Japanese Cucumber

Too vinegary on toast for me, but good with pasta.

Ingredients:

• 1 cucumber
• vinegar
• soy sauce
• 1 TBSP sesame oil
• 1 TBSP sesame seeds
• 3 slices of ginger
• 3 cloves of garlic, smashed once with a knife (unnecessary to cut into pieces)
• pasta, noodles, toast, rice

Directions:

1) Cut the cucumber into chunks.
2) Place into a container you can keep it in overnight or for a few days.
3) Add 2 parts soy sauce for every 3 parts vinegar (I estimated with my eyes).
4) Add the sesame oil, sesame seeds, ginger and garlic.
5) Serve with pasta, noodles, toast or rice.

Hot Garlicy Broccoli

Another one taken from an app on my phone. Not too hot though, don't worry!

Ingredients:

• 1 TBSP oil
• 1 jalapeno, sliced thin
• 15 cloves of garlic, chopped
• 1 inch of ginger, chopped
• 1 head of broccoli
• 2 TBSP soy sauce
• 1/2 cup water or vegetable broth
• rice

Directions:

1) Heat the oil in a pan.
2) Add the jalapeno, garlic and ginger and heat for 2-3 minutes.








3) Add the broccoli for about 5 minutes, until bright green.








4) Add the soy sauce and water or broth.
5) Serve with rice.

Spicy and Peppery Tofu

This was called 'black pepper tofu' but I guess I didn't add enough pepper or because it was no fresh ground the flavor didn't come though as much. Again, it came from the app on my phone.

Ingredients:

• 1 block of tofu, cut into cubes
• flour to dust the tofu
• vegetable oil
• 6 + 8 green onions, sliced then
• 2 red chillies, thinly sliced
• 6 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 1/2 TBSP ginger, chopped
• 2 TBSP black pepper
• 5 TBSP soy sauce
• 1 TBSP sugar
• rice

Directions:

1) Toss the tofu in the flour.
2) Put enough oil in a pan to come up 1/2 a cm and heat it.
3) Shake off excess flour and fry the tofu.
4) Put the tofu on a paper towel when you remove it from the oil.
5) In another pan (or clean the first one) add 1/2 cup of oil and heat to low heat.
6) Add the 6 green onions, red chillies, garlic, and ginger.
7) Saute until the contents are soft.

8) Add the soy sauce, sugar and pepper.
9) Add the tofu and 8 green onions.
10) Serve with rice.

3-types-of-cooking stir fry

I had left over vegetables so what else to do other than make a stir fry. For this I braised the tofu just like here, fried eggplant and cooked the rest of the veggies in a pan.

Ingredients:

• braised tofu
• vegetable oil
• 1 eggplant, sliced thin
• salt and pepper
• paper towels
• 1 carrot, sliced thin
• 1 cucumber, sliced thin
• 1 jalapeno, chopped
• 1 red onion, chopped
• 3 tomatoes, chopped
• rice

1) Cook the tofu as directed.









2) Heat vegetable oil in a pan, with enough oil to cover the bottom and go up about 1 cm.
3) Once the oil is hot but not smoking, add the eggplant. Depending on the size of your pan you may need to do this 2 or 3 times as you do not want to crowed the pan.





4) Flip the eggplant when it is brown on one side.
5) Remove the eggplant when it is brown on both sides and place on a paper towel.
6) Remove from the paper towel and add salt and pepper





7) Heat 3 TBSP oil in a pan.
8) Add the carrot for about 3-5 minutes.
9) Add the cucumber for 2-3 minutes.
10) Add the jalapeno and red onion for 2-3 minutes.
11) Add the tomatoes for 1-5 minutes, depending on how you like them cooked.
12) Serve the tofu and vegetables on top of rice with the eggplant on top to add crunch.

Cold Sesame Noodles

These are the simplest and best noodles I've made so far! Why did I not make them before?? You need to have the stocked Asian kitchen though...Recipe taken from here.

Ingredients:

• 10 oz noodles
• 2 TBSP rice vinegar
• 2 TBSP sesame oil
• 1 TBSP soy sauce
• 2 tsp sesame seeds
• 1 tsp grated ginger
• 1/2 tsp salt
• handful of green onions
• 1 tsp crushed red pepper

Directions:

1) Cook the noodles.
2) Let cool.
3) Mix the rice vinegar, sesame oil, soy sauce, sesame seeds, ginger, salt, green onions and red pepper together.







4) Combine the noodles and sauce.
5) Serve with sesame seeds, spring onions and crushed red pepper on top.

Noodles with Tofu and Greens

Recipe taken from here.

