Sesame Noodles With Pork

I made this in honour of Chinese New Year. It’s the Pioneer Woman’s Sesame Noodles with a few additions of my own. Of course.

I diced up the holy trinity carrots, celery and onions to start it all off. I threw the carrots and celery plus half of my green onions (mostly the white portions rather than the green stalks) into a bowl, topped that with Ree’s sesame sauce and a 1/4 cup of the starchy pasta water. I let it all rest on the counter so the hot water would thin out the sauce and heat the diced vegetables through. in the meantime, I pan fried some rather thick and juicy pork chops that I seasoned very simply with S&P and olive oil. When they finished cooking and had time to rest covered for 10 minutes, they were sliced up into small chunks and set into the bowl with the sauce and vegetables.

I cooked up a batch of regular spaghetti noodles because they were the longest noodles I had in the house, and because you should only use your longest noodle during the Lunar Festival meals to ensure your chances of great luck in 2012. The difference between regular pasta noodles and Asian noodles can vary wildly to not much at all, depending upon what ingredients went into producing them in the first place. Since this noodle meal calls for a rather chewy noodle to start with, I agree with Ree that spaghetti is a fine sub out in a pinch over something more traditional like the udon noodle.

The steaming hot noodles were then added to the bowl and tossed well so everything was coated by the sauce and piping hot. I plated generous heaps of the noodle mixture into bowls and topped each one with the remaining green onions before serving with chopsticks, forks and a spoon (for me who still struggles with a painful hand issue).

This noodle dish got the highest praises from my husband – which is unpublishable (sorry), but rest assured, he seriously loved the tastes and textures. I made a lot so that meant leftovers for me at work today. (Squee!) I scarfed it. I’m not even going to try lying to you about this. I try not to scarf food, but I couldn’t – and wouldn’t – help myself. It was *that* amazing.

Give it a go!

Chicken & Swiss Chard Pasta Bake. Picture courtesy of @TheKitchn.

Came across this linked recipe for Chicken & Swiss Chard Pasta Bake on Twitter by someone I follow, @TheKitchn. This looks so comforting, so delicious and so satisfying. I’m definitely going to take this recipe out for a spin or two. You should, too.

I’m often asked about what kind or kinds of tomato sauce I use with my fresh pasta. The answer is as simple as it is complex: depends on the final dish taste I’m after. I’m a huge fan of any sauce that starts with the holy trinity of diced onion, carrot and celery. From there, it’s a free-for-all of whatever I have on hand and/or feel like making up as I go along.

Here is a great resource guide for those of you looking to find the right taste for your dish. I love the Marcella Hazan butter tomato sauce, but sometimes I will make basic sauce sans butter {gasp} so I can add a cream product instead. Don’t forget to read the very helpful comments on that post. Many great tips and thoughts by home cooks in that post.

I’m not big on garlic or marinara sauce because of what it does to my breath for the following week, but a small bit isn’t a bad thing as long as you find a way to add a lot of mint or parsley to the plated meal somehow. Parsley and mint have long been known as natural breath freshener. Or, as I like to call it, garlic breath canceller. It’s not just garnish you leave on the side of your finish plate, kids. Not at all. Use it! It really does work. Trust me.

Recently we went to Red Lobster for dinner, and I rediscovered my love of their stuffed baked sole. It’s amazing in its simplicity and its overall presentation. The dish itself is nothing more than two small fillets stacked upon each other with a filling layer between them – much like a sandwich. It’s a baked dish that’s topped with smoked paprika near the end of the bake cycle, and topped with lovely white wine sauce plated.

Stuffed Baked Fish served with banged-up roasted potatoes

I’ve ordered this dish a couple of times before when dining at Red Lobster now. I always remember it being so tasty, and this time round was no exception. I have now taken to making it at home on random Sundays. It makes for a lovely lunch or dinner meal. I highly recommend trying this dish. It’s a winner, even to those who aren’t big on fish, for several reasons.

1. It’s versatile in terms of the the kind of whitefish you use. Any whitefish will do, really. I use whatever we have on hand, and it’s never guaranteed to be the same two times in a row.

2. The filling can be made up of anything you have on hand or dream up – the choice is yours how fancy or how simple you make it.

3. The sauce can be a lovely white sauce, salsa, vegetable ragout, or nothing at all – your choice. Go nuts.

The version I normally make uses haddock fillets with a lovely ricotta filling topped with some fettuccine sauce over top, but this last one I didn’t bother with the sauce. I wanted a light lunch to carry me over the afternoon to dinner a few hours later.

Filling for 2-4 servings:
1/2 C ricotta (low fat will work well)
S&P to taste
1/8 C diced red peppers
2 tsp fresh lime juice
1/4 C chopped parsley

This knock-off version of the Red Lobster’s Broccoli Stuffed Sole from AllRecipes.com uses ingredients like rice and broccoli which is perfectly in line with Red Losbster’s ingredient list, but again I used what I have on hand, and the last time I made this I didn’t feel like making rice and I was also out of broccoli, so I went the rustic route.

It was delicious. And very filling. The whitefish fillets I buy tend to be very long, so I could have easily cut the final fish in half and fed four instead of two. This is a fantastic recipe to add to your weekly repertoire. You can easily make it up the night before or in the morning, and pop it in the oven when you get home from work the next night. Give it a go!

Soooo… I got lulled into thinking these kinds of high-end experience cookies where what all real bakers make and crave at Christmas.

Meh.

I honestly have no idea why. They didn’t taste even remotely interesting to me. I feel hoodwinked.

I imagine I will be shunned by all of the cookie and food lovers out there after this admission, but I can’t fake it. Not even a little. Sorry. Not my cup of chocolate chip cookie tea.