I am now here in NJ, half way up the way to the Hudson. Yes, my lower back has started to hurt a bit from long periods of sitting, and now I know I can no longer drive the whole way up without a stop here and there. It really wasn't difficult to force myself to stop - my bladder was screaming all the way up from Baltimore, so as soon as I hit the first rest stop, off I went, darting to the women's room, to breathe my sigh of relief. I also nabbed a banana and a fried chicken leg for a little snack (what could I do, it really was just sitting there beckoning to me.). But now, I am at Aunt and Uncle's house, in NJ, enjoying their hospitality and the cooler northern air. I'm getting ready to head out again, to continue my way up to the CIA.
Now one thing I didn't realize, and that I had forgotten, was that the drive up from Washington really isn't that big of a deal... that is, until you get to New Jersey. In order to keep up with everyone else on the road and not find yourself the welcome recipient of friendly finger number 1, it's lead foot leading the way. I ended up getting here faster than I had originally planned, so it gave me some good time to find some ingredients to make a Taiwanese dish for my relatives today. Last night, Aunt fixed up a wonderful linguini with clam sauce - lots of parsley and fragrant garlic, with olive oil and clam juice. She went through the trouble of actually cooking real clams (I just shortcut it when I'm at home w/canned chopped clams!). We enjoyed it with a side of roasted vegetables (assortment of bell peppers and eggplant), and it was just the right amount for dinner.
Today's lunch, I am planning to make for her...
Taiwanese Oyster Noodles
Bunch of thin noodles (enough just to serve for who is eating right away, preferably from an Asian store - they're white, thin, individually bundled with a black band, in a cardboard shell wrapped with clear cellophane)
3 bunches scallions, sliced into 1" long pieces, both green and white parts
3 dried Chinese mushrooms, soaked to reconstitute and then sliced thin
4 oz chicken breast, sliced thin (I don't have this today, we'll see how the dish comes out)
oil for stir-frying
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon sugar
3 cups water
10 oz can of oysters (I ended up finding only dried ones, none fresh or frozen, so they're soaking right now, overnight, to reconstitute - we'll have to see how they come out)
2 cups cilantro leaves, loosely packed
salt, white pepper, hot pepper flakes to taste
Corn starch and water mixture to thicken soup
Enough extra leaves of cilantro for garnish, one per bowl of noodle soup
Boil up some water and cook the noodles until just al dente - remove from heat and rinse with cold water to stop cooking.
Soak the mushrooms in hot water for 10 minutes to reconstitute, and slice up the scallions. Heat up your fry pan (I'll be using a wok), enough to hold about 4 cups water. Rinse off the mushrooms and slice thin. Add oil to the fry pan, and heat to gently rippling. Add the scallions, and quickly stir-fry. Add mushrooms, soy sauce, and sugar, and quickly stir fry. Add water (I actually use the water the mushrooms have been soaking in, as it's infused so well with the mushrooms' flavor) and bring to a boil. Add oysters, salt, white pepper, and hot pepper flakes, to taste, along with the cilantro. Bring soup to a boil, and add the corn starch/water mixture to thicken. (This mixture will thicken as it cools.) Add in your noodles to just before serving. Garnish w/extra cilantro leaves (one per bowl).
There are a couple of items I'm missing for this recipe (namely, the chicken breast), and a couple others that I've substituted (namely, the dried oysters) so we'll see how the flavors come together. I'll keep you posted...
No comments:
Post a Comment