Singapore Style Noodle

Singapore Noodle is a dish enjoyed by many patrons of Pan-Asian take-out joints and  steam tables at buffets.   A beautiful mixture of a dry-ish curry and a bright airy noodles, it's almost perfect in its complexity and simplicity. So why not bring it home? This week's kitchen adventure, or trial and error, traces the circuitous route taken towards that end. In some instances the dead ends weren't pretty or tasty, but the final results was delicious although not at all what was planned. Singapore noodle is a dish with a base of rice noodles,  curry,  veggies and tofu or meat. It's basic, and like potato salad easy to mess up.

Mis-step #1  (Buy the wrong noodles)

At the grocery store everything that looks right isn't right. The noodles pictured are actually bean threads. Those in the know have just fallen out their chair laughing.  These are not rice noodles despite their look. They cook clear and are perfect for soups, but are the wrong noodle for Singapore noodle, or any rice noodle based dish. This is however the only noodle they had at the local grocer. 

Mis-Step #2 (substitute the wrong noodle)

After the clear, and pronounced mistake of cooking the bean threads, and with nothing left  in the cupboard but somen and udon noodles both were tried. The incredible disaster that ensued is worthy of its own epic tome.  Let's just say wheat noodles really won't work, they don't stand up, it gets pasty.  It's a curry flavored disaster. 

Step #1 Angel Hair (an atypical noodle and a guardian angel)

With bean thread, and various Asian wheat noodles attempted, with no other noodles left and some assurance from web searches - the discounted angel hair pasta was called up to duty.   At this point the shear feeling of failure descended. How could such a simple recipe be so messed up? Who would forgive the sacrilege of using an Italian based noodle in a reportedly Asian dish?  Would it be like pawning beef on weck as Texas brisket?  Would it be better to just stop and call the take out place and be done with it all? Of course not! Cook the pasta in accordance with the package directions and set aside. Whisk two tablespoons of soy sauce and a tea spoon of sugar together. In a separate bowl scramble one egg. 

Step #2 Meat (or meal alternative), Veggies & Sauce

Slice up a red bell pepper, an onion, add 1 tablespoon of garlic and ginger.   In a dry skillet or dutch oven or some other pot under medium heat add a table spoon and a tea spoon of curry powder and shake the pan and after a minute or until it gets fragrant add two tea spoons of oil. Add either the meat or meat alternative (in this instance it's shrimp). If tofu is used, then more oil may be needed. 

Add more oil,  one medium onion sliced or chopped. Once the onion is soft add the sliced red pepper.  After about 3 minutes, when the pepper is soft, add the grated ginger (about a tea spoon full) and garlic.  

Once the ginger and garlic are fragrant add one tea spoon of crush hot pepper flakes.  

Step #3 Add Egg, Noodles and Eat

Add the  scrambled egg and noodles to the pan. Stir-fry until everything is fully coated and more dry than wet.  Add more curry powder, pepper, or red pepper flakes if you feel it necessary. After about four minutes of stir-frying cut the heat off and  plate it up and enjoy.  It's surprisingly wonderful despite being the wrong noodle and all the frustration that went along with it.

Slower Cooker/Oven Smoked Turkey

Smoked fish, poultry, meat,  vegetables and meat alternatives are delicious hallmarks of summer and autumn. Known for their rich and complex flavors,  smoked goods are highly prized, and highly priced. Smoking requires equipment and supplies, skill, a bit of luck, and a good deal of patience.   Smoking essentially is infusing food with flavor by engulfing the food in aromatic smoke.  There are various good cookbooks and great resources online to learn about smoking and barbecuing.  In general there's a low heat sources in either a smoking appliance or a pit, soaked wood chips are added to the the heat source and smoke is born.  The low heat is maintained and the wood chips are replaced as needed to ensure a constant amount of smoke.  Food is cooked in the appliance, pit or in the process of cold smoke is cooled to flavor the food without or with little heat.

What if you  don't have a lot of time, a lot of gear,  or not even a place to smoke at all, would it be possible to achieve the smoking complexity using common kitchen appliances?

Step One:  Salting the Turkey


Turkey drums were selected because they have good favor and they are relatively cheap.

Place the turkey drums in a container and salt them with about two table spoons of kosher salt.  A brine could also be employed depending the cut of meat chosen.  Cover and place turkey in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes to an hour.  Fluid will be noticeable in the bottom of the container. Safely discard the fluid off and continue to step two. 


Step Two:  Adding the Smoke Favor

Once the turkey is salted, season the turkey with seasonings of your choice. Here garlic an cracked pepper were chosen. There's nothing against using cumin, brown sugar, or mustard seed.

After seasoning the turkey, add liberal amounts of your favorite liquid smoke product to the turkey ensuring that all surfaces of the turkey are doused.  Return the turkey to the refrigerator for another 30 minutes.





Step Three: Cooking Slow and Low

With the salting completed and smoke flavoring added it's now time to cook the turkey.  Traditional smoking and barbecuing requires food to be cooked slowly and at low temperatures.  To simulate that use a slow cooker. Transfer the turkey to the slow cooker.

Add about a 1/4 inch of water or broth to the slow cooker. At this time additional seasonings can be added to the fluid including additional liquid smoke.  Be sure not to add too much fluid.  Set the slow cooker to the low setting.  Cook for approx. 6-8 hours, or until your thermometer indicates the turkey is done.

At the conclusion of cooking the turkey will have a roasted golden brown look. At this point the turkey can be eaten. The side of the turkey partially immersed in the water or broth will be paler and the skin will not be taut.  This can be fixed by finishing the turkey in the oven.




