Hangover Stir Fry

Last Saturday, I got drunk. It was my brother’s fault, he was up visiting and *forced* me to drink until 3am and then go to bed without any chips. Terrible stuff. Anyway, as a result, on Sunday I was pretty sorry for myself, to say the least. Instead of staying in bed with a supply of crisps and fizzy juice, which is my preference when I have a hangover, I got up, showered and shambled into town to catch a train to Edinburgh, as we had arranged to go on an adventure to the east coast. I was quite upset to discover that nobody else was suffering as I was, it just didn’t seem fair – not that I would wish suffering on my family, of course, but misery loves company, as they say. A breakfast of diet Irn Bru and cheese and onion crisps left me in ravenous hangover mode, which at least is preferable to nauseous, can’t look food in the face hangover mode. When we arrived in Edinburgh, our first port of call was lunch, and I wolfed down a plateful of steak pie with cheese and onion mash. It was really delicious, but I attacked it too vigorously and as a result was left with a combination of the meat sweats and the hangover dry sweats. You know, the ones where you feel like your internal organs are approximately the temperature of the sun but you’re not sweating, so you might explode? Maybe it’s just me. Anyway, the double sweats sent me to a very bad place for half an hour or so, and while the feeling that you might be able to use me to heat one of the smaller European countries did wear off after a while, the feeling that I might never want to eat again did not.

Knowing that it wasn’t a sensible option never to eat again, I instead opted to have something fresh and light for dinner. My gentleman friend (who had not been through the horror of the hangover sweats and had managed a two hour long nap in the afternoon, of which I was most jealous) suggested a stir fry and/or some miso soup. This seemed like exactly the kind of plan I could get behind and on my return from Edinburgh went accordingly to the shops to get the necessary. My stock cupboard’s pretty well filled so I really just needed the fresh bits. I didn’t really have a concrete plan of what to buy, as I still felt like my brain may or may not be made of cotton wool, so I did start by looking at the pre-packed stir fry veg. Those packs annoy me a lot of the time though, as they place two slices of pepper one water chestnut and a bamboo shoot right at the top of the pack to lure you in, and when you get home you find yourself eating a plate of what is essentially beansprouts, carrot and cabbage and wondering why you paid two quid for it. So the rage overcame the lethargy and I went on the hunt for real vegetables – it would cost a bit more, but the volume and quality of food I’d end up with would be far greater. I squinted blearily at the shelves in the produce department for a while, letting my brain absorb the available items at its own pace, and decided in the end to try radishes and pak choi for a start. I also bought baby sweetcorn and a red pepper, thinking that the sweetness of the pepper and the earthiness of the baby sweetcorn would balance with the peppery radishes and slightly bitter pak choi. I’m glad to say that I was right, and the recipe for both stir fry and miso to make a light meal for two follows. Miso is easy to make if you have the ingredients, although they are not always readily available in the local shops. It’s also not particularly photogenic.

Ingredients for miso:

• just boiled water to fill a large cooking pot
• 1tsp miso paste
• one large clove of garlic
• one thumb-sized piece of ginger
• a dash of light soy
• a quarter of a 350g pack of firm tofu
• dried, roasted seaweed

 

Make the miso first, as it will simmer happily while you make the stir fry. Thin the miso paste down with some boiling water in a small bowl or ramekin before adding to a pot full of simmering water over a low heat. Add the garlic and ginger, not peeled but CRUSHed as described in the recipe for ramen. Add a dash of soy, just enough to barely change the colour of the soup. You want the soup to be very pale and delicately flavoured. Once you’ve done this, cube the tofu, tear the seaweed and stir both in, then leave to simmer. Remove the garlic and ginger before serving, or leave them in as a ‘surprise’ for whoever you’re feeding.

Ingredients for crisp veg stir fry:

• groundnut or other flavourless oil
• one inch-long piece of peeled ginger
• one green chili
• half a pack of babycorn
• half a red pepper
• four radishes, topped, tailed and washed
• one pak choi, with the base of the root sliced off
• ume plum seasoning
• sesame oil
• light soy
• sesame seeds to garnish
• one block of rice noodles
• just boiled water

Finely chop the ginger and slice the chili into rings, removing the seeds as you prefer. Then pour the very hot water over the rice noodles in a bowl, and leave to sit. The rice noodles will absorb the water as you cook the rest of the dish, without getting over saturated and mushy as they would if you put them on to boil. Next, slice the pepper, chop the babycorn into chunks, and thinly slice the radishes. Then slice the pak choi from top to root, put in a colander and rinse through.

