Prawn chow mein with miracle noodles

A while ago, I posted about these so called miracle noodles, known as Shirataki. I mentioned that I thought they were only good for soups and frying them would be a big mistake. I was wrong.

Zen and the art of noodle soup

Sometimes food is merely sustenance. Sometimes we need nourishment, other times comfort and sometimes food is art. Today I made a lunch that was so beautiful, the old cliche 'looks good enough to eat' entered my mind. Not only did it please the eye, it satiated my hunger and made me feel wholesome and healthy, containing such things as sea weed, kale and sunflower sprouts.

Korean flavours & microwaved crispy skin

Inspired by the same magazine shown in the previous post, I decided to make a sort of hybrid Korean / Mexican meal as is indeed very popular in Korea itself right now. (Apparently they love tacos)! A trip to H-Mart, our local Korean supermarket was required to buy the necessary ingredients. Two sauces, one called Doenjang, a soy bean paste and the other, Gochujang, a red pepper paste were bought to make a sauce called Ssamjang, a mix of these two ingredients plus rice wine, onion, garlic, ginger and chili. I decided to use pork as they do in Korea, a long, slow cooked shoulder and lettuce leaves to use like tortillas to wrap everything up like the popular dish Bo Ssam. I added some extras, however, like Japanese pickles and some beets and some extra crunchy bean sprouts to create a dish of contrasting textures and flavours. Neil, who usually doesn't like eating with his hands, (proper English gent that he is), ate about 6 of these little lettuce leaves piled with different combinations each time.