Noodle Workshop - Tan Men Noodle

"Tan Men" means a bowl of noodle with clear soup.

Simple & healthy,
No oil, 
No MSG, and
Low in calorie version of the recipe...  The flavor of veggies is packed in the noodle bowl.

Total calorie is approx. under 400 cal.

Ingredients:
1 bowl of soup stock.
1 clove of garlic, sliced
Vegetable in your fridge which has sweet flavor.  As much as you want.  (e.g. carrot, onion, bok choy, bean sprouts, cabbage, nappa, shitake mushroom.)
1 noodle, non-fried. > http://greenoodles.com/
Sea salt, as salty as you like
2 table spoon sake
White pepper

Procedure:
1.  In the pot, pour a little bit of soup stock.  Throw in garlic.  Then, throw in all vegetables starting from the ones with hard texture (e.g. carrots, onion).
2. Once veggies are softened, pour rest of the soup, and add sea salt and sake into the pot.
3. Warm up the noodle bowl.
4. Cook (boil) a noodle in another pot.  Once done, drain it well, and put it in the noodle bowl.  Pour the vegetables and soup on top of it.
5. Add white pepper.

Optional:
Add chopped green onion, cilantro, sesame seeds, sesame oil, etc. on the top of the noodle.  The flavor is so simple, you can play with it as much as you like.

Enjoy!

Day 31 After 30 days. The Final Review.

  1. Yuca: boiled.

2. Mushroom: stir-fried with mustard seeds and fuji apple.

3. Brown rice, grains & lentils

www.soofoo.com 

4. Bok Choy: Stir-fried leaf.  Boiled roots.

5. Fuji apple: Simmered with cinnamon, sake, green pepper. 

Weight:  172.5 lbs (-0.3 lbs) 

The subject matter confessed that last night he consumed:

4 pints of beer

Shots

Nachos

Basil fried rice with basil

.....

The final review by the project: 

• Physical aspect: (Level 3 = Met Expectations) It is in fact true that the weight loss was limited to -0.3 lbs.  Considering the consumption of alcohol and junk foods on a daily basis - gigante -, he still managed to keep his weight off. 
• Mental aspect:: (Level 4 = Exceeded Expectation) The subject has:
• Lost fear of interactions and commitment to veggies.
• Learned a complicated task such as cleaning up the bento boxes and re-assembling.

• Level 2 = Needs Improvement: The Project recommends the subject improves the following:
• Limit the consumption of junk foods and alcohol in the evening.
• Learn that MSG was made to replicate natural flavor - Umami.  Not the opposite.
• Learn the vocabulary to express flavors other than "good", "strong", and "no flavor."    

Have a nice day!

Day 30 Sculpture Workshop Bento - Mental Exercise

Weight: 172.5 lbs (-0.3 lbs)

Back from Montreal. Still thinking of the unforgettable dish from the Barroco restaurant.

www.barocco.ca

Rich protein flavor of scallop and Foie Gras was a reminder of "horizontal" imagery. Soothing flavor of Citrus juices on top of it represented "vertial" imagery.

Have you had an experience that the food had you attend the sculpture work shop in you mind?

Chick pea cake, tangerine flavor.

Horizontal element: mashed chick pea, caramelized onion, and Indian bread.

Vertical element: tangerine orange, red peppers, and caper.

Horizontal element: Veggie puree.

Vertical element: Caper and hot peppers

Horizontal element: romaine lettuce, balsamic vinaigrette, and olive oil.

Vertical element: Hot pepper and tangerine orange.

The Project created this paste in her/his mind on the train to Montreal. Enjoy it with leftover bread. Here is a recipe.

Ingredients:

Horizontal elements:

1 tbsp white miso

2 tbsp sake kasu or drained tofu

1/2 tbsp olive oil

A vertical element:

1/2 tbsp chopped ginger

Respectfully, consolidate horizontal and vertical elements.

Day 29 Recession Special Continues - Recession Soba Noodle and Congee

Weight: 172.0 lbs (- 0.8 lbs)

A veggie coffin in the project's freezer which keeps abandoned veggies skins, roots, and stems. Let's revive them - Please be soup stock! An aging tangerine orange with skin on joined them for its cause.

Let's see how they draw their own conclusion.

Sunday brunch - Recession special soba noodle!

