Soba with Oriental Mushrooms

Today's lunch recipe is courtesy of Jan 08 Shape magazine. I had always wonder what I can do with soba besides making it into cold noodles. They taste great but after a whole morning "soaking" in the cold dry air-con in office, I am not that keen to have cold noodles for lunch. So when I saw this recipe, I was very keen to give it a try. After all, the ingredients are pretty simple to buy and prepare and the cooking does not require lots of complicated steps. And so here it is!

Soba with oriental mushrooms (Serves 2)
Ingredients
70g soba
50g shimeji mushrooms
50g oyster mushrooms, sliced
4 big shiitake mushrooms, sliced
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
100ml vegetable/chicken stock (I used chicken stock cubes and dissolve them in hot water instead)
1 tbsp sake
2 tbsp olive oil
Splash of soy sauce
Chilli powder

Garnishing
1 tomato, diced
Black sesame seeds
Parsley or chives, chopped

Method
1. Cook soba until al dente, then drain and set aside for use later.
2. Heat up olive oil in non-stick pan and saute the garlic and mushrooms.
3. When the mushrooms starts to wither, add sake, soy sauce and vegetable stock. Let the mushrooms continue to cook till it's fairly dry.
4. Add soba, chilli powder and toss together.
5. Top with chopped tomato, black sesame seed and parsley.

I really like this recipe. It is a very light dish with nice mushroom fragrance as you eat the soba. Great for those vegetarians as there is no meat in it. For those who is not a fan of mushrooms, this might not be the dish you want to cook though. I will definitely cook this again although I will reduce the cooking time for the soba. They were a bit too soft for my liking. And I will not toss all the garnishing into the soba the next round. Just sprinkle them on top and I am sure it will improve the visual effect of this dish. :)

Fried Rice Bento Lunch 080108

Fried rice paradise!! It's been a while since I cooked fried rice and it's such a easy lunch to prepare for the lazy me. Fried rice is such a versatile dish and you can add anything you want to leftover rice and voila! A new dish instantly. For this, I added imitation crabstick, luncheon meat, garden peas and eggs. I also added 2 teriyaki chicken wings to add some protein to the lunch. And isn't it luckily I had this ready today cos it was raining heavily at 12noon. I was really glad I don't have to brave the wind and rain and it make me appreciate the fried rice even more!!!*lol*

Tri-Colour Bento Lunch 03 Jan 08

A new year, a new beginning! I am back to packing my lunch to office and for a start, I make a very simple lunch for today - which I called it tri-colour cos it has 3 different ingredients piled on a bed of white rice. Added 2 chicken wings for extra oomph.....! Today's lunch is really very easy to prepare. So for those who thinks it looks interesting, do give it a try.

Green
Garden peas, blanched in salt water and drained. Set aside for use later.

Yellow
1 egg, beaten
1 tsp sugar
Salt
Add the ingredients to beaten egg. Heat oil in a pan over high fire.
Pour in egg mixture and stir it with 3-5 chopsticks till egg resembles pieces of bread crumbs.
Remove and set aside for use later.

Brown
50g minced pork (can be substituted for beef or chicken)
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp cooking sake
1 tsp mirin
3/4 tsp sugar
2 tbsp water
Heat oil in a pan and stir fry pork till almost cooked.
Add the other remaining ingredients and continue to stir fry.
Turn down the heat and let it simmer till it is fairly dry.
Remove from pan and set aside for use later.

Glazed Chicken Wings
2 mid joint chicken wings
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp cooking sake
1 tsp mirin
1 tsp sugar
1/4 cup water
Place the chicken wing in a non-stick pan and cook till it's brown on both side.
Add water and cook for another 10 minutes.
Add other remaining ingredients and let it simmer till chicken wings are glazed.
Remove from pan.

Top the individual ingredients on the white rice. Pack chicken wings by the side. Enjoy!