Just Pictures: A little bit of Basil in my life

My husband randomly started singing "Mambo Number 5" by Lou Bega a few days ago and now it's stuck in my head...

Once upon a time, there were two pretty and fragrant basil plants... the end.

Happy Friday!!

Fishy Noodles

I feel adventurous lately, and it's paying off!  Fish roe has become a new favorite item for me, and I really enjoy eating Japanese-style pasta every now and then.  I usually only get Japanese pasta at the restaurants, but when I saw easy sauce packs at the local Japanese supermarket, I had to give it a try.  Adding a couple of little twists, I use udon noodles instead and added some green peas.  The end result?  The hubby approves.

Spicy Mentaiko Udon

Ingredients
- 1 pack S&B Spicy Cod Roe Spaghetti Sauce and 1 pack of seaweed strips (package contains 2 packs of sauce and seaweed strips)

- 2 packs of udon noodles, frozen
- 1/4 cup frozen green peas
- 2 eggs
- 2 tsp olive oil (per egg)

Steps
1. Bring a pot of water to boil and drop in frozen udon noodles and frozen peas for 2 minutes (and no longer! Don't worry if the water doesn't boil again).  Drain water and place udon and peas in a big bowl.

2. Add the pack of spicy cod roe sauce to the noodles and toss.  Separate noodles into 2 bowls or plates.

3. Heat a pan with 2 tsp olive oil and fry the egg, about 1-2 minutes on each side (you want a runny yolk for this dish).  Repeat for the second egg.

4. Place fried egg on top of noodles and add seaweed strips.

Serves 2.

I paired the noodles with homegrown cherry tomatoes salad.  So sweet. 

Vietnamese BBQ Pork Vermicelli (The Cheating Way)

I am calling this recipe "the cheating way" is because of two reasons... one, I already had Chinese barbequed pork courtesy of my parents as part of their take-home items from our Sunday dinners, and two, not all of the items for a typical Vietnamese vermicelli dish were used because I did not have them in my fridge.  This hodgepodge of food ended up to be equally delicious!

Vietnamese Barbecued Pork Vermicelli
Adapted from Barbecued Lemongrass Beef, Steamy Kitchen

Ingredients
- 10 oz narrow flat rice sticks (same as the ones I used for pho)
- 2 large Persian cucumbers, thinly sliced
- 1 large carrot, thinly sliced
- 4 iceberg lettuce leaves, thinly sliced
- ready-to-go Chinese barbequed pork, sliced

Fish Sauce:
- 2 chilies, sliced and deseeded for desired spiciness (I was excited to use my own-grown Fresno chilies!)

- 3 cloves of garlic
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 3 Tbsp lime juice
- 1 Tbsp rice vinegar
- 3 Tbsp fish sauce
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/2 tsp salt
- sliced carrots (optional)
- chili-garlic sauce (optional)

Tools
- mortar or food processor

Steps
1. Soak the rick sticks in water for about an hour prior to cooking.

2. In the meantime, make the fish sauce by mashing chilies and garlic together with a mortar or food processor. Then add all of the other ingredients (except carrots and chili-garlic sauce) until sugar is dissolved.  Add sliced carrots for decoration, and if the sauce is not spicy enough, add chili-garlic sauce until desired spiciness is reached.

3. Slice all the vegetables (cucumbers, carrots, and lettuce) and the barbequed pork.

4. Cook the soaked rice sticks in hot boiling water for about 1-2 minutes (and not any longer!).  Drain the noodles in a colander and rinse with cold water.

5. Place all the ingredients together - noodles at the bottom, then vegetables and pork, then pour about 1 to 1.5 Tbsp fish sauce over the noodles.  Mix and enjoy!

Serves 4.

A few tips...
...if you don't have parents that can supply you with BBQ pork, run out to the nearest Chinese supermarket and look for the hot foods counter to purchase pork!
...after the rick sticks are rinsed with cold water and is resting, it can quickly clump into big balls of noodles.  Don't worry (as I did...) because as soon as you pour the magical fish sauce on it, the noodles will once again loosen up.