Homemade Udon Noodles

Homemade Udon Noodles

3 cups plus 1 TBLS flour unbleached all purpose

1 Tbls salt

1 cup water

put the flour and salt in a food processor, pulse a few times to blend.  

Add the water thru the top slowly until it makes course pellets.

Dump the flour mixture on a clean counter and knead dough for approximately 8 minutes until it becomes softer and smoother. 

Make it into a ball and wrap it in plastic wrap and let it rest for 1 hour. 

Take it out of the plastic wrap. Put it into a large plastic zip lock bag (I didn't have a large bag, so I cut the dough into 1/4th and put it into small zip lock bags.

This is when you use your feet ( REMEMBER IT IS IN A PLASTIC ZIP LOCK BAG AND YOU HAVE CLEAN SOCKS ON) to press out the dough flat, then fold the dough in half and step on it again until flat. Do this a couple of times until it becomes smooth. This gives you the texture and chewiness of the noodle. 

Roll the dough into a ball, place in zip lock bag and let rest for 1 hour.

Take the dough out of the bag, use a noodle press, pasta machine or roll it out flat and cut it by hand to make the noodles. 

Boil for around 3 minutes, drain hot water and put noodles in cold water to stop the cooking. Then use your noodles however you like. You can make this with the noodles if you would like: 

Pan Fried Udon Noodles with Beef, Broccoli and Shiitakes 

Here is a video on how to make Udon noodles:

making udon noodles 

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Asian Salmon

Asian Salmon

2 TBLS sesame oil

1 Lbs salmon

salt and pepper

1 TBLS honey
1 TBLS soy sauce

TO COOK SALMON: 

1) Preheat broiler. Heat large skillet on high heat. Season salmon on non-skin side with salt & pepper, generously. Add oil to the hot skillet: the oil should sizzle. Add salmon to the skillet non-skin side down (skin side up) and sear for 4 minutes, moving the fish around the skillet to make sure oil coats the surface of the fish and that the fish is not sticking to the pan while searing.

2) After these 4 minutes, turn the fish over to the skin side and sear for another 3 minutes on high heat. After searing on the skin side, you can actually remove salmon skin easily at this point and discard, if you don’t like to eat it.

3) Mix honey and soy sauce together, heating it a little bit in microwave or on stove top to soften the honey. Brush top of salmon with the honey-soy sauce. Place salmon under the broiler for 3 minutes, watching carefully not to burn salmon. Brush with more sauce midway through broiling, if desired. Broil for a total of 3 minutes until the top of salmon becomes a little charred.

4) At this point, salmon is ready to be served. Or, you can keep salmon covered until you’re ready to serve. If your salmon is a little bit undercooked in the middle, then keeping it covered for several minutes before serving will also allow the salmon to continue cooking and it will be perfectly done and not dry when you’re ready to serve!

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Focaccia Bread in One Hour

Why not make your own bread? Because it is cheaper and it can be really easy.  Check out this Focaccia Bread you can make in an hour.  I like to use Focaccia bread for sandwiches.  My kids love their sandwiches with this bread!! Make it, you will be surprised.   

I found this recipe online at: 

http://www.crunchycreamysweet.com

Focaccia Bread in One Hour

1. For the dough
2. 3/4 c warm water
3. 1/2 tsp granulated sugar
4. 1 1/2 tsp yeast (I used Red Star Active Dry Yeast)
5. 2 Tbsp olive or canola oil
6. 2 c all-purpose flour ( divided )
7. 1/2 tsp salt
for the parmesan butter brush:
8. 3 Tbsp unsalted or salted butter, melted
9. 1 Tbsp grated parmesan
10. 1/2 tsp Italian seasoning

1. Place water and sugar in a large mixing bowl of a stand mixer. Stir until sugar dissolves.
2. Sprinkle yeast over the water and stir few times. Let sit until foamy ( about 5 minutes).
3. Turn the mixer on low speed and add 1 cup of flour and salt. Mix until combined.
4. Add oil and mix well.
5. Gradually add as much of the remaining cup of flour as you can ( it can be only 3/4 of it) and mix until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl.
6. In the meantime, preheat the oven to 220 degrees F and when it's ready turn it off. Keep the door closed.
7. Grease the skillet.
8. Place dough onto a floured surface (use the remaining flour from the second cup) and fold the dough few times until you feel it's smooth and not sticky anymore. Shape into a ball.
9. Roll out the dough into a size of your skillet.
10. Place in skillet. Stretch up the sides. Cover with a kitchen towel and place in the oven for 20 minutes.
11. Take the skillet out of the oven and preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Make indentations in the dough with your fingers.
12. Mix melted butter, parmesan and seasoning in a small bowl. Brush the dough with half the butter.
13. Place skillet with dough in the preheated oven and bake 20 minutes, or until golden brown. Brush with remaining butter. Let cool until safe to the touch and slice. Serve.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

 After I rolled it out and placed it in my oiled 10 inch cast iron pan

 This is after I had it in the warm oven for 20 mins

 I poked it

Brushed it with butter and italian seasoning and sprinkled parmesan cheese on it. 

