Last Call for the 5lb Food Scale Giveaway

Sunday dinner is usually when we get creative and get rid of leftovers in the fridge because trash day is on Monday morning and food that has gone bad or cannot be eaten needs to be thrown. After evaluating our fridge tonight, I made the following dishes.

Broccoli stem salad. This was made by using a vegetable peeler to peel the skin off broccoli stems and slicing them into cross sections. You're not going to get all the skin off because of the nooks and crannies but try to get as much off as possible because it tastes bitter. I added finely minced garlic then sprinkled the entire thing with plenty of sea salt. You can be heavy handed on the salt because all you need is for the salt to draw the moisture out of the broccoli and create a quick brine. Let is brine for 1 hr at least and then toss with Korean pepper powder and some lime juice.

(source) I quickly blanched a bundle of choy sum and cut the bundle into thirds.

Egg noodle soup with fish balls, shrimp, choy sum, and eggs

Directions

1 boiled egg, sliced

3 oz of shrimps

3-4 fish balls, halved

5-6 stems of choy sum, blanched and cut into thirds

Chicken stock, mine is home made but you can use canned

1. Sautee fish balls and shrimp in a little vegetable oil and garlic until halfway cooked
2. Add vegetable stock, I don't know how much but eyeball enough to fill your bowl
3. Let this broth simmer on medium-high while you prepare the next steps
4. In a separate pot of boiling water, dip your noodles in for 10 seconds then drain and rinse with cold water
5. In your bowl, put in the greens and noodles
6. Add shrimp, fish balls, and broth from step 3 to your bowl
7. Garnish with sliced eggs
8. Eat with Sriracha sauce!

 *My homemade chicken broth was already seasoned with fish sauce. If you are using canned chicken broth, you can season using a combo of fish sauce and soy sauce to taste. We did not follow any portion control rules for tonight's meal because noodle soup doesn't fall into any of the classic categories. Also the broth can get you very full but it will digest fast so eating a small portion will not be enough. Just use your own judgment when making your portion.

Sunday's noodles were actually inspired by Saturday's failed dinner attempt. 

(~$4 per bag of 2 servings) I have always been curious to try the pre-made cold noodle packets from the Korean store. Judging by their elaborate airplane food, I trust Korean instant noodles to be a complete meal and this pack just looked so interesting I had to buy it.

Inside the packet, you get enough for 2 servings. 2 packets each of soba, cold broth, mustard powder, hot pepper paste.

After cooking the soba for 1 minute in hot water, straining and rinsing with cold water, everything else was ready to be assembled. It was as easy as placing it in the bowl, adding the cold broth, pepper paste, and mustard powder. I added green onions and boiled egg. For the most part, the noodle was ok but the mustard powder was too much. I put the entire packet in and it was the equivalent of eating wasabi flavored broth. Next time, I wouldn't put any mustard powder, not even a little. Aside from the mustard powder, soba was a too chewy and the dish itself had a one dimensional taste and texture. There's only so much chewy noodles in cold broth without any meat or greens that I can eat. We gave up after less than half the bowl and went out for a journey to find popcorn chicken. We drove to 3 different Quickly boba shops before finding one with popcorn chicken. The second shop was not selling any fried snacks that day because they ran out of oil. How do you run out of oil!?! Anyway, the moral of the story is do not eat things with mustard powder.

OXO 5LB FOOD SCALE GIVEAWAY ENDS AT MIDNIGHT. LAST CHANCE TO ENTER.