People tend to associate ramen noodles with the dried noodles you zap in the microwave for a quick cheap meal. This does not compare with freshly made Japanese ramen noodles.
Ramen also refers to the Japanese dish of noodles served in a broth and topped with meat and/or vegetables. I decided to make ramen noodles with a miso broth and miso roasted pork belly for this week’s date night.
“Rabo Encendido” roughly translates to “Tail on Fire”. This is a bit deceiving as there are no chillies or even pepper in this Cuban oxtail stew ( traditional Cuban dishes aren’t hot). Feel free to add hot sauce if you want a bit of a kick.
Avgolemono is an egg lemon sauce that I have wanted to make for ages. As this week was Greek date night, it was the perfect occasion to make a traditional Greek meatball soup that incorporates this sauce.
Laksa is a popular noodle soup in Malaysia, Indonesia and Southern Thailand. We love soup, noodles and curry, so I decided to make a Malaysian curry laksa for this week’s date night starter. There are many versions of this dish and I opted for Penang Curry Mee.
I have not made nearly enough curries or South East Asian food lately, so Beef Rendang was a good choice for this week’s date night.
Rendang originated in Indonesia and spread to Malaysia and Singapore when the Minangkabau settlers migrated to those countries. This is a slow cooked dry curry, rich with spices and full of flavour.
Legend has it that in 1574 there was a glassmaker’s assistant in Milan whose nickname was Zaffereno (Saffron). He always mixed a bit of saffron into the colours for the stained glass to make it more vivid. The glassmaker used to joke that he’ll be putting it into risotto next. When the glassmaker’s daughter got married he did just that. The steaming pots of golden rice was a huge success with the guests and it became a classic Milanese dish.
We’ve had a beautiful springbok loin in the freezer for a while now, just begging to be cooked. I could not decide on just one sauce to make for it, so ended up making four. My choices were a blackberry, chocolate, gin and juniper and whiskey cream sauce.
Vietnamese caramelised pork belly is a dish traditionally served during Tết (Vietnamese New Year). Pork is marinated in a salty sweet sauce and cooked in coconut juice – Vietnamese comfort food at its best.