Tag Archives: rice noodles

Salmon Trout Parcels

20 Monday Jan 2025

Posted by in Fish, Food for One, Main Courses, Techniques

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Salmón trout fillets steamed on a bed of black rice and flavoured with fennel, leeks, garlic and fresh red chillis. This is a great dinner party dish as everything is prepared in advance and each portion individually parcelled up in tin foil ready to be baked in the oven. I suppose this is more of an assemblage than a recipe. Of course it’s a method of cooking that allows for variations of flavourings, I’ve used ginger, lemongrass and chilli, with coconut milk as the sauce and rice noodles as the bed to lay the fish on. I’ll write that style out in more detail at the end of this basic recipe.

So you need

fillets of salmon trout

cooked rice, I used black rice which apart from being tastier than white, was a great colour contrast to the trout

tender vegetables that will cook in 15 minutes, for example broccoli florets, mange toute peas, spinach, asparagus. I used the first two for this recipe.

well flavoured fish stock, 3 tablespoons per serving

finely chopped fresh red chilli

fennel fronds

finely sliced leek

finely chopped spring onion

finely chopped parsley

olive oil

Cut a large oblong piece of aluminium foil for each serving and oil the inside.

Place on one half of the oblong a portion of rice, on this a fillet of trout and the vegetables to each side of the fillet, then the seasonings, a sprig of fennel, pinch of chopped parsley, the sliced leek and chilli, and finally the spring onion

Spoon over 3-4 tablespoons of the fish stock and season everything well with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Fold the aluminium sheet over the fish and seal the sides by neatly folding over the foil twice.

Lay the parcels on a baking sheet and bake at 180C for 20 minutes.

Simply serve each parcel on a plate and let yourself and your guests open them at the table and enjoy firstly the wonderful aromas of the fish and it’s herbs before the delicate taste of the dish.

As I said earlier there are many variations of flavours and ingredients than can be used with this method of cooking.

Any lean fillet or steak of fish can be used, salmon, hake, cod, swordfish.
The base can be a purée of potatoes or other root vegetables, with these being quite moist adjust down the amount of stock or sauce that is spooned over the dish.
Flat rice noodles work very well. I soak them in cold water for 15 minutes, drain them, and then pour over boiling water and leave them 2 minutes before draining again and using them in this dish. I allow 40 grams dry noodles per person.

To follow the oriental them of the rice noodles I flavour the fish with slivers of garlic, ginger, chilli and lemongrass and use coconut milk as the liquid.

Have fun trying your own combinations

Seaweed Salad & Rice Noodles with Mushrooms

25 Sunday Oct 2020

Posted by in salads, Vegan, Vegetable Dishes

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Of course mixed seaweed is not a foodstuff that one comes across easily, but if you are, like me, culinary curious and happen across a market stall selling various salted and dried seaweeds the mixed salad is a good one to buy to see if you like it. My sister and I bought 250 grams and I forget how much we paid, it seemed pricey at the time, but that amount makes about 16 portions. The seaweed expandes to more than twice the size when you soak it. Of course it makes a perfect salad to accompany fish.

For 2 portions

60 grams dried seaweed salad – soaked overnight in plenty of cold water

Cucumber – peeled and cut into julienne

6 radishes – sliced

few sprigs of fresh purple basil

1 tablespoon sesame oil

juice of half a lime

Drain the water from the seaweed and rinse the seaweed in more water. Drain and add to the salad bowl together with the rest of the ingredients. Mix well.

RICE NOODLES WITH MUSHROOMS

For 2 portions

50 grams rice noodles – soak for at least an hour in cold water

1 clove garlic

2 cm square piece of fresh ginger – finely chopped

1 tablespoon peanut oil

6 shiitake mushrooms – sliced

6 oyster mushrooms – sliced

1 tablespoon mushroom sauce

1 tablespoon fish sauce – Nam Pla

Drain the noodles from their soaking water, put back into the container and pour boiling water over them.

In a wok, fry the ginger and garlic in the peanut oil for a couple of minutes, then add the mushrooms. Fry for a few minutes to cook the mushrooms.

Drain the noodles and add to the mushrooms. Mix well then season with the mushroom and fish sauce and mix again.
Vegans may want to omit the fish sauce, in which case add some salt to the dish.

