I say again because after I started this column, I looked
back at previous articles then realized I used the same title back in October
2009. So while the title is almost verbatim, I won’t plagiarize myself with the
content. But noodles do play a traditional role during Oshogatsu both before and after the turning of the New Year. Just
before the start of the New Year, it’s customary to have a bowl of toshi-koshi soba. It did take me a while to learn the significance of consuming
soba right before the New Year as the
Tatsumoto household only had four Oshogatsu
traditions. To prepare chicken hekka
on the Eve, to consume hot sake just
at the turn of the New Year and to consume ozoni
as your first meal of the New Year then consume kazunoko as part of the first meal. But soba usually isn’t even on the dinner table before or after the New
Year. In fact, most families in the 50th simply say you have to
consume a bowl of saimin before the
New Year, not specifically soba. Why
soba? Since soba traditionally is
produced primarily from buckwheat flour (though these days, most soba lists wheat flour before buckwheat
flour even those produced in the Motherland), it doesn’t have the gluten and
elasticity of wheat flour so the noodles tend to break a lot easier. Therefore
you’ll “break” whatever bad luck you had in the old year and it won’t carry
over to the New Year. And consuming soba
or any noodles for that matter in the New Year symbolizes a long life just as
the strands of noodles are long.
And while I’ll still have my traditional bowl of soba right before the New Year, I’ll
also continue to consume noodles throughout the New Year whether it’s Okinawan soba, Japanese ramen, udon or soba Korean dangmyeon or local saimin
or even Western noodles such as spaghetti, linguini or capellini. However, variety
is the spice of life and though my 23 And Me results only lists Japanese,
Korean and Chinese lineage, I also do enjoy that traditional Filipino noodle
dish, Pancit or Pancit Bihon. In the 50th, if you have any Filipino
friends or co-workers, a tray of pancit is
likely to appear at any potluck meal. While it always contains wheat noodles,
it sometimes also contains the skinnier corn/rice starch based cellophane
noodles. And like any fried rice dish, the proteins often vary with shrimp,
pork and chicken as the usual suspects along with an assortment of vegetables
such as onions, carrots, celery, cabbage and even shiitake. Because it’s basically a Filipino stir-fried noodle dish,
there isn’t one standard recipe and every family probably has their own
traditional recipe.
So, I’ll apologize to all Pinoy subscribers if this recipe doesn’t even remotely resemble
something that your parents or grandparents create, I simply did an amalgam of
recipes I found on the internet along with using ingredients I saw in the
tastiest version of pancit bihon that
I’ve sampled. And yes, I did use packaged, cooked yakisoba noodles as they look and feel like wheat pancit noodles and they are available in
6oz packages locally so you can purchase as much or as little as you desire
plus pancit noodles are only sold in
local supermarkets in the 50th in huge 4lb bags.
Pancit Bihon
About 2 lbs. noodles – I use about 2/3 cooked yakisoba noodles and 1/3 cellophane pancit noodles (soaked in water for
about 15 minutes)
4 cups sliced mixed veggies – I use sliced carrots,
celery, onions and sliced shiitake
(soaked in water for at least 1 hour saving the liquid)
1 lb. lean pork or chicken thighs, finely sliced
1 tbsp cooking oil (my favorite is garlic infused
macadamia nut oil)
1 tbsp shoyu
6 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tsp patis
(fish sauce)
3 tbsp shoyu
2 tsp patis
1 cup water from the soaked shiitake
Marinate the pork or chicken in the oil, 1 tbsp shoyu, 1 tsp patis and garlic for about 1 hour. In a large stir fry pan, set on
medium-high, add the pork/chicken and stir fry until brown then add the mixed
vegetables and continue stir frying until the vegetables have softened. Add
both noodles and toss until the noodles, protein and vegetables are mixed then
add the remaining shoyu, patis and water cooking just until the
liquid seasonings are distributed throughout the noodle and veggie mixture.
Because there’s not a lot of animal fat, this dish can be
served hot, warm or even cold during those stifling summer days.
