Parragon Book Buddy – Food Heroes “Use Your Noodle”

I don’t know about you but I love noodles. Now it isn’t my go to food when thinking about what shall we eat tonight as the option gets drowned out with other choices in my planning stage, but and it is a big but, when I do actually have them I really, really love them. So why does this dilemma exist there is a food I love but my thoughts do not offer it up as a solution to the daily what shall we eat conundrum. Well as it turns out it’s all about ideas regarding the different ways of preparing them, how do I know this you may wonder, I have a little helper in my corner 🙂 Parragon books sent me a “Use Your Noodle” cookbook and I am very grateful.

This cookbook is packed with yummy recipes from all over the world covering different types of noodles.

The cookbooks’ contents are split into four main chapters:

A Bird in the Hand – covering all your bird based noodles recipe

From the Farm – covering farm meats like pork or lamb

From the Sea – this part is packed with recipes requiring prawns, cod, tuna and all the other lovely types of fish

Veg Out – the last chapter is for all veggie lovers out there

After reading just a few pages, how easy they are and how amazing they look and taste noodles are on my mind.

In addition to lots of recipes, like all Love Food cookbooks I have had the pleasure to read, “Use Your Noodle” also contains a lot of useful hints and tips. My favourite is the “know your noodle” part.

In just two pages is an easy to understand explanation about many different types of noodles covering such wonders as:

Soba – mainly made from buckwheat flour and did you know the most popular noodles in Japan.

Ramen – this wheat flour noodle is generally treated as a comfort food and used in a variety of broth-based recipes.

Udon – generally thick and white, made with semi whole-wheat flour; they are light and very easy to digest.

Rice – they are made from rice flour and these are my favourite 🙂

Egg – made with wheat flour, water and eggs – they cook fast and are idea as all-purpose noodles.

As I said above the cookbook is packed with a great selection of recipes. As you would expect from Parragon books all the recipes have a clear indication of both preparation and cook times as well as how many people it will serve. Every recipe has a clear ingredients list and easy to follow cooking instructions and best of all you can see a full colour picture of the final dish so you know what you are aiming for.

I have a few favourite picks from the book.

Chicken Noodle Soup

Steak & Soba Noodle Salad

Udon Noodle Stir-Fry with Fish Cake & Ginger

Sichuan Noodles

So now when I am out shopping I am always on the hunt for new and exciting noodle options as I plan to get myself a nice selection of noodles to cook with.

Do you like noodles?

What’s your favourite noodle dish.

***
Food Heroes: Use Your Noodle
ISBN 978-1-4723-6451-7
Published by Parragon Books Ltd in 2014
Part of Love Food
Number of pages: 128
RRP: £6
Paperback; perfect bound

*I received this book for free from Parragon as a part of my Book Buddy pack.
**All pictures in this post are from “Use Your Noodle” cookbook.

What’s cooking – Beef and Vegetable Noodle Soup

Beef and Vegetable Noodle Soup

I love Chinese food. Most of the time it is my first choice for either take out or dinning in. Mark cooks a lot of different dishes from all over the world but very rarely is it Chinese. At present he is on annual leave, so I was promised more of my favourite food in days to come.

This Beef and Vegetable Noodle Soup recipe is based on Jenny Stacey idea from “What’s Cooking Chinese”. I said based, because like always Mark made his own twist on it.

 

Let’s start with an ingredients list:

Our ingredients… oh ok… most of them

• 225g of lean beef
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 2 large spring onions, chopped
• 3tbsp of light soy sauce
• 1tsp of sesame oil
• 225g of egg noodles
• 850ml of beef stock
• 1ltr of chicken stock
• Pack of baby corn cobs, sliced
• ½ leak, shredded
• 1 small celery, chopped
• Pack of baby courgettes, chopped
• 1 small tin of bamboo shots
• Handful of curly parsley
• 125g of broccoli, cut into florets
• Handful of bean sprouts
• 3 large chillies

 

And now step by step instructions on how to turn these lovely ingredients into a delicious soup.

1. Cut the beef into a thin strips or bite size cubes and place in a bowl
2. Add the garlic, spring onions, soy sauce and sesame oil and mix together well, turning the beef to coat. Cover and leave to marinate in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.
3. Put the beef stock into a large saucepan and bring it to boil
4. Add the beef, together with the marinade, than add all other already prepared – chopped or sliced ingredients. Cover and leave to simmer over a low heat for around 10 minutes or until beef and vegetables are tender and cook through.
5. Stir in the noodles and cook for further 2-3 minutes.
6. Transfer to serving bowls and serve.

And to the pot they go…

And some more…

Don’t forget about chillies

Looks good, time to add some noodles

Time to eat!
Easy isn’t it?

 

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