 Baked this for 20 minutes

This was so good and just like the kind you buy in the stores and spend a lot of money on them. 

Beef Fettuccine with Marsala Sauce

Beef Fettuccine with Marsala Sauce

3-4 lbs beef, I used 8 thin steaks I had in my freezer. you could use short ribs, roast ect

salt and pepper

2 Tbls vegetable oil

1 onion, chopped

1 cup carrot chopped, I used shredded carrots

1 tsp dried thyme

2 tsp dried basil

2 cloves garlic, minced

3 Tbls flour plus 3 Tbls flour at end of cooking

1 bottle of marsala cooking wine, 375 ml

2 tsp balsamic vinegar

2 cups chicken broth

1 can rotel tomatoes, i used original

2 bay leaves

fettuccine noodles

Salt and pepper beef.  Brown beef  in large dutch pan, remove beef and put in crock pot.  

To same dutch pan, add oil and add onions, carrots, basil and thyme, cook until soft.

Add garlic, cook a few minutes.

Add 3 Tbls of flour and cook 1 minute.

add marsala and vinegar, cook 5 minutes until you cook out the alcohol.

add the can of rotel with juices. cook a few minutes. 

add the Chicken broth, stir and pour into the crock pot with the beef.

Add the bay leaves. turn to high and cook until beef is soft and shreds easily.  

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Korean Beef

KOREAN BEEF

1 lbs lean ground beef

3 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 tsp fresh grated ginger
salt and pepper
1 Tbls sesame oil

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup low sodium soy sauce

1/2 tsp crushed red pepper

bunch of green onions sliced

Fry 1 lbs beef, drain fat.

add garlic and ginger for 1 minute, add salt and pepper to taste
mix sesame oil, brown sugar, soy sauce, red pepper in a bowl and blend. Add in the pan to the beef.
Cook a few minutes until blended.
serve over rice with green onions.

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Biscuit Breakfast Casserole

I make biscuits and gravy a lot and I had made a bunch of biscuits one day so I needed something to do with them so they didn't go to waste.  I found this recipe on the internet and made it.  It was a great way to use up your biscuits. I added 2 extra eggs in my recipe because I don't like my casseroles dry. 

Biscuit Breakfast Casserole

6 biscuits broken in pieces

1 lbs jimmy dean breakfast sausage

3 Tbls flour 

1 1/2 cup milk

6 eggs

2 cups milk

salt and pepper to taste

1 cup of cheddar cheese

Spray a 9x13 baking pan with pam, add the broken biscuits to the pan.

Cook the 1 lbs sausage in a pan, when cooked add 3 Tbls flour to the cooked sausage, stir until well combined and cook for a few minutes to cook out the raw flour taste. add pepper if you like lots of it like me. 

slowly add 1 1/2 cup milk to the sausage. stir until combined, simmer for a few minutes until slightly thick.

Add the sausage gravy over the biscuits in the baking pan.

combine the 6 eggs, 2 cups of milk and salt and pepper to taste.  pour the eggs over the biscuits and sausage.  

add 1 cup of cheese over the top.

let it sit for 30 minutes or up to 10 hours in the refrigerator overnight. 

bake 350 degrees for 35- 45 minutes

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Italian Wedding Soup

Italian Wedding Soup

For the Meatballs:
1 lbs ground beef
1 lbs ground pork
2 eggs
1/2 cup bread crumbs
2 Tbls chopped parsley
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper

Mix all the meatball ingredients in a large bowl with your hands until combined.
Make into small balls and place on a pan rack
Bake 350 degrees for 25 minutes until cooked

For the Soup:
8 cups chicken broth
3 Tbls better than bouillon
1 cup chopped carrots
1 cup chopped celery
1 cup chopped onions
1 Tbls oil
2 cups fresh spinach, chopped
1 cup soup pasta, acini de pepe or orzo pasta are good choices
1/2 cup parmesan cheese

Add the broth, bouillon and meatballs to a large crockpot or pot, simmer.
Add oil, carrots, celery and onions to a pot and cook until tender, then add to broth.
Add noodles to the broth, cook until done, add chopped spinach.
When ready to serve top it off with parmesan cheese.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

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