Step Four:  Finishing

Remove the turkey from the slow cooker and place it in a baking pan with a rack pale side up.  Bake 350 degree  for about 30 minutes.  This will dry or cure the soft side achieving a uniform golden brown taut exterior.  Other variations could include adding barbecue sauce and then placing the turkey in the oven.







It is defiantly possible to accomplish the look, taste and aroma of smoked turkey  using a slow cooker, oven and liquid smoke flavoring.

There you have it Slower Cooker/Oven Smoked Turkey!

-All Things Eaten

Making Lox

First up, is our adventure making Lox.  Lox are cured salmon filets they are similar to their cousins smoked  (but not cured) salmon and Gravlax (smoked and cured).   Like salting Cod, curing Lox was a way to preserve the fish.  Unlike salted cod, which must be soaked to remove the salt so that it can be used in recipes, lox are cured and seasoned to be eaten as lox.  

While many people enjoy lox in a multitude of preparations, most people don’t enjoy their hefty price, which can be as high as $30/pound. Yikes!  So why not try making them at home and save a little bit of cashola?  Well, first  there’s the little thing of learning how to make lox.  Good thing there’s the Internet. Depending on the search terms and search site you use the number of sites recipes is boundless.  Some use herbs, some pepper, and even some dried mustard. Although there are many variations the core preperation is roughly the same, that is Salt, Sugar, Compress, & Wait. 

Step One: Get da Fish

The first step involves the salmon. Different types of salmon, and other salmon like fish, have different flavors. If wild caught vs farm raised matters to you by all means get the fish you want to eat, because that's what this is all about.  

Ideally a center cut piece of roughly 1.5 pounds  1 to 1.5 inches thick cut in half  where both halves are of equal thickness should be purchased. The skin is left on the salmon. Never tried it with the skin removed, but it may work.  The equal thickness is really important because you'll want equal curing. 

If you can't afford or can't find big thick pieces of salmon, then get two thinner pieces of equal size, you'll just have a shorter curing time. 

Even in the center cut pieces you'll see the thinner edge of the salmon filet, trim.  The trim should be removed, it will cure very fast and because of the texture it may taste funny.  Now, don't toss it, because you can cook and eat it, just not recommended for this preparation.

To remove the trim use a sharp knife to cut in about 1/4-1/2 inches or more depending on the filet.

Next there's checking for pin bones. Most fishmongers do a good job at removing these bones, however it's always a good idea to check. simply run your fingers down the filet against the grain, you'll feel them if they are there.  To remove use pliers or a spoon (there's a kitchen tool for this, but pliers work fine). 

Step Two:  Get Da Seasonings 

Now that the fish is taken care of slip her in the fridge and now on to the base, salt and sugar. Here you'll see some variations. The kernel to take away with is you'll need less sugar than salt at least 1:3 or even 1:4. 

IMPORTANT: AVOID ANY SALT WITH IODINE.  

Most recipes recommend Kosher salt, and that's the one used here, but pickling salt, or even rock salt may work. We didn't try sea-salt, it may work but you may need to add more depending on it's salinity, and it's also pretty pricy and the goal of this is to save some cashola!  Non-ionized salt table salt presumably could be used, and if it works please share your results in the comments.  

Second is the sugar, brown sugar was used, presumably white sugar could also be used, brown sugar imparts a deeper flavor, but that's your call really. The idea of the sugar is to offer some sweetness, and to an otherwise salty endeavor. 

Which ever you sugar or salt you go with you'll need to mix them together and rub them on the salmon. 

Here is where you can add all that other stuff you may find in various recipes such as Dill, Ground Mustard, Pepper, and you name it. 

Where to start is your call, but both pieces front and back (skin side) should get a good rub down.  It's more a rub and a pat down. If you've ever made a dry rub for BBQ it's the same idea, and if you haven't stay tuned for our BBQ post. 

Step Three:  Marry, Wrap and Compress

Rub-A-Dub-Dub you're done with the rub, now you get to marry the two pieces together flesh sides in and skin sides out.  A good tip here is to do this on top of plastic wrap because the next step will be to wrap them in plastic wrap.  If you don't you'll end up with  more of your rub on your hands.

Once you've wrapped your married filets place it in a container big enough to hold them and a compression device such as a brick or a heavy pot or weight.   You'll want something that will press the  filets together, but clearly something that will fit in and won't damage your fridge.  

An old pot worked here,  once you weight you put the container with the salmon and weight in the fridge and you well, wait. 

A few days in you'll see fluid in the container, pour it off and place everything back in the fridge. The fluid will be darker if you used brown sugar. 

Step Four: Unwrap, Rinse (Really Important) and Enjoy (or Freeze)

After a 4-6 days, depending on the level of cure you want, but please know a longer time will yield a firmer constancy. Curing for too long will make it hard much like salted cod which isn't lox, but salted salmon.  Yuck!  Please remember if you have thinner filets you'll need a shorter curing time than thicker filets. 

The filets will be encrusted with salt and sugar.  An important step is rinsing the salmon. Curing will keep occurring and the fish will harden if this step is skipped. Also the fish will be too salty to eat. 

To rinse simply run the salmon under cold water for a few minutes, or soak it for a few minutes (not too long) in a water bath. 

You may find you have to brush some of the salt away, that's just fine. 

Next up is the enjoyment of eating your own lox!  Using a knife slice the filet and do what ever you want: bagels, eggs, salads, crackers, whatever!  

Now, you may make more than you can enjoy at the present time. Good news, you can freeze lox for about six months. The best way is if you have one of those vacuum seal machines, but even if you don't  you can place them in a freezer zip top bag being careful to get as much air out as possible and freeze to enjoy later.   To thaw, place frozen lox in fridge until thawed. 

There you have it lox!

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