Instant Chicken Ramen Noodles

This post has been a long time coming.  My family has had a lot of changes these past few months, really the past year has been crazy.  Our youngest daughter turned one in December and my dear little one has been kind enough to teach me a new level of exhaustion this past year.  The exhaustion was a big part of my absence, but the other part was my daughter really really doesn't like me to share attention for her with a computer, and her naps were few and far between.  She likes to have her nap when I drive my other children to school, and wake up when we get home.  If that wasn't enough, we decided it was time to leave Queens, leave New York completely actually.  That was a huge and hard decision.  Our children were very distraught about the move.  On November 2, we moved into our very own house in Garner, North Carolina.  For now I've decided to remain the Queens Foodie Mama, maybe I'll rename my blog/website, but for now it will remain the same.  I promise to do better about posting.

My children love ramen noodles, so we have had a variety of instant ramen noodles in our home. One of my friends, Sarah and her son, are unable to eat Soy.  Every instant ramen seasoning packet, in every package of Ramen Noodles, has soy.  Since a food challenge is one of my favorite motivations for cooking, I decided to take on the ramen challenge.  A few months ago I created this recipe for my friend Sarah.  She also helped taste test our instant ramen.  She offered some advice, so hopefully when you try it, you will enjoy this new take on a college dorm favorite.

Soup, food for the body and soul.

Ingredients:

1 Packet Per Jar Chicken Flavor Broth (Trader Joe's sells one without soy)
1 teaspoon whole Black Pepper
1 teaspoon Garlic Powder
1 teaspoon ground Turmeric
1 teaspoon ground Ginger
1 teaspoon dried Onion Flakes
1 teaspoon Red Pepper Flakes
1 teaspoon Sesame Seeds
Dried Udon Noodles

4 Pint Jars

Grind the whole spices and herbs in a spice grinder or a blender until a powder is formed.

Break noodles to desired length and place in pint jar.  Fill half way up.  Add 1/2 teaspoon

seasoning to jar.  Place lid and ring on jar and screw on lid with chicken broth packet in lid.

Add hot water to 300 ml line and instant chicken broth.  Microwave for 1 minute, close jar with lid and allow to sit for 1 minute.

Allow to cool and enjoy and jar of instant ramen noodles.

Enjoy!

Instant Chicken Ramen Noodles

Ingredients:

1 Packet Per Jar Chicken Flavor Broth (Trader Joe's sells one without soy)
1 teaspoon whole Black Pepper
1 teaspoon Garlic Powder
1 teaspoon ground Turmeric
1 teaspoon ground Ginger
1 teaspoon dried Onion Flakes
1 teaspoon Red Pepper Flakes
1 teaspoon Sesame Seeds
Dried Udon Noodles

4 Pint Jars

Process:

Grind the whole spices and herbs in a spice grinder or a blender until a powder is formed.

Break noodles to desired length and place in pint jar.  Fill half way up.  Add 1/2 teaspoon

seasoning to jar.  Place lid and ring on jar and screw on lid with chicken broth packet in lid.

Add hot water to 300 ml line and instant chicken broth.  Microwave for 1 minute, close jar with lid and allow to sit for 1 minute.

Allow to cool and enjoy and jar of instant ramen noodles.

Enjoy!

Avocado Salsa

As many of you already know, I am originally from California.  I was born and raised in California. Two years ago, on October 20, we moved to Queens New York.  One of my favorite restaurant condiments from my California days comes from the restaurant El Pollo Loco.  Sadly they don't have a location here.  The condiment in question is their Avocado Salsa.  I wanted that avocado salsa to go with my pork and potato flautas.  This recipe is my take on the salsa, since I did not have the ingredients for the copycat recipe I found online.  This avocado salsa is better than the restaurant sauce, at least I think it is.  

Silky, creamy, lime flavored, avocado goodness waiting to be paired with your favorite
 Mexican food.

Ingredients:

1 ripe Hass Avocado
2 Limes
1/4 of Yellow Onion
1/4 teaspoon Red Pepper Flakes
1/2 teaspoon Sea Salt
1 Cup Water
1/2 Avocado Oil( can be substituted with Canola or Vegetable Oil)

Remove avocado from skin and place in blender along with rough chopped onion and the
other ingredients.