A dipping sauce for the recession soba: Re-cycle soup from from Day 28. Add chopped cilantro. Bean sprouts in the soup nicely tender and obedient by now.

Simply cheap soba noodle - price reduced at the Japanese grocery

Condiments for Soba - to be added to the soba dipping sauce as you wish: "Employ aging work force" and "A stimulus package" from Day 28. Pieces of Cilantro leave and Cilantro roots with ginger. Please enjoy the liberty of enjoying different flavors.

How to eat this?: dip the soba noodle in the dipping sauce. Add the condiments as necessary to enjoy the different flavors. It's not that difficult.

If there is leftover dipping sauce, please use it to make rice risotto. All the flavors from the condiments come together to make this risotto heavenly.

Day 28 Recession Special! 99 cents Bean Sprouts

Weight: $170.8 lbs (-2.0 bls)

A bag of bean sprouts for 99 cents...what would you do with 99 cents?

How about facial? Aromatherapy with steams from bean sprouts?

Try what you can do with 99 cents bean sprouts for the economic recovery.

Recession rice: Boil bean sprouts. Use the same water used for boiling the sprouts to cook brown rice. Add a bit of soy sauce, sake, and your creative soup and cook. Once the rice is cooked, mix boiled sprouts.

Employ aging work force: Boiled Bok choy and Chinese veggies at their 50's - defrosted from the freezer.

A stimulus package: Kick-ass dipping sauce for the rice and green veggies: Sesame oil, grounded sesame seeds, sliced shallots, green hot pepper, green onion, red pepper, sake. (Try pairing with 99 cents Tofu.)

Reduce redundancy: In the same pan used for the stimulus package, stir-fly bean sprouts. Balsamic vinaigrette and black pepper.

Re-cycle: Veggie soup stock with bean sprouts. Re-cycle onion oil - heat up at the max heat and pour into the soup prior to serving. Enjoy the sizzling sound and its aroma.

What is your cost-cutting strategy in the kitchen? Can you share your idea with the Project?

A Special Report on Montreal by the Fisher Woman.

http://www.barroco.ca/

Barroco restaurant in montreal...

Overpriced dinner with 14% tax and tip. Yes, It's canada. But trully inspired by their use of spices, oil, and sauce!

Is this modern Canadian-French? Maki has not tried bistro for a long time. Their complexity and approach ignited her curiosity.

!!!!!!

Butter mixed with lemon, paprika, and cumin powder. We can make this easily at home. Can we? Very nice.

 

Scallop and foie gras risotto. Rich and dense flavor was spiked by orange and grape fruit juice. Flavors were well structured with some nice uncertainty.

A Salmon grilled with seasonal veggies topped with ??? Sauce. This sauce - a full of "umami." Brussels sprout and cauliflower were nicely grilled gave chunky and moist texture to the dish Crispy fried fish tail was smelly - the only disappointment.

Day 25 and 26 Veggies saved maki in Montreal

Weight: xxx lbs, as no scale is available.

Completely underestimated how cold the weather could be in Montreal... Having walked 6km to the Jean-talon market in -12degrees left Maki nicely disoriented in the sketchy neighborhood. Her appetite to check out the local fresh market - so strong - overruled her safety and health concern.

"If I get knocked down here, no one is here to slap my face and shout, 'Maki, don't sleep. If you fall asleep, you will die!"

"No rescue dog. No red cross. No bottle of vodka."

Vegetable soup at the market healed her 'physically and mentally' 'inside and out.'. Soft, kind, and comforting. A hint of anchovy flavor truly knocked her out.

Repas pot, legumes (Can$4.95)
Le tartarin
7070 Henri-julien, Montreal

Day 24 Rice balls Montreal style bento

Weight: 172.0 lbs (-0.8 lbs)

Prep. works for the field trip to Montreal. The rice balls "Montreal" style (how?). Which do you prefer on the train? Rice balls or sandwiches?

The rice balls "Montreal" style (how?)
Ingredients:
2 cups brown rice
2.5 cups veggie stock
3 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp sake or dry white wine
1 chopped carrot
3 green onion, chopped
1 shitake mushroom, sliced
1/2 green hot pepper, sliced
1 tbsp brown sugar
1/2 tbsp cinnamon
Red paprika powder, a tiny bit

Rinse brown rice gently. Put all ingredients in the pot. Once it boils, lower the heat and simmer until rice soaks all the juice. Aroma of this rice = a therapy.

