Chicken Meatball Noodle Soup with Watercress

Ahhh. Soup. I seriously cannot live without it in the winter! (Did anyone enjoy this week's arctic blast here in NY?... didn't think so.) Chicken noodle soup is one of my favorite things to eat especially during these cold, dark winter days. I wanted to do something a little different and unexpected so I put a Chinese spin on this classic soup!

You know, growing up, soup was served almost every night along with dinner. Although, Chinese soups tend to be much more brothy and are eaten as health supplement rather than full-on meals so it never seems "heavy". After all, Chinese dinners are all about having a well-balanced diet, and soup completes a meal quite nicely.

This chicken meatball noodle soup with watercress has pretty much everything a healthy meal could offer. And why not get an upgrade from a traditional chicken noodle soup when you can have it all?! Watercress (西洋菜) is a very common ingredient in Chinese soups and it's got some really great health values (apparently it's really good for the flu or cough!). Besides soups though, I really haven't cooked anything else with watercress before. Do you like watercress? What are some of the things that you like to make with it?

To make this soup, you'll learn how to roll/form meatballs with spoons. And trust me, it's not rocket science, just needs a bit of patience and time! Is it technical? Naaah. You've got this - it's actually quite fun! And just to add some more texture, I added egg-drop-soup-style eggs! Now, here's to a complete meal - cheers! (or should I say.. Slurp!)

Chicken Meatball Noodle Soup with Watercress

Prep time: 30 mins  Cook time: 40 mins  Total time: 1 hour 10 mins

Serves: 4

You'll need:

• 4 cups chicken broth
• 4 cups water
• 1-2 cups chopped watercress
• 2 cups wide egg noodles
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tbsp salt
• Meatballs:
• 1/2 cup yellow onion, grated
• 1/2 cup chopped watercress
• 1 large egg
• 1 tbsp minced garlic
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 1/2 tsp white pepper powder
• 1 lb ground chicken
• 1/2 cup breadcrumbs

Approach:

1. Rinse and drain watercress thoroughly. Chop it by hand or use a food processor.
2. Bring the chicken broth and water in a stock pot until it starts to boil, then turn the heat to low.
3. In a bowl, mix the first seven meatball ingredients together. Add chicken then breadcrumbs.
4. Once the chicken broth is ready, use 2 small tea spoons to form meatballs by first scooping a small lump of the meat with 1 spoon, then passing it back and forth between spoons a few times. Try to make them as round as possible but doesn't need to be perfect. Carefully drop each one into the stock pot until all the meatballs are in. (Meatballs will sink to bottom at first but will raise as they're done being cooked, and will float up top.)
5. Add the other chopped watercress and salt, and let the soup simmer for 20 minutes.
6. Beat the 2 eggs, then stream them into the soup slowly while stirring with a ladle.
7. Add the egg noodles last, about 10 minutes before serving, to make sure they don't get overcooked.
8. Top with oyster or saltine crackers (optional).

Pan-fried Noodles with Soy Sauce (豉油皇炒麵)

What is a classic dish? Something traditional? Something that has survived through time that this ever-changing culture does not get tired of? Something so good, and so true to an identity that it has been stamped with a "no further modification needed"? Classic dishes live among all cuisine, and for the Cantonese, this Pan-fried Noodles with Soy Sauce (豉油皇炒麵) is definitely one of them.

Noodle is everything in a lot of Asian people's diet. Okay, a majority if not everything. I had recently pointed out my love for noodles. And if you must know, I eat some sort of noodle at least once a week (twice, if you count pasta). Anyway. What I admire about dishes like the pan-fried noodles with soy sauce is that it holds the ability to keep its cool over the years, sort of like flying low under the radar. The dish has not changed and very rarely you'd get a modified version. Pan-fried noodles with soy sauce is as basic and simple as a stir-fried noodle dish can get. There're only four things you need to make this authentic dish: egg noodles (either dried or fresh), bean sprouts, scallions, and soy sauce. (Well, two kinds of soy sauce.) It's not a fancy dish, and it doesn't need to be. Ever.