Blend until smooth.

 That's it, you now have avocado salsa.

Pour salsa into lidded container to store in the refrigerator, if you have any left after the meal.

Enjoy!

Avocado Salsa

Printable recipe Found Here

Ingredients:

1 ripe Hass Avocado
2 Limes
1/4 of Yellow Onion
1/4 teaspoon Red Pepper Flakes
1/2 teaspoon Sea Salt
1 Cup Water
1/2 Avocado Oil( can be substituted with Canola or Vegetable Oil)

Process:

Remove avocado from skin and place in blender along with rough chopped onion and the other ingredients.

Blend until smooth.

Pour salsa into lidded container.  Serve right away or refrigerate.

Enjoy!

Blackened Catfish

While doing my weekly grocery shopping, the catfish was calling my name, and I decided it was time to try and prepare it myself.  I have eaten catfish once in my lifetime I think, and since I have been preparing a different fish every week, this was the week for catfish.  Fried catfish seemed a little too much frying for me, so I decided to make blackened catfish.  My fish didn't turn out very blackened, most likely because I used fresh ingredients rather then dried.  Dried spices do blacken, hence the name. This is my personal experience speaking.  In no way am I able to accurately tell you why blackened catfish is called that, but I'm guessing it is because the spice rubbed on the catfish blackens when it is pan fried. 

 Flavorful exterior, flaky moist inside.

Ingredients:

4 tablespoons softened Butter
1 small Yellow Onion
4 cloves Garlic
1 Lemon
1 teaspoon Red Pepper Flakes
1 teaspoon Smoked Paprika
1 1/2 tablespoons Olive Oil
1 teaspoon Sea Salt
1 teaspoon Freshly Ground Black Pepper
2 lbs. Catfish fillets

 Peel and finely dice 1/2 of the onion.

If you have a molcajete or a mortar and pestle, bring them out, otherwise process this in a
blender or food processor.

Place onion, garlic and salt in molcajete or blender.  Grind or blend into a paste.

 Look at my paste, cool.

 Add paprika and red pepper flakes.  Grind or blend until smooth.

 Squeeze lemon juice and add olive oil.  Stir or blend until smooth.

 Brush paste onto both sides of catfish filets, allow to marinate for 15 minutes.

 Add 4 tablespoons of butter to large sauté pan over medium heat.

 Fry catfish filets until interior flesh is opaque and flaky,  3-5 minutes on each side.

Remove from pan and place on serving platter or plate.

Enjoy!

Blackened Catfish

Printable Recipe Found Here

Ingredients:

4 tablespoons softened Butter

1 small Yellow Onion

4 cloves Garlic

1 Lemon

1 teaspoon Red Pepper Flakes

1 teaspoon Smoked Paprika

1 1/2 tablespoons Olive Oil

1 teaspoon Sea Salt

1 teaspoon Freshly Ground Black Pepper

2 lbs. Catfish fillets

Process:

Peel and finely dice 1/2 of the onion.

If you have a molcajete or a mortar and pestle bring them out, otherwise process this in a blender or food processor.

Place onion, garlic and salt in molcajete or blender.  Grind or blend into a paste.

Add paprika and red pepper flakes.  Grind or blend until smooth.

Squeeze lemon juice and add olive oil.  Stir or blend until smooth.

Brush paste onto both sides of catfish filets, allow to marinate for 15 minutes.

Add 4 tablespoons of butter to large sauté pan over medium heat.

Fry catfish filets until interior flesh is opaque and flaky,  3-5 minutes on each side.

Enjoy!

Chinese Baked Haddock

While at Costco and picking this weeks fish, I found Haddock, another fish I haven't fed my family and decided to try it.  This recipe is based on a of couple recipes I read and also my own take on combining Chinese ingredients.  

 Fish and rice, so good together.

Ingredients for this Recipe Are:
2 lbs. Haddock

1/2 cup Soy Sauce

1/2 cup melted Butter

4 cloves pressed Garlic

1/2 teaspoon Red Pepper Flakes

3 tablespoons Lemon Extract (Lemon juice can be substituted)

Preheat oven to 400 Fahrenheit.

