As always, some for work the next day. This didn't keep as well as most things so be sure to eat it the next day.
New camera is foodtastic!
Wow! I need to taste this one, I am going to prepare it myself, Thank you for sharing with us.