Now, heat a little oil in a wok over a medium high heat and, once hot, add the ginger. Stir fry until fragrant, then add the chili. Continue stirring, and after another minute add the babycorn, and after yet another minute add the peppers, pak choi and radishes. Add a good dash of the ume plum seasoning, which can be used instead of a vinegar and has a bitter, salty taste with a hint of sweet aftertaste, a splash of light soy and a good dash of sesame oil. Stir the seasonings through the veg, then drain the noodles and separate with a fork – you may want to take the wok off the heat briefly while you do this to prevent burning. Once drained, add the noodles to the wok and stir everything together, then taste. Adjust the sesame oil, plum seasoning or soy as necessary then serve up, sprinkled with sesame seeds. Look how happy the stir fry and miso look together:

Miso is good hangover food. It hydrates you without hitting your stomach hard like a pint of cold water does. It has very clean and subtle flavours, and the slippery softness of the tofu adds texture while the seaweed adds flavour, but neither are too challenging to the hungover mouth. Also, anything with ginger in it is good for you on days when you feel a bit rough, or a bit poorly, as it settles the stomach – you could try ginger beer or pickled ginger, too, but miso delivers the same ingredient without any fizz or sharp vinegar hit. Tofu can be a bit of an acquired taste, I think, if only because of the texture which is unlike anything else I can think of. It can be used in most dishes to add bulk, and can be marinated to add flavour or deep fried to change the texture – one of my next adventures is going to be deep fried tofu in batter with wasabi sesame seeds – watch this space. 

Tunes: I had on The Cure’s greatest hits album while I was making this, for no reason other than I love it and I can sing along while the wonder that is muscle memory guides me through the preparation and cooking process. Close to Me is one of my all time favourites, so much so that I’m often driven to strum out my own gentle and vastly inferior version. Here’s the real thing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79Oirr6Y0KA

Movie: We sat down to watch Slumdog Millionaire while we ate the stir fry and miso, as much because that’s what was on the TV as anything else. That’s not intended as a slight on the film itself, which I enjoyed, but it was entirely unrelated to the food in front of us. If I was to recommend a more appropriate film, it would be A Bug’s Life. It’s colourful, like the stir fry, soothing and easy to consume, like the miso, and it once cured me of a hangover. As if more recommendation was needed, it contains the epic phrase ‘I’m asking you with my brain’, which has long since entered the family shorthand. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWZk7dPJ2W8

Things of Beauty Part Two: Lucky Carp Crockery

Time for another photo of one of the things from my kitchen that I heart with all my heart. This post also contains much bragging about times when I have – wait for it – MADE DINNER for other people. I know, wow, right? Anyway, it’s more about happy memories and happy times than about trying to show off. Honest!

Today I want to share with you the joy that is my Chinese blue carp (note spelling) crockery. I bought the set in two goes, on separate trips to the Chinese supermarket, and plan on going back to get more soon. I did go at the start of the year with the aim of adding to my collection but as soon as we got to the crockery section there was a power cut and we had to buy the shopping we’d already picked up and leave. Very poor timing. A return trip is on the cards now that the weather is less Arctic (we had to walk there in the snow, we felt like explorers and decided that Brian Blessed would be proud). Having said that, it’s not safe for me to go to the Chinese supermarket too often, because it’s full of things I want to buy and, while the prices are usually much lower than the same items would be in your standard supermarket, buying one of everything would still break the bank.

Aside: For the sake of simplicity, I’m speaking as though there’s only one such supermarket in Glasgow, but in fact there are five that I know of, and doubtless more. My favourite is the biggest one, See Woo, if only because it’s so huge that you can make a visit there last all afternoon. It stocks Chinese, Indian, Indonesian, Japanese, Malaysian, Korean, Thai and now Polish foods so there’s a lot to look at.