If you're traveling to the "kong", you'll come across pan-fried noodles with soy sauce in a lot of places. Almost all jau lau 酒樓 (big restaurants that can hold lots of banquet-size tables and mainly serving Cantonese cuisine and Dim Sum), Da Pai Dong, Cha Chaan Teng, fast food places like Café de Coral (大家樂) or Fairwood (大快活), and congee shops. Congee is pretty much the partner in crime to pan-fried noodles with soy sauce. The perfect match for locals who prefer a Chinese breakfast today because a western style breakfast was eaten yestetday.

Many Asian cultures eat noodle or rice for breakfast. Singaporean has their bee hoon, and Vietnamese has their bun. In Cantonese, calling someone a "rice bucket" simply means that person eats a lot of rice. I'm definitely the noodle version. Does that make me a "noodle bucket"? That just sounds ridiculous.

Slurp. Slurp.

---

Pan-fried Noodles with Soy Sauce

You'll need:

• ½ lb egg noodles, dried or fresh (pan-fried not wonton noodles)
• 3 stalks of scallion, cut into 1" pieces
• ½ cup bean sprouts, rinsed
• 1 tbsp dark soy sauce
• 2 tbsp regular soy sauce
• Some oil

Approach:

1. If using dried egg noodles, blanch them in hot water first until el a dante. It'll take about 3 mins after water has boiled. Drain, and set aside.
2. In a hot pan, add 2 tbsp of oil. Rotate the pan to spread oil throughout the cooking surface. Add noodles and cook for about 4 minutes, stirring frequently with a pair of chopsticks or tongs. Then add scallion, bean sprouts, and both kind of soy sauce. Stir and cook for 4 more minutes. Serve immediately.

Notes:

If you encounter dryness while cooking the noodles, add water 1 tbsp at a time.

Stir-Fried Udon (炒烏冬)

I love Asian noodles, and probably just as much as Laura loves pasta. Stir-fried udon, mei fun (米粉), ho fun (河粉), pad thai, pho, etc... Dried or fresh, you name it, I'll get my hands on it. To me, Asian noodle isn't as heavy and dense as pasta so eating a massive amount of it is never a problem.

Let's talk about udon for a second here. The ones that are usually available at stores and even restaurants are the ones that are packed individually in little plastic bags that might look like they are vacuum-sealed. Even my favorite Japanese noodle bar in the East Village, Udon West, uses those kind of udon. (I love Udon West because it's a no BS, get-in-and-get-out joint that i can get a great meal for a bargain.) I would, however, love to try some fresh udon because everything tastes better fresh! (well, almost everything.)

Listen, I'm not Japanese or an expert in udon making. Was the udon noodle really introduced to the Japanese by Kūkai in the 9th century? I don't know. But I do know that udon is a thick, round noodle that's made out of wheat. It's soft and chewy, and usually served hot in a broth or dashi, very much like how soba and ramen are served. Another way to cook udon is "yaki" which means grilled or pan-fried. So next time you're in a Japanese restaurant, and see Yakiudon or Yakisoba on the menu, you should know what they are (without looking at the full-colored pictures). So yes, I guess I kind of made a Yakiudon here (without using a hot iron plate, and a much simplified version).

Stir-fries are easy. Chop your ingredients and line up your sauces and you're ready to get cooking. For this stir-fried udon, I got cabbage, broccoli, carrot, a couple (imitation) crab meat sticks, an egg, and used sweetened soy sauce for the main seasoning. I finished it off with a shower of sesame seeds on top! If you have teriyaki sauce, feel free to drizzle some of that in your stir-fried udon.

Pretty darn simple, right?