Place haddock in oven safe oval dish.

 Pour soy sauce, butter, garlic, red pepper flakes, and lemon extract into a small bowl and mix.

Pour sauce over haddock.

 Bake haddock for 30 minutes.

Eat the haddock over a bed of steamed brown rice as we did or on white rice.

Enjoy!

Chinese Baked Haddock

Printable Recipe Found Here

2 lbs. Haddock

1/2 cup Soy Sauce

1/2 cup melted Butter

4 cloves pressed Garlic

1/2 teaspoon Red Pepper Flakes

3 tablespoons Lemon Extract (Lemon juice can be substituted)

Preheat oven to 400 Fahrenheit.

Place haddock in oven safe oval dish.

Pour soy sauce, butter, garlic, red pepper flakes, and lemon extract into a small bowl and mix.

Pour sauce over haddock.

Bake haddock for 30 minutes.

Enjoy!

Dill Pickles

This morning I went to the grocery store near my apartment and in the $1vegetable bin they had large bags of pickling cucumbers!  I hit the pickling jackpot.  I bought two bags and invited my friend Bridget over to make them and take a jar home with her.  These are super easy pickles to make.  I love pickles!

 6 lbs. of pickles!  You read right, that is a lot of dill pickles.

 Ingredients for this recipe: 2 1/2 lbs. pickling cucumbers, 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes, 10 cloves peeled garlic, 3 cups water, 3 cups white vinegar,  bunch of fresh dill, and 3 tablespoons salt.
Ignore the pepper, it was photo-bombing my photo.

 Cut the ends off the washed cucumbers, enzymes where the blossom was will prevent your
cucumbers from being crunchy pickles.  Cut each cucumber lengthwise into four equal spears.

Boil vinegar, water, and salt together in a non-reactive pan until salt is dissolved.  

 I used a 1/2 gallon mason jar.   The cucumbers can be put into pint jars as well.  Place the cucumbers
 in the jar straight.   I had my jar on its side to make this easier.  Just before you have packed the
bottom half of your jar full of cucumbers add half the garlic being sure to press the garlic with the
palm of your hand to slightly crush the garlic and release it's goodness.  Add half the pepper flakes,
and after tearing off the stems, add half the dill as well.  Squish some more cucumbers in the bottom
of the jar and repeat the layering of the rest of the cucumbers, garlic, dill, and pepper flakes. 

 The jars are very full and ready for the pickling liquid.

 Add liquid to jar(s), fill to the bottom of the ridged portion of the jar.

Screw lids on and place in refrigerator, these will last a couple of weeks as they are.  You are welcome to preserve yours.  By tomorrow these will be ready to taste.

Enjoy!

Garam Masala Sauce

Near my home, is a wonderful store, Patel Brothers.  It is an Indian Grocery store in a very Indian neighborhood.  This store has the best selection of herbs and spices and everything Indian.  I bought the whole Garam Masal spice/herb mixture from here.  I love all the Indian food.  A lot of it I have no idea what it is and I feel a little awkward being so white when I walk through this store, but it is so fun to see all the imported Indian food.  I think I now understand why all the fuss from the early explorers trying to get to India the fastest way possible.

I would have gladly made Garam Masala Chicken tonight with my Patel Brothers finds, but my children requested chicken nuggets.  This is my compromise.  I made Garam Masala Sauce to dip the chicken nuggets in for our American take on Indian food.  You may use this sauce to cook chicken in if you want Garam Masala chicken (curry chicken).

 Beautiful color, don't you think?  This is the start of yummy Indian food.

 Ingredients for this recipe are: 1 tablespoon whole Garam Masala spice/herb blend, 1 cup
whole tomatoes in puree, 1 teaspoon coriander seeds, 1 teaspoon cumin seeds, 1 teaspoon
cardamon pods, 6 cloves of peeled garlic, 1 inch piece of ginger peeled, 1 teaspoon turmeric,
 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes, 1 teaspoon salt, 2/3 cup yogurt (I used homemade, recipe found
  here).  You may use ground spices instead, be sure to skip the next three steps.

 Toast all the whole spices and herbs in a dry pan until they begin to become fragrant.

