Ode to the Noodle Ranch

Once upon another life time, I chose to eat many a meal at a place called 'The Noodle Ranch' located in a neighborhood called 'Belltown' in Seattle, Washington. This was a life when I rarely cooked anything more complicated than fancy beer nuts (chili-carmelized blanched almonds for poker nights). I lived in a land of late night dining, take away, and (!) delivery foods.

I never thought of myself as a curry eater. But my friend Monte convinced me to try this 'light' variety, the green curry.
Silken tofu cubes, broccoli, and potatoes, in spices and green curry with a side of sticky white rice.
What is not to love?
But this was a love lost when I moved away from the area.
Until Zok decided he could figure it out- and he did.
Here you go: Curry for 2 plus left overs, as created by Zok.

1 medium brown onion, diced.
1 clove of garlic finely diced.
3-4 medium potatoes- such as a Kennebec or the yellow skinned American potato- peeled and cut into small cubes
A fair sized Broccoli cut into bite sized pieces
Silken tofu cut into bite sized cubes
16 oz of Coconut Cream
32 oz of vegetable stock (made from the cube and water)
1 tsp peanut oil
Fresh kaffir lime leaves about 4 thinly sliced, leaf only not center stem/vein
(if you live nearby we have a kaffir lime tree so if you need leaves just ask)
Zest of half of one lime
Juice from the half-lime
2 tbls palm sugar
Clove of garlic (diced)
One small red chili no seeds
5 tbls of fish sauce
2 tbl of green curry paste
* you can leave out the chilli and/or you can add in mushrooms
Rice for 2 people

First-
Peel, cut potatoes and steam until tender but not fully cooked, put aside.

*Make a sauce to set aside by taking the sliced kaffir leaves, lime juice, lime zest, chopped clove of garlic, fish sauce and grated palm sugar and chilli if desired, mix to dissolve sugar

Take the teaspoon of peanut oil, and heat in wok until slightly smoking, then add onion, and one clove of garlic- stir ingredients to coat then add in the 2 tbl. of green curry paste and sauté all for a couple of minutes mixing well.

Add potato to wok, mix well.
Add in vegetable stock, stir well
Add in coconut cream, stir well
Bring to a boil, then simmer for about 10 minutes
Add broccoli and tofu and mushrooms (if desired)
Simmer all for a few minutes
Add Sauce
Lightly stir (lightly to avoid breaking up the tofu cubes)
Simmer until condensed about 15 to 30 minutes-
+This is a good time while this simmers to turn on your rice cooker.
++I don't know the substitution for fish sauce- but of course this is not strictly vegetarian to use and will need to be substituted if you are cooking for a strict vegetarian, this is okay if they are only an aquatarian.

Yum!

"I get too hungry for dinner at eight..."

I am going to post a month of recipes or what I like to think of as 'dinner'.
I will try to talk the chef into certain favorite recipes I want to share.
Feel free to ask questions, or request a favorite dish.

Mee Goreng
*Zok believes that only fresh Hokkien Noodles are acceptable when making this simple dish.
Preparation time: 30 minutes
Cooking time: 10 minutes
1 large onion (brown is best)
2 cloves garlic finely chopped
2 red chillies (or one large depending on how your garden grew)
seeded, and finely chopped (the seeds can be added back in if you desire a high 'hot spicy' rating on your food).
2 cm (3/4 in) piece of fresh ginger (Zok says you can switch this out for fresh galangal)
2 tablespoons oil (one when tossing the noodles, one when cooking up the rest of the ingredients in the wok)
1 large carrot, cut into matchsticks
Deep fry tofu squares (.5 lb of firm tofu), cut in half to make triangles
3 tablespoons each of kecap manis, soy sauce, tomato sauce (this is increased due to the fact that we are cooking with tofu when normally this dish would have raw prawn meat (a pound).
Optionally a person could also add 8 oz. of rump steak finely sliced. The meat (ahh poor fishes what did they ever do to you?) would be added in place of when the tofu is added.

Combine the chopped onion, garlic, chillies and ginger (or galangal) in a small food processor or mortar and pestle. Set aside.
Heat 1 tbl. spoon oil (Zok uses peanut oil) in wok (large is best); stir fry the noodles until plump and warmed through (Zok makes them a wee bit burnt on some of the noodles, they are the tastiest ones), Place noodles in covered serving bowl to keep warm.

Add another teaspoon of oil to wok and stir fry the paste until golden, add your carrots, stir-fry quickly 2 minutes, add in tofu, 2 minutes (or until tofu, carrots and paste are nice and mixed)-
Add in the kecap manis, soy, and tomato sauces - wait until this all reduces, as you work your wok technique prowess.

We divide the noodles as desired, and then dish out the amount of tasty goodness on top of these noodles.
Zok adds spring onion as a garnish, Colleen does not.

*kecap manis can be found in most asian grocers, and is a sort of sweet, thick soy sauce
** this dish goes nicely with Sapporo Beer
***Zok mentioned that he actually uses a bit more tofu because somebody, steals pieces when somebody is too hungry to wait for the food to cook.