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Tan Tsai Noodles

by | Nov 11, 2010

Tan Tsai Noodles

tan tsai noodles recipe

In Edinburgh the season has changed once again and it’s turned really cold now. I feel like I’m still recovering from our holiday where we had really hot weather but recently I’ve had a really nasty flu and so the weather in Edinburgh hasn’t helped. The best kind of food for this kind of cold wet weather is a bowl of hot and tasty noodle soup. So, today I’m sharing with you a famous Taiwanese noodle soup called Tan Tsai Noodles.

The story of Tan Tsai noodle began in 1895. There was a fishmonger, Mr Hong, whose family migrated to Fucheng from Zhangzhou in China where he learnt how to cook noodles while making a living catching fish. After some time he moved to Tainan in Taiwan where he still made a living catching fish.

In Taiwan there are two festivals, one called the Tomb-Sweeping Fesetival which is held in March and the other called the Moon Festival which is held in August. Between these seasons is a period called the “Slack Season” where fisherman can’t go out on the water, so Mr Hong began selling noodles.

His noodles had a unique taste and so became really popular so he then decided to sell noodles full time. During the beginning he would carry his noodles on shoulder poles so he could sell them in the streets, so he called these noodles “Slack season Tan Tsai Noodles”. These are known as “Tu Hsian Yueh Tan Tsai Noodles”. “Tu Hsian Yueh” means slack season in Chinese and “Tan Tsai” translates to shoulder poles in Taiwanese.

So, as you can imagine this noodle soup perfectly sums up my situation right now. Since coming back from holiday I’ve been experiencing a slight “financial slack season” and all of the ingredients for this recipe are easy and cheap to get hold of. But the most important thing about this dish is the price doesn’t reflect on the taste, it’s still incredibly tasty. It proves that both expensive and cheap food can be equally tasty. Personally, I like local market food rather than fancy restaurant. It tastes a lot more home made but good home made food is always better than restaurant food.

By the way, I finally took a final picture myself. Now it’s getting dark and with Chris’s work schedule he really doesn’t have time to take photos himself so he taught me how to do the photos. Hope you like it.

Credits: Preparation photos were taken by myself but final photos were taken by Chris at: http://www.chrisradleyphotography.com

tan tsai noodles inredients

 

tan tsai noodle recipe
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Tan Tsai Noodles

Course Main Dish
Prep Time 3 hours
Total Time 3 hours
Servings 3 people

Ingredients

Ingredients for the noodle stock

  • 1 chicken bone
  • 6 Prawns only use the shells for the stock, keep the prawns for garnish
  • 1 handful bonito shaving also known as Katsuobushi shavings
  • 3 Spring Onions cut into 3cm lengthways
  • 2 slices ginger
  • water

Ingredients for the mince sauce

  • 400 g pork mince
  • 1/2 cup soy sauce
  • 1 tbsp Rice Wine
  • 2 tbsp fried shallots
  • 2 cups water
  • 1/4 tsp pepper powder
  • 1 tsp Chinese five spice powder
  • 1 tsp rock sugar

Instructions

Procedure for the noodle stock

  1. Remove the shell from prawns and use a little bit of oil to sauté the prawn shell
    tan tsai noodles procedure
  2. Roast the chicken bone in the oven until the bone gets some colour on it
    tan tsai noodles recipe
  3. Put everything into a stock pot and cover the ingredients with water.
  4. Boil it first then simmer for 2 hours. It’s now ready to serve with noodle.

Procedure for mince sauce

  1. Heat a wok with 2 tablespoons oil and stir-fry the pork until it’s cooked on the outside.
  2. Add all the ingredients and mix them evenly. Boil it first then simmer around 30 minutes to reduce down half of the sauce.

Final procedure for Tan Tsai Noodle

  1. Poach the prawn and vegetable in a pot of boiling water first. After cook the noodle in the boiling water.
  2. Place noodle and some mash garlic (optional) into a bowl and pour some mince sauce on top. Garnish with prawn and vegetable and add the soup.

 

Singapore Noodle cooking class with politician

by | Aug 4, 2010

Singapore Noodle cooking class with politician

Today, I had an interesting cooking class. My student Robin Harper is a member of the Green Party and in turn a member of the Scottlsh Parliament (MSP) who is celebrating his 70th birthday (Happy Birthday, Robin!!!). How cool is that?! I never thought that one day I would have a chance to teach a British politician. I can’t believe a politician who has shook hands with the queen and has met the prime minister was in my kitchen this afternoon and listened to my directions for pouring in stock and adding soy sauce to the dish.

singapore noodle cooking class

It felt great when I saw him wolfing down both the Singapore noodles and steamed scallops he cooked in my kitchen. From the way he was eating them it looked like he really enjoyed both and has kindly offered to endorse us.

When he arrived I didn’t quite catch his job title but his wife explained who he was but I didn’t quite catch on. (How daft I am! 😀 What can I say? I’m not very good with English politics.) I’m really happy that I didn’t know he is a real politician before we start cooking or I probably will be too nervous or panic. 😀

singapore noodle cooking class

We cooked Singapore noodle and Steamed scallop today but I will only share this Singapore noodle recipe on my blog today with all of you. (Steamed scallop’s recipe will be on it’s way soon!!)

