Tag: Cooking — Appetizers

When I used to live in Chicago, I LOVED Penny's Noodle Shop.  It wasn't necessarily the most amazing place in the world, but it was fresh, fast and really cheap.  It was in short, the perfect place for a rushed dinner, leisurely weekend lunch or even a mid-afternoon snack.  Since leaving Chicago, I've tried a variety of clear Asian tofu and noodle soups to find something that at least approximates what I enjoyed so much at Penny's.  Unfortunately, while I've found some decent soups here and there, I haven't been able to find a place that is able to recreate what seems like a fairly simple dish.

The weekend before last, I went to two Asian grocery stores in New Haven and decided to try to make this soup as best as I could.  I was able to find most of the ingredients that I thought I needed, and I decided to plot forward even though I didn't necessarily have all of the vegetables I wanted (e.g., sprouts, lime, carrots).  I'm glad that I tried it because after a little trial and error, I actually felt like I was sitting at the Penny's in Wicker Park!  

The "error" part was mostly forgetting to include the sesame oil — when I tasted the soup without it (and even with the cilantro, green onion and chili-garlic sauce accompaniments), the soup tasted really bland.  Adding the sesame oil really kicked up the flavor of the soup, and brought all of the ingredients together.  Additionally, I used a full package of tofu, as well as a full can of baby corn, which I think was just too much given the amount of soup I made.  I've made adjustments to the recipe below to accomodate those changes.

Finally, I lost the little sheet of paper that I wrote all of my ingredients/directions on, but hopefully I've recaptured it here.  I'll update the post if I realize that I've forgotten anything!

Ingredients (for 3 large, meal-size servings, or 4 – 5 appetizer servings)

• 5 cloves garlic, crushed and coarsely chopped
• 1/4 – 1/2 serrano pepper, finely chopped (vary pepper amount by your spice level, but I would start out with a smaller amount)
• 4 green onions, chopped
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 5 cups water
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1/2 package firm tofu, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
• 1/2 can baby corn, drained and cut into 1/2-inch segments
• 2 ounces fine rice noodles (I prefer slightly thinner, pho-style noodles)
• 2 teaspoons sesame oil
• 6 tablespoons chopped, fresh cilantro
• salt to taste
• chili-garlic sauce (optional)
• fresh lime wedges (optional)

Directions

• Boil water in medium saucepan, and add noodles, cooking according to package directions.  Drain water from noodles, and rinse with cold water.  Set aside cooked noodles.
• At the same time the noodles are cooking, heat vegetable oil in a large pot on medium-high heat, and add garlic, hot pepper and one chopped green onion.  Add the soy sauce as well, and saute until the garlic is fragrant (about 2 – 3 minutes).
• Add the five cups of water, and turn up heat.  Bring water to a boil, and then reduce heat to a simmer.  Add tofu and cook for 5 minutes.
• Then add the baby corn, and 1 tsp. of salt (to taste).  Simmer soup for another 2 – 3 minutes.
• Add cooked noodles, and add additional salt if necessary.  
• Turn off heat, and add approximately 1.5 – 2 tsp of sesame oil (to taste).
• Ladle soup into serving bowls, and garnish each bowl with equal parts of cilantro and remaining green onion.  Add chili-garlic sauce and juice from a lime wedge if desired, and serve immediately.

Last year, Andy and I went to his co-worker Claudia's condo for a Mexican cooking lesson.  Among the delicious things we ate was a super-yummy and filling lentil soup.  Although Claudia didn't use many vegetables in her version of the soup (potatoes, tomatoes and onion), with the bountiful set of vegetables from my weekly CSA deliveries, I decided to make her recipe into more of a vegetable and lentil soup this year.  I've made the soup about 3 – 4 times this spring, summer, and now fall.  Each time I've used a different set of vegetables and the result has never disappointed, so I would definitely recommend customizing this recipe to incorporate your favorite ingredients, no matter the season!  I would also recommend making this soup over weekends to serve as several weekday take-to-work lunches as well.

This recipe makes about 4 meal-size servings.

Ingredients

• 4 cups water
• 1 cup lentils, washed and picked through for stones (though I admit I do a cursory job of this)
• 1 medium onion, quartered and then 3 of the sections chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, 2 cloves whole and 2 coarsely chopped
• 2 hot peppers (serranos, jalapenos and/or poblanos depending on your preference), sliced
• 1 green bell pepper, chopped into 1/2 inch pieces
• 2 tomatoes, coarsely chopped
• 1 medium carrot, sliced into 1/2 inch circles
• 1/4 tsp. garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp. ground cumin
• 2 tbls. vegetable oil
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions

• Bring water, lentils, the full quarter of the onion, the 2 whole cloves of garlic and 1 tsp. salt to a boil
• After the soup boils, reduce heat to a simmer for 20 minutes.
• While the soup is simmering, in a separate medium saucepan, heat vegetable oil on medium heat.
• Stir into the saucepan the chopped garlic, chopped onion, hot peppers, green peppers, tomatoes and carrot, and saute for 5 minutes.
• Add in the garlic powder and ground cumin to the saucepan, and saute mixture for another 3 – 5 minutes or until vegetables have just become tender.
• Stir the saucepan contents into the soup, and simmer the entire mixture for another 15 minutes or until the lentils are cooked to your taste.  Add in additional salt or pepper as necessary (if the soup tastes under-flavored, adding a modest amount of salt can really bring out the flavors).
• Remove soup from heat and serve immediately.  Adding homemade croutons or crushed tortilla chips helps make this soup into a filling main course.