If Monsoon comes can soup be far behind?

Rain pittered and the some drops pattered on the iron staircase outside the kitchen window. My stomach demanded victual succour while the cranium tempted the eyes into succumbing to a rather tempting slumber.

A cauldron of stock from gleaned from the remains of the last potluck at my place was almost a divine suggestion at this point.

Pork Bone Soup Stock

A quick look at the crisper reminded me of a weekend cleaning fervour. Drat! No vegetables. 
Oh look! A neglected onion, a nub of ginger, and a handful of garlic. My heroes!

Rough chopped, the garlic browned and wafted an aroma that waited to sizzle with the onion slivers in the sauce pan.

Garlic getting browned

The onions join the garlic

Decisions! Decisions! Clear soup or thick? Nah! Neither. Something umami and rich. And it'd better be quick!

Soy sauce and oyster sauce

A quick dash of soya sauce (to reinforce the umami) and a gob oyster sauce later, the mix was getting ready to embrace the broth. 

Ah! The meat... I quickly got out the shredded pork pulled from the stock pot along with the shoulder bones and magically the hungry kittens appeared, howling for their share. 
(You cannot fool the feline nose!)

Shredded Pork from the Soup Bones

Add the shredded pork

Dora Dora Kitten is eyeing the meat!

Boiled Pork Skin bits

While the pork soaked up the goodness of the soy, I remembered the pork skin from the stock. So, I quickly chopped some and threw in the bits to add a bit of a bite and texture. The pork skin bits begged to bind things a bit, so they joined the mix and sputtered a bit.  

Getting ready for the broth...

Noodles! Ah dang! Of course... A wee bit of rummage in the larder revealed some dandy tea powder and buckwheat soba noodles.

Japanese Buckwheat Soba Noodles

Add the noodles

The broth went in little at a time, deglazing the saucepan and then, in went the noodles...

The Pork Broth

A splash of Chinese rice wine

... and then I ladled in lot of broth from the stock pot. Everything cosied up to each other and soon was bubbling contentedly in the sauce pan. So I splashed in a wee bit of Chinese Rice Wine for luck and turned the heat to a gentle simmer for a while.

Ladled into a bowl, bits of rescued cilantro and drop of toasted sesame oil now crowned my midnight saviour.

Slurp! 

Pan Crisped Egg Noodles

On a lazy morning you just want to make something quick and yummy and then go back to snooze mode. This prompted me to make this nice and quick noodle from some left over noodles in the fridge.


I quickly smashed and chopped some garlic and kept the noodles ready...

Then I quickly fried an egg, well beaten till fluffy with a fork...

I kept the eggs aside and drizzled a little oil in the non-stick pan and gently fried the garlic on high heat till I saw the stirrings of brown at the garlic edges...

The noodles and eggs went in and got tossed around to absorb the garlicky flavour from the noodles

I turned on the high and left it on high (without stirring or tossing for the bottom layer to turn nice and crispy...


And then I dug in to my Sunday breakfast... :)

Quick Wok Tossed Noodles with Spinach & Broccoli

I'd told Subha that I'd try and stir fry something in the wok and give it to her to taste when I met her next. When Guru and Subha said that they'd meet me on Saturday, I remembered what I'd promised.


I opened the fridge and saw nothing besides eggs, spinach, and some broccoli to toss with the noodles.

I sliced and smashed some ginger and garlic to start things off...

All this while the noodles dunked around in some boiling water...

The noodles soon were out and got rinsed in some cold water to prevent them from cooking further..

I warmed little oil in the wok

And then tossed in the ginger and garlic mince.

It is not a happy thing if you want to cook and photograph when you are using a wok since the searing heat cooks things in seconds... This got over browned in about 5 secs!

I quickly added the veggies and tossed them around

I added the noodles

... and rounded things by adding a splatter of toasted sesame seeds.

Guru and I gobbled up most of this.


While packing the noodles for Subha, I grated some lemon rind on top..

... And... We have some nice (and very quick) noodles :)