Day 23 Confession Monday Bento

Day 21 Weight: 171.5 lbs (-1.3 lbs)
Day 22 Weight: 171.0 lbs (-1.8 lbs)
Day 23 Weight: ?

  

Not Coming Soon! Fisher Woman's Lounge in Hell's Kitchen.

Hell's Kitchen, NY, U.S.A. (Hell's Kitchen Press) - Due to catastrophic failure to make seafood broth over night, Project Maki NYC delays the opening of Fisher Woman's Lounge in Hell's Kitchen.  "Fish and shrimp are completely different 'animal' from veggies.  They are not as generous as veggies.  Not as superstitious as meats.  Very stubborn, indeed."  Maki made wrinkles between her eyebrows, and commented in agony.  "Cilantro, green onions, red ginger - all our allies - did their best to stabilize the situation.  But, the smell of 'fish bone'!  OMG."  The kitchen was quickly turned into a gas chamber, and it was unavoidable to unconditionally surrender.  Fortunately, no major damage to the facility or casualties reported.  

Coming soon! Butcher Shop in Hell's Kitchen

"Butcher Shop in Hell's Kitchen." Coming soon!  Here is a preview...

A boiled egg simmered in soy sauce and sake.  Please don't look so sad.

Ramen + Rice: Soy flavored ramen and simmered pork rice

Simmered pork over onion fried rice and ginger

Simmered pork ramen noodle

Simmered pork
Ingredients:
A thick slice of pork, cheap one
1 cup of sake
2 cups of soy sauce
1 cup of your creative juice
1 green apple, chopped
1 piece of ginger
1 clove of garlic
1/2 onion
1 carrot
Thread

Roll-up a slice of pork like a roll cake and tightly tie it up with thread.  In the pot, pour, sake, soy sauce, your creative juice.  Place a pork and rest of the vegetables in the pot.  Cook in low heat for 2 hours.  Remove meat from the pot.  Slice it up.


Remove all the veggies from the pot.  There you go, now you have a soup base for soy flavored ramen noodle.

Day 20 Green Celery Curry Thai-style Bento

Day 20

Weight: 171.5 lbs (-1.3 lbs)

Happy Curry Friday!

Green Curry loaded with celery.  The curry paste freshly made from cilantro roots, shallots, coriander seeds, etc.  Aroma of all ingredients was competing against each other in the pot, but cilantro ended up taking the lead.

  

Lettuce sauteed with cilantro sauce (chopped cilantro, lemon juice, and fish sauce.

Green pepper sauteed in a leftover "pork chop" juice.

Pressed barely cooked in coconut milk, ground sesame, and "spicy sweet sake sauce" which came out pretty interesting and attractive-looking for winter.  So, here is a recipe for "spicy sweet sake sauce." 

Ingredients:

1 cup sake or dry white wine

1/2 Green hot pepper, sliced

2 tbsp Brown sugar

1/4 lemon

1/2 tbsp paprika powder

Just mix them all and leave them alone in the fridge for 2-3 days.  They will draw the conclusion on their own, not you.

Day 19 How to handle a claimant bento

Day 19 How to handle a claimant bento

Weight: 171.0 lbs (-1.8 lbs)

Another complaint from the subject matter that yesterday's soy beans were tough to chew, (...but flavors were awesome.)  OK, soybeans should better be cooked in a pot for a while to soften their texture.

The soy beans with green apple were simmered with veggie soup stock.  Lettuce ($1 per head special) stir fried with sesame oil and black pepper.  A side of glazed ginger.

A slice of multi-grain bread from a leftover sandwich re-baked in the oven to bring out its "crunchiness."  Added a bit of onion oil and balsamic vinaigrette.  Coconut milk and sesame sauce will be heated and poured to this box prior to serving.  This should bring out its "softness." 

Thai Jasmine rice cooked with beans and seaweed, topped with miso marinated walnuts and red ginger.

"Infused sake" did a great job on bringing out flavors of soy beans and green apple.  So easy.  Something you won't get from a shelf of grocery store.

Ingredients:
1 cup sake or dry white wine.
A small piece of ginger root, sliced.
1 piece of chili pepper.
Thyme.

Pour all ingredients in a jar and let it rest for a few days in the fridge.