Stir-Fried Udon (炒烏冬)

Prep time: 10 mins  Cook time: 20 mins  Total time: 30 mins

Serves: 2

You'll need:

• 2 packs of udon noodles
• 1 cup carrot, julienned
• 1 1/2 cup shredded green (flat) cabbage
• 1 1/2 cup broccoli floret
• 2 (imitation) crab meat sticks, cut into 1/2" pieces on an angle
• 1 egg
• 2 tbsp sesame oil
• sesame seeds
• sauce:
• 3/4 soy sauce
• 2 tbsp white sugar

Approach:

1. Break down the packed udon noodles in a big bowl of warm water. Let it sit.
2. In a sauce pan, heat up soy sauce with sugar on very low heat until the sauce has thicken up just a bit.
3. Fry the egg roughly with some oil, and break the yolk. Set aside.
4. Add some sesame oil on a hot pan, and cook the vegetable until they start to soften, about 5 minutes. Stir occasionally. Then, add egg and crab meat.
5. Drain the udon noodles (they shouldn't be hard anymore but not too soft), and add them to the pan.
6. Pour the sweetened soy sauce on top and stir frequently until the sauce has well-distributed.
7. Plate, and sprinkle some sesame seeds on top. Serve immediately.

Singapore-Style Rice Vermicelli (星洲炒米)

I don't just like this dish, I LOVE this dish. In a way, Singapore-Style Rice Vermicelli (星洲炒米) (Singapore rice noodles or Singapore Mei Fun) is part of the identity of Hong Kong cuisine. It's a dish that every Hong Konger is familiar with growing up along with other east-meets-west fusion fairs that you can find in a Cha Chaan Teng. Now, listen, you can't find this dish in Singapore. It's not that they don't eat stir-fried rice vermicelli there (they DO!), it's just not the same thing with the same taste. So why is Singapore-Style Rice Vermicelli (星洲炒米) called Singapore-style rice vermicelli then?

Well, let me take a step back real quick and mention that an authentic Singapore fried rice vermicelli is actually called fried bee hoon which does not include curry, nor it is spicy. Fried bee hoon can be considered as "street food" because it's served in a lot of cooked food centre or food hawkers in Singapore, and it's fast, cheap, and filling (and often eaten as breakfast). Learn how to make economical fried bee hoon from Whisk and Knife.

So... where did the curry come from in most of the Singapore-style rice vermicelli dishes outside of Singapore? I have not been able to find the true answer but many seem to think that the curried rice vermicelli dish was born in Hong Kong's Cha Chaan Tengs. And because it's cooked with curry and it's very similar to fried bee hoon, "Singapore Noodle" was created.

The kind of rice noodle used in Singapore-style rice vermicelli (星洲炒米) should be very thin so Mei Fun (米粉) is used often. I found the Wai Wai brand to be the best when cooking stir-fry noodles because the soaking time is short, and the texture is just right.

I was soaking three pieces of rice vermicelli but two are actually enough for this recipe. Remember to use warm water. I've cut them into halves so they can all be submerged. Plus, it's easier to stir-fry noodles that have been broken up. To save time, soak the dried noodles while you prep for the other ingredients which takes about 15-20 minutes.

Here I have everything cut up and ready to go! Stir-fry happens quickly so you don't want to get held up while things are already getting cooked in the wok. When I was at the store, I saw these small bell peppers so I used them instead of just a red bell pepper. Here I also have half of an yellow onion, 2 cooked and sliced eggs, some char siu, and some minced garlic and grated ginger. If you like to eat spicy, some hot pepper slices would be good, too.

And what can I say? :) I just can't get enough of Huy Fong's chili garlic sauce! It's just the perfect condiment for this singapore style rice vermicelli!

Singapore-Style Rice Vermicelli (星洲炒米)

Prep time: 15 mins  Cook time: 15 mins  Total time: 30 mins

Serves: 2

You'll need:

• 2 pieces of Wai Wai brand dried rice vermicelli
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 tsp peeled and grated fresh ginger
• 8-10 medium raw shrimp, shelled and deveined
• 1/2 lb char siu, thinly sliced
• 2 eggs, beaten, cooked, and sliced
• 1 cup of red bell pepper, thinly sliced
• 1/2 medium yellow onion, thinly sliced
• a few slices of long hot green peppers
  
  Sauce:
• 5 tbsp soy sauce
• 2 tbsp cooking wine
• 2 1/2 tsp curry powder
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp white pepper powder

