Yakisoba-pan

Don't judge me....



Can you find any other sandwich so perfect? I love noodles. I love bread. Put them both together and what do you get? A damn good carb sandwich. The first time I discovered this perfect sandwich was at Clover Bakery, a Japanese bakery in San Jose, CA. When you walk in, you grab a tray and some tongs, then you start picking up all the goodies you want. From spaghetti sandwiches to mayonnaise and corn-pan, they know what I like!

Anyway, I grew up with and have been surrounded by simplistic, home-cooking. Therefore I won't really have any shee-shee foo-foo fancy schmancy 2-tablespoons of food on a one-foot fancy china plate. I love food as an art; the visual, the smell, and the taste. I love messy-looking foods. I love mixing together strange things just to see if suits my young palate. I love seeing a table full of varieties of foods, and lots of it! It's a strange comfort I have because I grew up with such a big family, and I learned from my mom to make more than enough food in case you have unexpected guest, or for leftovers throughout the week. Yeah I'm a natural born fatty.

Also, I warn you now, I'm the worst person to ask about a recipe. I don't keep a log of what I cook because each time I cook, it turns out different every time. I tend to eye-ball my measurements and do a lot of sipping and tasting to figure out what is lacking, and ask for a 2nd opinion to make sure it fits someone else's palate.

Anyway, on with the Yakisoba-pan!

ingredients: (sizes vary. this may be too little, maybe its too much. adjust to your liking.)
1 carrot
1 celery stalk
1 small onion
1/2 head of cabbage
green onion
1 chicken breast (could substitute with shrimp, pork, tofu, beef, etc)
1 package of yakisoba style noodles
1 bottle of yakisoba sauce (make sure its japanese, i'll explain later)
salt and pepper

optional:
seaweed, bread, pickled ginger slivers



For every time that I cook, I have different moods. Sometimes I prepare everything first then cook, sometimes I, in the words of Rachael Ray, "chop and drop". Today i prepared everything first so that I could clean while the food is cooking.

I thinly sliced the celery in diagonals so that it looks pretty when it cooks. Carrots were julienned, thick and thin pieces because I'm messy. I had half a leftover onion from another cooking session + half a small onion, i chopped it in half then slicked in thicker wedges. For cabbage, I cored it (took out the middle area) because Mister G has something against eating cores. Anyway, after coring the cabbage, cut the cabbage in three sections then thinly slice opposite from the cuts. Green onion was split from the party because it tastes better when its freshly sprinkled on hot food. Chicken was sliced, drizzled in olive oil, salt and pepper with a little garlic powder (just for kicks).

On medium-high heat, throw those babies in the pan and let it cook for 3 - 4 minutes (smaller pieces require less time).

Move the chicken to one side of the pan and throw in the celery, onions, and carrots. Saute for about 5 minutes, turning up the heat so the chicken and veggies get a nice seared-charred color (about 1 minute).



Throw in the cabbage and let it wilt but do not let it fully cook.


While the veggies and meat is getting acquainted, I would start warming up the French Bread. I chose French Bread because it was the only fresh bread I could find at the market. Hawaiian bread, white bread, whatever you desire.


Ok, so I made bad judgement. Normally after the veggies and meat are half-cooked i would remove from pan and throw in the noodles. However, as you can tell from my medium-sized pan, it's already full. So I used my biggest pan for the noodles, since i need the extra room to toss. Also, I used a package of fresh Yakisoba style noodles, made by a company in Portland. Don't tell Mister G it's a Chinese brand though, he's proud to be Japanese, which means he will only use Japanese products for Japanese nourishment. We'll keep this noodle thing a secret, unless he's reading this right now :x

If your like me, and you enjoy long strands of noodles more than short, in order to for the noodles to stay together, et sperated, I put a 1-2 teaspoons of olive oil, threw on the block of noodles, then added chicken broth (or water works too). Today I had leftover chicken broth, so I might as well use it.


beautiful isn't it?



After the noodles are separated, throw the veggies and meat back on the noodles.


squirt 2-3 tablespoons of yakisoba sauce. I would start out with a little and keep adding until the veggies and noodles are coated. For yakisoba sauce, I bought a bottle of ready-made sauce, which works well! I forgot to check for "Made in Japan" label, and thankfully it IS! Sorry, I don't have a picture of the sauce!


After tossing, sprinkle green onion over the finished creation.


Don't forget the bread! slice the bread so that it's still intact and start stuffing it with the yummy goodness!


*phew* I think it takes longer to make this post than to actually make the food! Well it was fun, and I look forward to posting more on food!

cheers to a lunar new year! (I'm supposed to celebrate Tet and I end up making Japanese noodles... funny ain't it?)