Of all the many new things to look at, the bakery section in particular was a revelation to me the first time I saw it, full of treats I’d never seen before but definitely wanted to see again. Red bean paste buns are my favourite, shaped as they are like flowers dotted with sesame seeds, but I’ve hardly scratched the surface of all the available delights, both sweet and savoury. I also try to pick up at least one new grocery or chilled ingredient each time I go, to mess around with at home in the continuing search for cheat-free cuisine from around the world (although mainly from China and Japan so far).  This habit is the reason that I have a cupboard only for seasonings and condiments, and it looks like this:

The top half is seasonings and condiments, the bottom is baking. This cupboard was cleared out at new year, and only has stuff in it that I use. I’m proud of it, in an odd way. Some memorable finds I’ve added to the cupboard have been hot and spicy banana sauce, Lingham’s garlic, ginger and chili sauce (others are available, but this one is my favourite, even though it’s made in the UK), sweet apple vinegar, the previously mentioned shichimi togarashi, tinned fried catfish with chilli, and most recently, wasabi flavoured sesame seeds. The banana and chili sauces are good for dipping spring rolls or dumplings in, so no great adventure there really but they are a bit different to your usual sweet chili dip. I used the apple vinegar, mixed with rice vinegar, to soak chili slices, which made a hot and sweet vinegar for dressing, dipping or adding to other food. The tinned catfish is really spicy, meaty and chewy, and I put it through thin noodles with sliced bell peppers and spring onions. It takes a lot of work to get ready to use though, it comes in tiny, tiny steaks that you have to de-bone and skin, but the flavour and texture are worth it.

The snack aisles are quite something, too, with a mix of things I may never try – dried cuttlefish strips, anyone? – and things that look oddly familiar – crisps that look suspiciously like cheesy puffs but in different packaging. There are wasabi peas which I would highly recommend even though they make you feel like your sinuses are melting. I know, I’m not really selling them, but I want you to be forewarned. It’s an enjoyable sinus melting, if that helps. The kind of sinus melting where after one you go ‘Argh! No! The food is biting me!’ and then have another one anyway. Last time I was there I also picked up saltine crackers, which I thought you could only get in the States. They’re nothing fancy, just salted crackers, but oh my are they good for a hangover, or a quick snack that isn’t crisps. Plus the ones I got came in packs of six, three pairs of crackers with a cute perforated line down the middle of each. Why I thought that was cute I’m not sure, it wouldn’t be cute down the middle of a kitten, or a baby, but on the crackers it was. Maybe novel is the word I’m looking for.

I’ve gone off topic with reminisces of happy times in the supermarket… back to the crockery:

I have four of each piece, with the obvious exception of the teapot, which is a solo item, and also the flat serving dish, of which I have two. I have my eye on two large serving bowls and a tiny pepper pot as my next additions, but we’ll see what catches my eye. Just looking at this set makes me happy, and I have two of my six cupboard shelves devoted to it, so every time I go looking for pasta, noodles, dried or tinned goods I see it, and it makes me smile.

I used it to serve up a ‘banquet’ of food for three of us on one lovely, long Sunday of eating, a feat I intend to repeat soon as I have a couple of recipes I want to try, and can always find more in my much loved and much abused Fuschia Dunlop book, Sichuan Cookery. The book was a gift to help me with my intentions of learning to make authentic dishes and it really has, giving me such gems as beef and bell peppers with sweet bean sauce, char siu dumplings and a host of cold, dressed chicken dishes, all of which (and many more) featured on that day of endless eating. Another thing on the menu was sweet steamed bread which was pretty nice, although a little less sweet than I’d really have liked, but it was quite good dipped in honey, fondue style. I also made sweet potato cakes with gelatinous rice flour. Let me state for the record that gelatinous rice flour is my nemesis. I used a bit too much to try to make the mix dry enough to shape and the cakes were… I don’t know what the best word would be. Chewy doesn’t even begin to cover it. I don’t know if you’ve ever had the sensation that food is growing as you eat it, but I can tell you that it is not pleasant. You could practically hear the cartoon ‘boing!’ noise as we tried to bite off a mouthful. After chewing for a while I felt like I could use the resulting wad of what seemed to be rubber to blow a bubble big enough to carry me to the moon. Not what you’re after in a food, really. Maybe I should have contacted the military to see if they wanted the recipe to use in developing anti-missile shields. An opportunity missed, there.