Approach:

1. Start by soaking the dried rice vermicelli in a large mixing bowl with some warm water while prepping for other ingredients. You may choose to cut them down in halves, in order for them to be fully submerged.
2. Mix the sauce together and set aside.
3. In medium-high heat, drizzle some oil in the pan or wok. Cook the shrimp for about 2 minutes each side then set aside.
4. Drain the rice vermicelli. (For easier stirring while cooking it with all the other ingredients, you may choose to cut the noodle down roughly. I like it this way also because it’s easier to eat, shorter noodles make better “bite sizes”. But that’s just a completely personal taste.)
5. Drizzle some oil in the pan/wok. Cook the garlic and ginger until fragrant, then add all the vegetables. Cook for 3-4 minutes until soften or until onion is transparent in color. Set aside.
6. Drizzle some more oil in the pan/wok. Cook the rice vermicelli until it turns soft, about 3 minutes, then add the vegetable, shrimp, char siu, and eggs. Give it a big stir while adding the sauce. Let it cook for another few minutes until the sauce is all mixed in. Stir frequently.
7. Serve immediately (with some garlic chili sauce on the side).

Notes:

If char siu isn’t available, try ham, bacon, or shredded pork.[br][br]Here’s a tip I picked up when cooking shrimp: straight shrimp are undercooked, shrimp that have just curled into a C-shape are perfectly cooked, and shrimp that have twisted into an O-shape are overcooked.

Spaghetti Bolognese

Oi! Is spaghetti bolognese one of your favorite pasta dishes? It sure was my favorite growing up! "I mean, what's not to like?" (Yes, I'm quoting from Friends ;)) But seriously. Tomato sauce, good. Beef, good. Pasta, good! This particular spaghetti bolognese recipe is closer to what you'd be able to find at a cha chaan teng in Hong Kong. It's a pretty straightforward pasta dish that's quite simple to make.

3 small vine tomatoes, half of an onion, 5-6 cloves of garlic, half of a box of spaghetti. (A few other things: 1 small can of tomato paste, some worcestershire sauce, salt & pepper, and a little bit of flour.)

I've tried bolognese sauce with other kinds of pasta before but spaghetti is the perfect pair in my book. I love twirling the pasta and the sauce at once. It just feels more cohesive as a bite than eating bolognese sauce with small pieces of pasta.

If you got some grated parmesan (and a glass of wine), you're set! It's a perfect dinner to make during the week because it's super simple and doesn't take long.

Enjoy!

Spaghetti Bolognese

Serves: 3-4

You'll need:

• 5-6 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1/2 yellow onion, diced
• 3 small vine tomatoes, diced
• 1 lb ground beef
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 1 tsp worcestershire sauce
• 2 tsp sugar
• 1 6-oz can of tomato paste
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 tbsp all-purposed flour
• 1 tbsp water
• 1/2 lb of spaghetti

Approach:

1. Prep your ingredients by mincing the garlic, and dicing the onion and tomatoes. In a medium bowl, mix together tomato paste and 1/2 cup of water, set aside. In another small bowl, mix flour and 1tbsp of water, set aside. Boil a pot of water for the spaghetti.

2. In medium heat, cook minced garlic with 1 tbsp of olive oil until fragrant, about 20 seconds. Then add diced onion, and cook until onion becomes transparent. Transfer mixture to a bowl and set aside.

3. When hot water is ready, drop your spaghetti with some salt (I like to break the spaghetti in half). Let it cook until al dente, then drain.

4. Brown the ground beef, and spoon out the excess fat so the sauce doesn’t get too greasy.

5.  Return the onion mixture to the pan with the beef, and season with salt and pepper, Worcestershire sauce, and sugar.

6. Add the diced tomatoes, and the water-downed tomato paste. Cook for another 5 minutes.

7. Lastly, stir in the flour mixture which would act as a binder for the sauce. Toss in the spaghetti (after it’s drained) and give it a good stir using a pair of tongs.

8. Plate, and sprinkle some grated parmesan if you have.