If your main objective when consuming noodle dishes in
the New Year is to live a long life due to the length of the noodles, then skip
this next dish. Fideua is basically a
variant of the classic Spanish rice dish, paella
substituting noodles for the traditional bomba
rice. Since the noodles are first toasted in olive oil, they do have be broken
into rough 2-inch sections (sorry, no symbolic long life with these noodles)
then cooked in the sauce where they absorb all of the flavors. I prefer using
Barilla ProteinPLUS angel hair or thin spaghetti or some other whole grain,
thin dried pasta for this dish. If you prefer, you can swap out the protein to
bovine, swine or poultry or any mixture simply browning them before creating to
sauce. You can even go back to paella’s
roots which called for rabbit and escargot…
Fideua
Thin spaghetti or dried angel hair pasta, broken into
2-inch lengths
3 tbsp olive oil
1/2 onion, sliced about ¼ by ½ inch
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tsp smoked paprika
¾ to 1 cup chopped tomatoes
3 ounces, bottled chopped red peppers
6 ounces clam juice
2 ounces dry white wine
6 ounces water
One large pinch of saffron hydrated in the liquids
1 bay leaf
2 cups fresh clams
1 cup of debearded mussels
¼ cup green onions cut to ½ inch lengths
Salt and pepper to taste
Heat a pan with one tablespoon of olive oil and lightly
fry the noodles until golden brown but not burned. This should take around 5 minutes. Remove
the noodles from the pan and set aside
Add more olive oil and sauté the onion and garlic until
translucent then add the sweet paprika and the tomatoes and cook the sauce for
about 5 to 10 minutes then add the liquid infused with the saffron and bay
leaf. Once the liquid is back to a gentle boil, add the noodles and stir
frequently until the noodles have absorbed the liquid – about 8 to 10 minutes
then add the mussel, clams and green onions and simmer for another 3 t0 5
minutes until the clam shells have opened. Serve immediately.
This last dish once again takes us back to long strands
of noodles to symbolically increase your odds at longevity. I first demonstrated this recipe at the
Hawaii Food and New Product Show over 20 years ago and it almost was a disaster
as the “toy” butane burner never brought the water to a boil. Thankfully I had
the foresight to par-cook the udon
noodles so they finished in the slightly hot water as I cooked the chicken
curry. In my undergraduate days, I also used those readily available Japanese curry
“bricks” found at most supermarkets as nutrition labeling still wasn’t mandated
by the government. Once labeling was a requirement, it uncovered the fact that
these curry “bricks” were nothing more than beef fat and flour laced with a
touch of curry flavoring so I decided to create my own…
Chicken Curry Udon
Cooking oil
2 lb. chicken breast or thigh sliced thin (or substitute
with any vegan protein product)
2 cans bamboo shoots sliced thin
3 medium carrots, sliced thin
10 shiitake,
rehydrated then sliced thin
1 can reduced sodium chicken broth (or vegetable stock)
2 cups water (include shiitake
soaking water)
1 medium onion, sliced thin
1 small apple, peeled, cored and grated
1 small banana, mashed
3 tbsp curry powder
3 tbsp tonkatsu
sauce
3 tbsp ketchup
1 tbsp mirin
½ tsp onion powder
½ tsp garlic powder
4 tsp shoyu
Salt and black pepper to taste
2 tbsp cornstarch mixed with sake to form a slurry
Dried udon
boiled according to package instructions.
Brown the chicken in a Dutch oven then add the bamboo
shoots, carrots, shiitake and sliced
onion. Cook until the carrots and onions have softened then add the stock and
water and bring up to a gentle boil. In the meantime, mix the grated fruits and
all of the spices and condiments then add it to the gently boiling chicken
mixture. After simmering for 15 to 20 minutes until the chicken and fresh
vegetables are tender, bring up the heat to a medium boil then add the
cornstarch slurry constantly mixing the pot to thicken the curry.
The udon can
simply be added to the Dutch oven to serve family style or individual bowls of udon can be served to each diner ladling
the curry over the udon restaurant
style.
So, in the Year of the Boar, I still intend to have a bowl of toshi-koshi soba before its arrival and continue to consume noodles as a regular part of my diet whether it’s Asian or Western based dishes simply based on taste, not for the prospect of longevity as it’s not the quantity of years that matters but the quality of life in those years that’s important. So, for the seventeenth time, I humbly bid you and yours a Happy New Year! Shinnen Akemashite Omedetou Gozaimasu!
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