Despite the growing food, the day of eating was a success. So much so that I did it again, on a smaller scale and in a style more reminiscent of buffet than banquet, with my parents and sister on another day, and with some other friends on yet another day. I love a day of cooking, me. I get a ‘greatest rock hits’ compilation on, turn it up, and go to it; making cold water and yeast doughs for won tons and bao tzi; mixing oils, vinegars and spices to make dressings and sauces; ‘mincing’ (read: hacking up) meat to fill dumplings… To me it’s one of the most satisfying ways to spend a Saturday, in readiness for a big lunch on Sunday. Not every weekend, mind, but I’ve always liked my own company, my own singing voice and the act of preparing food to share with folk, so it gives me a chance to do all three. When I had my parents over I made some slightly ‘Westernised’ spring rolls with filo pastry because I knew my dad really liked them, and I was worried we wouldn’t like anything else! Some other, more authentic, things I served up were wonton soup, shao mai dumplings and baked meatballs in a mushroom sauce, and I’m glad to say it was all very well received. Especially the wonton soup, which I was most worried about because of the texture of the wontons once they’ve been boiled. After the first taste my dad said ‘that’s very unusual’ and I thought it as all over, but he surprised and delighted me by absolutely hoovering up the bowl I gave him.  For me, the day wouldn’t have been just quite as nice without my pretty crockery pulling it all together and setting a classy tone for the meal.

I also used my crockery to serve my parents and sister a dinner of sushi, steak rolls, gyoza dumplings and miso soup. My family are nothing if not well fed when they come round my house, I tell you. The little flat dishes were great for holding vinegar and soy for dipping, and I also bought tiny glass bowls for wasabi. Plus making sushi gave me an excuse to buy the little square, divided dishes – I used them to give everyone their own supply of pickled ginger on one side and pickled vegetables on the other. I had wanted to buy those dishes for ages but couldn’t think of a practical use for them so I was delighted to finally have one. They are so sweet, I think they might be my favourite pieces. Interestingly, they also have a dividing line down the middle, like the saltine crackers… Not sure what that means. I dug out a blue bed sheet and used it as a table cover, and with all the little dishes in place it looked great, if a bit studenty. That day was a lot of fun as it’s really satisfying to me to be able to share my new food interests and recipes with my friends and family, but especially with my mum and dad, who had never tried sushi, miso or perhaps any Japanese food before. The picture shows tuna, cucumber and salmon sushi rolls, and smoked salmon and japanese omlette nigiri.

The more I think about it, the more I can remember lovely days where I used these dishes to serve up various bits and pieces to people; they’re not just lovely to look at but also practical, and for someone like me who finds it hard to spend money on things just because they’re pretty that is a real bonus. On its own, the teapot has been great for evenings of me time, with a pot of jasmine or brown rice tea and a book, in front of the fire or cosied up under a blanket on the couch. I often use the square bowls for everyday meals and not just for special occasions and it makes dinner time just a bit more special – to me, if to nobody else.

Spaghetti with Mussels and Breadcrumbs

This recipe is a mix of two or three other recipes that I’ve either seen or tried. Tonight I wanted something out of the ordinary and indulgent. For me, pasta and cheese are usually off the shopping list because I love them both so much that I can’t control my portion sizes. Since I’ve been eating like a crazed horse sine Thursday I figured that one more day wouldn’t do much more harm. A terrible way to think about it, and one I don’t recommend, but it’s the truth. I wouldn’t lie to you. Look at my honest face… in my pirate… hat… Let’s just gloss over that for now. Where my ‘it won’t matter for one more day’ philosophy breaks down even further is that I made enough for two, and there was only me, so now I have a portion of this in my fridge. I hate to waste food, but I also hate to eat the same thing two days in a row, so all I can do is palm this off on someone else. Well, it’s a hard life for my friends, but someone has to eat my leftovers. They’re a brave bunch.

I discovered a liking for spaghetti with mussels when I was on holiday in Italy. This was the first holiday abroad I’d taken in eleven years, so forgive me if I mention it a lot. We went out for a lovely posh dinner one night, and I had spaghetti con cozze alla marinara – this is what I think I remember it being called, and means (I’m pretty sure) spaghetti with mussels in marinara sauce. I thought marinara was a sort of standard tomato sauce, but this dish had a very light sauce with paprika and fresh, sliced tomatoes. At any rate it was lovely, though my taste for mussels isn’t as vast as my taste for almost every other pasta dish, I find them too rich to eat very many. I have replicated this dish a couple of times since coming home because I enjoyed it so much. Tonight I fancied using the mussels in a different way and remembered another recipe for spaghetti with breadcrumbs (spaghetti con pangrattato?) which I’ve never seen outside of that recipe book, and had made before adding chorizo to give a more filling dish. I thought I’d try a combination, especially since I had some breadcrumbs in the freezer that I’d made to top yet another pasta dish a while back – a pasta al forno dish with gorgonzola and mushrooms, topped with these lovely crisp parsley and parmesan breadcrumbs.