Singapore Noodle is another popular eastern dish in the UK and it has a rather strong flavour. The rice noodle has been marinated by turmeric powder and curry powder but you can choose a different kind of curry powder to marinade the rice noodle to your own personal preference.

The other interesting thing about this dish is this dish is actually not from Singapore. I have no idea where this dish originates from but it appears on many Chinese restaurants and take away menus. I kind of think Chinese people named this dish as “Singapore” noodle is because of the kind of spices used to marinade the noodles.

Credits: Photos were taken by Chris at Chris Radley Photography

singapore noodles

 

singapore noodles
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Singapore Noodle

Course Main Dish
Prep Time 1 hour
Cook Time 20 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 20 minutes
Servings 2 people

Ingredients

Ingredients

  • 3 bunches rice noodles
  • 1 piece chicken breast julienne it
  • 1 red pepper julienne it
  • 1 small carrot julienne it
  • 3 heads bok choi julienne it
  • 1 chili remove the seeds and chop finely
  • 2 cloves garlic chop finely
  • 2 thin slices ginger chop finely
  • 1 tsp dried shrimp

Marinade for chicken breast

  • 1 tbsp soy sauce
  • 1 tsp sugar
  • 1 tsp potato starch

Marinade for prawns

  • 1 tsp potato starch
  • 1 tsp rice wine
  • 1/2 tsp salt

Marinade for rice noodles

  • 1 tbsp curry powder
  • 1 tsp turmeric powder

Seasonings

  • 1 tsp salt
  • 2 tbsp soy sauce
  • 1 tsp sugar
  • 1/2 tsp sesame oil
  • 1 cup stock

Instructions

  1. Remove the skin from the chicken breast and julienne it. Marinade it with the seasonings for 15 minutes.
  2. Make a deep cut on the back of each prawn. Marinate with seasonings for 5 minutes. Stirfry it until the prawn turns to red colour and leave it to one side.
  3. Soak the rice noodles in warm water for 20 minutes to soften and then marinade the rice noodle with curry powder and turmeric powder for 20~30 minutes.
  4. Soak the dried shrimp in warm water 15 minutes to soften it and chop finely.
  5. Heat a wok with a couple tablespoons of oil and fry the garlic, ginger and chilli first then add chicken breast and carrot to stir-fry it until the chicken turn white colour.
  6. Add pepper and all the seasonings to the stir-fry then add the rice noodles.
  7. Using a spoon add small amounts of stock to the noodles and keep stir frying it at the same time until the rice noodles suck up all the stock.
  8. Add bak choi and prawn in the end and keep stir fry it until the bak choi is cooked.

 

Beef Noodle Soup Recipe

by | Mar 31, 2010

Beef Noodle Soup Recipe

beef noodle soup recipe

I love beef noodle soup, especially when you just came home from cold and wet weather. This is a comfort dish to warm up everyone from their body to their heart. This dish is easy to make however it takes some time to cook but the result will pay out everytime you take a bite.

You will realize how wonderful life is when you have the first sip of the soup and taste the juicy beef in your mouth, finally you will have a bite of the sweetest carrot and the home made noodle. You will feel a bit lost when you had your last bite and wish you had more.

I made my own noodle at home because nothing can beat the homemade noodle’s taste and that amazing texture.

Credit: These photos were taken by Chris at Chris Radley Photography

beef noodle soup
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Beef Noodle Soup

Prep Time 1 hour 30 minutes
Servings 4 people

Ingredients

Ingredients for Stewed Beef

  • 800 g beef flank cut into 3cm dice. Try to keep any fatty bits for better flavour and texture
  • 4 medium carrots cut into 3cm dice
  • 3 spring onions
  • 4 cloves garlic
  • 3 thin slices ginger
  • 1 chili depends on personal flavour
  • 2 cups brown or beef stock I used chicken bone toasted with vegetable to make brown stock

Seasonings for Stewed Beef

  • 3 star anises
  • 1/2 cinnamon stick
  • 2 slices liquourice optional
  • 4 tbsp soy sauce
  • 6 tbsp rice wine
  • 2 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp sugar
  • 2 tbsp chili bean sauce

Ingredients for Noodles

  • 300 g bread flour
  • 1 medium egg
  • 200 ml water
  • 1/2 tsp salt

Instructions

Procedures for stewed beef

  1. Blanch beef by boiled water and wash it under cold water then leave it on aside. Heat up a wok with 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil and sauté spring onions, ginger, garlic, star anise and cinnamon. Add beef and Chilli bean sauce to stir-fry for a couple minutes.

  2. Place procedures 1 into a stock pot and add all the seasonings into the pot then add water to cover the beef. Use full gas power to boil the beef first then turn to lowest gas power to simmer it at least 1 hour.

  3. Add carrot into the pot and cook it until the beef and carrot turn soft and tender.

  4. Place cooked noodle into a bowl with some vegetable you like and put couple table spoon of stewed beef with sauce on top and cover everything by stock then it’s ready to serve. **

Procedures for Noodles

  1. Mix everything together and rub it for 10~15 minutes, cover by cling film or wet kitchen napkin and leave it on aside for 20 minutes.

  2. Use rolling pin to roll the dough and make it thin and flat.

  3. Fold the dough from procedures 2 and cut it into strip.

  4. Use hands to separate the noodle and boil water to cook it.

Recipe Notes

** You can also use a little bit of chopped spring onion to garnish it. Spring onion has special fragrance can make the beef noodle taste even better.