{ Kin Jay: Shitake Mushroom and Cellophane Noodle Soup }

When I used to live in Thailand, every year my family will celebrate Kin Jay Festival (Vegetarian Festival), technically, you'll become a vegetarian for a period of time (I believe it's sometimes in October.) Anyway, since I've been eating a lot of meat for the past few days, today, I'd like to make something simply vegetarian. This dish was first made available for my palette about 15 years ago by my sister. The actual ingredients that my sister used were dried shitake mushroom, cellophane noodle, water, and white soy sauce. But here's what you can also add on...

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***Note: traditionally, Kin Jay Festival food does not contain any ingredients that has a strong flavor/smell (not so sure what's the story behind it) such as green onion and garlic***

{ 1 serving }

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of water
• 1 cup of vegetable broth
• 1-2 tbsp of white soy sauce (regular soy sauce would do)
• 2-3 whole dried shitake mushrooms
• 1 pack of cellophane noodle
• garnish (optional): green onion, cilantro, or seaweed...or all of the above...o_o.

Before you start cooking, soak dried shitake mushrooms in a bowl of water for about 2-3 hours (it will be easier to slice and better texture to eat.) Do the same thing with cellophane noodle.

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{ Dried Shitake Mushroom }

You can get dried shitake mushroom from any asian market, they are not that expensive. (The one that I got was about $9.99, bigger package, and that would last me for about a year. Or you could get a smaller package for like 4 dollar-ish...)

Once dried shitake mushrooms are soft enough, thin slice them.

In a saucepan, add water and vegetarian broth, bring to a boil then add sliced shitake mushroom. Cook for about 10 minutes.

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{ Cellophane Noodle }

Add pre-soaked cellophane noodle into the saucepan, add soy sauce (actually, the amount of soy sauce totally depends on you!!!) And cook the noodle for about 30 seconds.

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Voilà!

///I added some green onion and seaweed for some extra flavor...///

{ Ingredient: Thai Dried Chili }

I decided to create a section just for ingredients, mainly to make my life easier for when I post the next dish. Also, I'm not going to give any history of my ingredients or any nutrition facts, as you can probably look for those informations up on the internet (Gawd bless the internet... :D) For this one, I'd like to introduce Thai dried chili. As some of you may have already known about this chili, perhaps more than I do, this chili does consider to be pretty hot. Not as hot as habanero, but certainly hot enough to make a friend of mine rolled himself on the floor as he suffocated, and I believe he said something like "when is this going to stop..." in a debilitated tone of voice (not to exaggerated the situation but he did dare to eat a whole chili by itself...good time...good time...)

Anyway, this item is definitely worth it for your spice's cabinet. It is really cheap (last time I saw was like 99 cent for one package, that would last for a few month, unless of course if your tongue made out of steel and you snack hot pepper regularly for your daily supplement, then I think you know what to do.)

<--- Here's what you can do with it --->

You can only get this at the asian market, (since I've never seen any from American's grocery stores in my area) most, if not all, carry this item.

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Roast the chili on a medium high heat (yes in your cooking pan with nothing in it but chili!) Stir it frequently until it becomes dark brown.

***WARNING: in this process, you want to make sure that your ventilation system is working. Best way to do this is to cook it outdoor (if possible), if not, open all the windows and be prepared for the fume of heated chili...think of it as a tear gas or pepper bomb that will be exploded in your kitchen (ok maybe not, but pretty close, I think ...o_o)***

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You could store the roasted chili as it is, or you could ground it up. Either way, this roasted pepper does make an excellent condiment for your table.

///Try add it to your next pizza or pasta instead of the other grounded red pepper...///

{ Thanks Giving }- part 02

{ Egg Noodle }

Cook egg noodle in boiling water for about 20-30 sec. Drain water out, place the noodle in a bowl and add about 1/4 cup of fried garlic (with its oil.) Mix it well.

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{ Shitake Mushroom Soy Sauce }

{ Black Soy Sauce }

Add about 1/4 cup of shitake mushroom soy sauce, 1/3 cup of black soy sauce, and 1/4 cup of vegetable or chicken broth into the noodle, mix it well.

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{ Bean Sprout }

Add bean sprout (or cooked Bok Choy), green onion, and cilantro into the noodle bowl.

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Place the noodle on a serving pan, garnish it with green onion and cilantro.

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<---for the meat--->

You could grill, roast, bake, or broil the meat (whatever option that you have.) Once it's cooked, thinly slice the meat ( as you can see I'm not very good at slicing the meat...) Either set the meat in a separate plate to keep friendship with your vegetarian friends or just go ahead and place it nicely on top of the noodle.

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Voilà!

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///Big thanks to Reika and John for sharing other delicious dishes!!!///

{ Thanks Giving }- part 01

Tomorrow is Thanks Giving and I'm pretty sure wherever I end up to will definitely have most, if not all, of the traditional dishes on the table. So, here is a dish that I choose to make it for tomorrow (something that I know they wouldn't have it on the table...), Bamee Hang Moo Dang (egg noodle with roasted red pork). One of a Thai/Chinese dish that I think it could consider to be quite palatable with the turkey...

And before we go any further, I'd like to mention that I don't normally measure my ingredients (I will try my best to do so in the future) so most of the dishes that I will be creating in this blog will just be my own approximation of the ingredients...

Serving size (6-8 dishes)
Ingredients:

• 1-2 whole garlic
• 1/2 - 1 cup of vegetable oil
• 1 bunch of green onion
• 1/2 bunch of cilantro
• 2 lbs of fresh egg noodle
• 1-2 lb of pork meat
• 1 pack of Roasted Red Pork Seasoning Mix (unless you want to make it totally from scratch...the main ingredients are: sugar, salt, soy sauce, star anise powder, cinnamon powder, paprika powder, and some red food coloring...)
• 1/4 cup vegetable broth (or chicken broth)
• 1/4 cup shitake mushroom soy sauce
• 1/3 cup black soy sauce
• 1/2 lb of bean sprout or bok choy

<---here are some prep that you could start the night before--->

Peel and chop up the garlic...

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With medium-high heat add a cup of vegetable oil and chopped garlic in a small sauce pan, stir frequently until the garlic turn golden brown. Let it cool down, set aside (and keep its oil as well, it could be useful for many other dishes!)

///Fried garlic makes an excellent extra ingredient for many dishes, such as in soup and in many of Thai noodle dishes...///

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Chop up all of green onion and cilantro about..1/4 inch of a length.

///Green onion and cilantro also make excellent extra ingredients for many dishes, such as in soup and in many of Thai noodle dishes...(try adding them in your next chicken noodle soup)///

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And of course, marinate the pork with the Roasted Red Pork Seasoning Mix overnight (guarantee full flavor), then refrigerate it.

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//To be continued//