Once I’d settled on combining these two dishes – something that happened pretty fast today, sometimes it can take me hours to hone down what I want to make – I only had to buy the mussels and I was all set. Now, I have to admit something at this juncture. I bought ready cooked, pre-packed mussels. This was for a few reasons. Firstly, this was the smallest pack size I could get in the supermarket, as the fish counter only sells mussels in net bags and that was too much. Secondly, they are quicker and easier to prepare and heat. Thirdly, the last time I bought live mussels I inadvertently slaughtered them before I could cook them by putting them in the fridge, and I still haven’t got over it. I thought that because they were on ice in the shop they’d be alright – it also crossed my mind that you chill or freeze other animals before cooking them because it puts them to sleep and they don’t suffer. Anyway, when I took the bag out of the fridge they were all open, and my understanding is that you don’t cook mussels after they’re open. I’m not sure, it might have been OK because they had just been bought that day, but to me it wasn’t worth the risk.

Poor things.

So I got home with my cheat’s mussels and did the following:

• removed breadcrumbs from freezer and put into shallow oven dish under a hot grill, to defrost and crisp up
• boiled a pot of water and put the spaghetti on to cook
• when spaghetti was cooked, poured into drainer and put pack of mussels in garlic butter into pot
• heated mussels for five minutes
• put pasta back into pot with the mussels and stirred gently
• added crisped breadcrumbs to pot and stirred gently
• drizzled over with garlic oil
• served with freshly ground black pepper

Simple as that, and here it is:

 

Just a few clarifications…

The breadcrumbs were originally made by blending a demi-baguette with a handful of flat leaf parsley and 150g of parmigiano reggiano (in case you couldn’t tell already, I *totally* speak Italian. Yup…). The result of that concoction is a green coloured, sticky breadcrumb that simultaneously melts and goes crunchy on top when baked. I have to say I enjoyed it very much as a topping, and also enjoyed it through the pasta. Once it’s mixed through the spaghetti, though, it is more chewy than crunchy. Still tastes good but I would have liked more texture, especially as the flesh of the mussels is soft. Another thing to note is that while they were under the grill, I kept taking them out and giving them a stir around to break them up, otherwise I fear I would have ended up with one mass of bready, herby, cheesiness.

I like to serve mussels in their shells, just for the look of it really. It is kind of novel to take them out of the shells as you go along too but mainly it’s because they don’t look that nice once they’re out, and the color of the shell stands out better against the pasta than the orange or white meat does. You do have to watch out for accidentally spearing them with a spaghetti server if you’re using one to stir the pasta while cooking.

Another time I would make this without the mussels at all, just with the sticky breadcrumbs and maybe with some freshly made plain breadcrumbs (bread which has been blended or finely grated and then stuck under the grill to crisp up) to add texture and some freshly chopped parsley for colour. If I was going to do this, I would substitute garlic or plain olive oil for the garlic butter that came from the packet I bought this evening. It was a very filling dish too, which is no wonder when you think that it’s bread, cheese and pasta all in one bowl before you even add the seafood. To sum it up, then, it’s an easy meal to make, it’s nice to look at and it was just the kind of treat I was looking for. Now back to the diet…

Tunes: The Italian stereotype songs are jostling for my attention, but I’ve turned it elsewhere. I’m going with a seafaring theme and choosing The Tide is High by Blondie. Not their most rocking song, or my favourite, but relevant today. It’s taken me longer to come up with a song choice than it did to make the pasta. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0skjm-uJSs 

Movie: I feel like Jaws is the way to go here. You may have been expecting something Italian, or The Italian Job, but I’m more subtle than that. I’ve gone with Jaws because it contains seafood (people eat shark, right?), needs a bit of chewing (Robert Shaw got the wrong end of that rubber shark’s teeth and no mistake) and it’s uncomplicated in its beauty (cage goes in the water, you go in the water. Shark’s in the water.). Also, when you find out how much you like it, you’re going to need a bigger bowl. Yes, I went there. And I’m actually pretty proud of it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gciFoEbOA8