 Grind spices and herbs in a spice(coffee) grinder until fine.  Sift mixture through a sieve to
remove larger pieces.

 Puree tomatoes, add half the spice mixture and yogurt together in a small sauce pan.  Cook
sauce on low for 10 minutes at least. 

Store sauce in a lidded container.  Eat with the chicken nuggets we made earlier, or cook it with
 chicken like they do in Indian curry.

Enjoy!

Chinese BBQ Chicken & Stir Fry

I really like Chinese food, and since we have a Chinese son (at least while he goes to school) it has been really fun to make Chinese food and get his opinion on how well the food tastes.  Today, Sunday, we ate left overs and our left overs included Rotisserie chicken.  When I asked my husband what he wanted with his chicken (he didn't like my idea of waffles and chicken) he said he wanted chicken, rice, and stir fry.  I wanted to make my own Chinese Barbecue Sauce.  Since it was precooked chicken, I wanted to make a Chinese shredded chicken barbecue sauce to reheat it in.  I made up a sauce recipe after looking at a lot of recipes.  I think my recipe comes pretty close to the barbecue sauce you would see in a Chinese restaurant minus the red color and some other mystery ingredients.

 Does it look like real Chinese take out? Better right?

 Ingredients for the Chinese barbecue Sauce are: 5 cloves of fresh peeled garlic, 1 inch piece of peeled ginger, 1 cup Hoisin Sauce, 1/2 cup Soy Sauce, 1/2 cup Agave Syrup, Piece of Cinnamon (2 teaspoons ground cinnamon will also work), 2 teaspoons whole peppercorns (2 teaspoons ground pepper), 2 teaspoons whole cloves (2 teaspoons ground cloves), and 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes.

 Add spices to a spice (coffee) grinder and grind until...

 It looks like this.

Grate your ginger with a handy Chinese multi-tool with grater or finely mince it.  This bottle opener, peeler, and ginger grater was a gift from one of our Chinese Exchange students we had two years ago.

Mix ingredients of sauce together.  The sauce needs something, the tang you find in Barbecue
sauce, it needs...

This,  add 1/2 cup Apple Cider Vinegar.  If you have Rice Wine Vinegar that would be good
(I ran out).

I wanted some sesame flavor too, so I added 1/4 cup Sesame Oil.  Perfect!

Mix the sauce.

Ingredients for Chinese Barbecue Shredded Chicken are: 3 cups shredded rotisserie chicken, and Barbecue sauce.

Ingredients for vegetable stir fry are: 1 zucchini, 1 cup baby carrots, 1 head of broccoli,
2 green onions.  You may add more vegetables as you like. 

Slice everything up.  I chose to slice the vegetables on the bias for the carrots and green onions
and sliced and quartered for the zucchini.  The broccoli I sliced into smaller florets.

Add enough sauce to coat the chicken in a saute pan and cover with lid.  Set burner to medium
and let the chicken heat up and absorb flavor.

Time to Stir Fry!

To stir fry, have everything ready to go.   This is a fast cooking method.  Preheat your wok on High.  Be sure to turn on your vent above your stove and also if need be, a fan in a window to draw out the smoke.  Yes this will be a smoking hot process, and that is the way you achieve Chinese Stir Fry properly.  If it wasn't so windy and cold I would use my propane camping stove outside so as to not have smoke indoors and to have a much stronger flame.  Use Peanut oil, it has a high smoke point (as in it can be heated as high as stir fry needs to be cooked and won't burn).  Are you ready to get smoking hot?  When your wok begins to smoke, add the oil, about 3 tablespoons.   It will smoke, but
keep going.  DON'T STOP NOW!!! Add broccoli, carrots, and 3 tablespoons of water.  Stir and
cover with lid. 

Let cook for 3 minutes.

The broccoli and carrots are a vibrant green and orange, so pretty.

Add zucchini and green onions, stir fry for a couple seconds.

Add Chinese Barbecue Sauce to coat, stir and...

When the zucchini is tender but not overcooked stop and turn off the burner, YOUR DONE!

We ate our Chinese Barbecue Chicken and stir fry over steamed brown rice.

Enjoy!