If you are serving the noodles with the Sea Bass in Coconut Sauce, then you can add a spoon or two of the sauce to the noodles to moisten them.

Oriental Rice Pudding

19 Sunday Jul 2020

Posted by in Sweet Things, Vegan

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This pudding is in need of a name, so I would be grateful for any suggestions, or should I just stick to Oriental Rice Pudding? I was looking for a light dessert to follow the Gado Gado which I served for lunch, and remembered an Indian milky dessert called Sheer Korma. That is made with a very fine wheat vermicelli, seviyan, cooked in sweetened milk with nuts and flavoured with saffron, so I thought to make it more in tune with an Indonesian dish, and to make it vegan, to substitute the wheat vermicelli for fine rice noodles and use coconut milk instead of cows milk. I think it worked very well.

For 4 servings

80 grams rice vermicelli

160 ml can full fat coconut milk

40 grams pistachios

25 grams flaked almonds

25 grams broken pecans

75 ml agave syrup / honey

few strands saffron

For lime sherbet topping

2 tablespoons caster sugar

1 lime

Start by making the lime sherbet as you have to do this a day in advance so it can dry. This amount is more than you need for garnishing this dessert, but the sherbet keeps well for a couple of weeks in an airtight jar and is lovely on plain ice cream and fruit salad.

On a flat plate or tray sprinkle the sugar in an even layer.

Using the zester on your grater, grate the zest of the lime in an even layer over the sugar, then with your fingertips lightly mix the two together still leaving the mix spread out.

Leave in a warm dry place for several hours or overnight until dry and crunchy.

So for the rice pudding –

Soak the rice vermicelli in cold water for an hour.

Drain and cut into shortish lengths.

Put into a saucepan with the rest of the ingredients and bring slowly to a simmer.

Simmer for 5 – 10 minutes until slightly thickened. Leave to cool.

Serve at room temperature with the lime sherbet sprinkled over the top.

Pad Thai – today’s version

21 Saturday Dec 2019

Posted by in Food for One, Main Courses, Vegan, Vegetable Dishes

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There are many versions of Pad Thai, so it’s one of those dishes that can happily adapt to what you have in your fridge as long as you include the core ingredients, these being flat rice noodles, peanuts and bean sprouts. The flavourings are of course key. Galangal or ginger, red chillis, tamarind, soy sauce and Nam Pla, the Thai fish sauce.

Today I have spring garlics, green and red peppers, alfalfa sprouts, broccoli, edename beans and Swiss chard leaves, plus of course some peanuts.

Per person

  • 45 grams flat rice noodles
  • 35 grams raw peanuts
  • 35 grams edename beans – in Spain you can now buy these frozen in Mercadona
  • red and green peppers
  • broccoli
  • alfalfa sprouts
  • Thumbnail sized piece ginger
  • 1 clove garlic or 3 small spring garlics
  • red chilli
  • teaspoon sized piece tamarind paste or 1 dessert spoon tamarind sauce
  • 1 tablespoon soy sauce
  • 1 tablespoon Nam Pla fish sauce – you vegans will have to leave this out, although for me Thai food just doesn’t taste the same without it.
  • 1 tablespoon lime juice
  • oil for cooking – either sunflower or olive oil

Firstly put the noodles to soak in cold water at least an hour before starting to cook.

Shell the peanuts and pod the edename

Cut the peppers into short strips

Wash the chard and cut into thin strips

Cut the broccoli into bite sized pieces

If you are using tamarind paste, which you buy in Asian stores in the uk, separate off a teaspoon sized chunk and put it into a small container with 2-3 teaspoons boiling water and mash the paste into the water to make a sauce. You can use tamarind ready made sauce if need be, but this tastes better.

Finely chop the ginger garlic and chilli

You are now ready to start cooking.

Boil the kettle, drain the noodles of the cold water, return to their container and cover with boiling water.

Heat a wok and add a couple of tablespoons of oil. Add the ginger, garlic and chills. Stir round and fry for a couple of minutes.

Add the peppers to the pan. Stir round and cook for a couple of minutes.

Do the same with the broccoli.

Now the chard.

Put in the peanuts, bean sprouts and beans.

Drain the noodles and add to the wok.

Add the tamarind, soy sauce, fish sauce and lime juice. Stir well to mix everything. Taste to see if you are happy with the balance of flavours and adjust accordingly if you are not.

Enjoy.