Ingredients:

• 8 oz noodles
• 1 block tofu, cut into slices
• salt and pepper
• 4 TBSP peanut oil OR 3 TBSP sesame oil mixed with 1 TBSP vegetable oil
• 1 bag of greens (cabbage, spinach, mixture...) (I used spinach)
• bunch of green onions
• 1 TBSP red pepper flakes
• 3 TBSP soy sauce
• pinch of sugar

Directions:

1) Cook the pasta and reserve 1/3 of the water.
2) Pat the tofu dry and season the tofu with salt and pepper.







3) Heat 2 TBSP of the oil in a pan.
4) Cook the tofu for about 3 minutes on each side, until starting to brown.
5) Heat 1 TBSP of the oil.






6) Add the greens and let cook for 2-3 minutes.








7) Add the scallions, red pepper flakes, soy sauce, sugar and reserved water and let simmer for a few minutes.
8) Mix with the pasta and serve with the tofu on top.

Peanut Noodle Salad

Recipe taken from here, and I like it a lot more than the other peanut sauce recipe that I made earlier.

Ingredients:

• 8 oz pasta
• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 1/2 cup rice vinegar
• 1 TBSP soy sauce
• 2-3 tsp chili sauce
• 5 green onions, chopped
• 2 carrots, sliced thin
• 1 stem of cilantro, chopped
• peanuts

 Directions:

1) Cook the pasta.
2) Mix the peanut butter, rice vinegar, soy sauce and chili sauce together.
3) Drain the pasta out of the water and mix in with the sauce.






4) Mix in the green onions, carrots and cilantro.
5) Top with peanuts to serve.

Eat Your Greens Stir Fry

I keep seeing things online that tell me to eat more green vegetables, so here it goes.

Ingredients:

• 2 TBSP vegetable oil 
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 2 green bell peppers, chopped
• 1 jalapeno, chopped
• 1/2 a cucumber, chopped
• 1/2 an onion, chopped
• salt and pepper
• 1/2 a head of cabbage, chopped
• 8 green onions, chopped
• 2 TBSP soy sauce
• rice

Directions:

1) Heat the oil in a large pan.
2) Add the garlic and cook for 2-3 minutes.
3) Add the bell peppers, jalapenos, cucumber, onion, salt and pepper and cook for 5 minutes.






4) Add the cabbage, half of the green onions and soy sauce and cook until the cabbage is wilted.
5) Serve on top of rice with the rest of the green onions on top.

Leftover veggie fried rice

Have vegetables left over from making the stock here? You should, unless you used veggies that were going to go bad in a day anyway. Make more fried rice!

Ingredients:

• vegetable oil
• 2 cloves chopped garlic
• 1 tsp chopped ginger
• 1 cup cooked vegetables, leftover from stock (carrots, mushrooms, onion, leeks, tomatoes)
• 2 cups of cooked rice
• 2 TBSP soy sauce
• 1 TBSP sesame oil
• salt and pepper

Directions:
1) Heat the oil in a pan.
2) Add the garlic and ginger for 2 minutes or so.
3) Add the vegetables and cook until heated through, about 5 minutes.
4) Add the rice, soy sauce and sesame oil and cook until heated through, about 5 minutes.
5) Add salt and pepper if necessary.

See photos of the fried rice if you need to!

Ramen Noodle Soup

I followed this recipe for the soup, and made a few changes due to liking green onions more than ginger. I thought it would be a bit difficult to find vegetable stock in Korea, so I made some following this recipe, loosely. It seems like you can throw any vegetables into water to make broth.

Ingredients:

• Stock
• water to cover
• vegetables
• carrot
• mushroom
• onion
• leeks
• pepper
• Noodle Soup
• stock
• 2 TBSP soy sauce
• 1 TBSP sesame oil
• 2 TBSP fresh ginger
• 4 green onions
• 3 TBSP vegetable oil
• 1 block of tofu
• 1 package of Ramen noodles
• 2 cups of spinach

Directions:

1) Chop the vegetables for the stock and place them in a pot.
2) Cover with water.
3) Bring to a boil.






4) Add the pepper and stir. Cook for 1 hour.
5) Strain the vegetables out and put the liquid back into the pot.







6) Add the soy sauce, sesame oil, ginger, and green onions and bring back to a boil.
7) While it is boiling, heat the oil in a pan.







8) Add the tofu and cook for about 4-5 minutes on each side, until it is brown.







9) Add the Ramen to the stock and cook for 8-10 minutes, until cooked through.








10) Add the spinach and cook for 2-3 minutes until wilted.









11) Add the tofu and cook for 2-3 minutes until heated.