Tag Archives: Asian

Shoryu Ramen

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27th September 2013

My new favourite Ramen place is Shoryu.  On a rainy night the other week I met H in Soho for a good catch up alongside comforting noodly goodness.

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There are two Shoryu branches; Soho and Regent Street, although both are only a five minute walk from Picadilly Circus.  Good central locations for meeting friends.

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The menu is a little hard to grasp unless you’re a Ramen connoisseur, and the waitress didn’t make any recommendations, so we picked at random and hoped for the best.  It’s worth mentioning that Shoryu is always packed, so you might have to wait for a table.  But the food is worth it, I promise.

I had Hokkaido Curry Ramen, which is rich curry-soy pork broth with chicken, naruto fish cakes and spring onions among other things.  It was meaty and flavoursome and I loved it.  The bowls are absolutely huge, so once again, perhaps we overordered a little…

Soy Curry Ramen at Shoryu

Naruto Fish Cake in Ramen

H had Sapporo Miso – miso pork broth with BBQ pork and sweetcorn.

Sapporo Miso Ramen There’s bowls of garlic on the long tables – delicious if you’re not planning on kissing anyone later on!

Garlic at Shoryu

Shoryu Soho

It's in our bones Shoryu

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On the side we had Chicken Kara Age (crispy deep fried soy, garlic and ginger marinated chicken) and BBQ pork belly Hirata buns. 

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The chicken was a sensation, especially with fresh lemon and mayonnaise.

Chicken Kara Age Shoryu

The Hirata buns are filled with greens and mayo along with the meat you choose.  I wasn’t that crazy about them – maybe because by the time I tried mine I was already pretty full.  The texture of the steamed bun is a little soft for me, and I found combination of mayo with the pork a little sickly.  They would be good if you popped in for a quick lunch though – next time I’d try the prawn tempura version.

Pork Belly Hirata Buns

I think that a bowl of Ramen at Shoryu is a delicious meal that’s great value for money and ideal for the colder evenings.

London has gone Ramen crazy these days, so why not get in on the action?  Has anyone found any good recipes for making Ramen at home?

Shoryu Curry Ramen

Shoryu Soho on Urbanspoon

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Mango & Prawn Thai Noodles

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11th September 2013

Here’s a dishy little recipe I cooked up when I was craving Thai food the other day.  It’s super quick, easy and makes the kitchen smell fantastic.  

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I sort of threw this together, so quantities and ingredients can be altered depending on what you have available.

What I used:

  • Thai green curry paste
  • Shallots
  • Coconut milk
  • Fish sauce
  • Mango
  • Tomato
  • Prawns
  • Medium soft noodles

I think that a stick of lemon-grass would be a good addition, but I didn’t have any to hand.

Roughly chop the tomatoes and shallots.

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Cook the shallots with a couple of teaspoons of the curry paste in a large frying pan until they’re soft.

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Slowly add the coconut milk (and some coconut cream if you have it), along with a dash of fish sauce and seasoning to your taste.  Keep the sauce moving until it has a smooth creamy consistency.

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Then throw in the tomatoes and simmer.

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Chop up a yummy, juicy mango.

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And then add this as well, followed by the prawns.  The tomato and mango will make the sauce lovely and sweet.

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Let it all heat through, and finally add the noodles.  Cook the noodles in the sauce for a couple of minutes at most, and then take the pan off the heat.

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It’s ready! Can’t have taken more than 20 minutes.  I ate mine from my favourite hedgehog bowl (what else) and the rest went into tupperware in the fridge.

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P.S. A confession.  This is what I snacked on while I was cooking.

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Asian Salad & Tempura

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21st May 2013

When I’ve had a naughty day at work like today (snacking constantly on wine gums and chocolate) I want to make something healthy for dinner.  The thing is, I often can’t face proper ‘health food’, as it just doesn’t seem like enough of an incentive to get in to the kitchen and cook.

This salad is an ideal compromise – lots of vegetables, but a bit of batter thrown in for that indulgent kick.  The best thing about it is that making the tempura is really fun.  So it’s a nice wind down activity as well.  I think it would be great to serve for a summer dinner party, you’d just have to make sure to get all the prep done first and the timing of the tempura right.

For the salad:

Finely chop spring onions and carrots, and quarter some tomatoes.

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While you’ve got the veg board out, dice a couple of cloves of garlic and a bit of ginger (for the dressing).  Cut a lime in half and roughly chop some mint.

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Mix up the dressing in a jug/bowl/mug… whatever’s handy.  These are the ingredients – don’t worry about exact measurements, taste it when you’re done and see if any little adjustments are needed.

  • Juice from the lime (no pips please)
  • The chopped garlic and ginger
  • Couple of tablespoons fish sauce
  • Couple of tablespoons soy sauce
  • One tablespoon of sweet chilli sauce
  • One tablespoon of sugar

Throw in some fresh chilli if you like it spicy.

Place a generous handful of the carrot, spring onions and tomatoes on a bed of crispy salad leaves on each plate you’re serving up.  Sprinkle with some mint.  You can probably get 3 good servings from these quantities (or starter sizes for 6).

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Put those to one side somewhere cool, and whip up your batter.  This is really easy – whisk together 100g of plain floor, a pinch of salt, an egg yolk, a teaspoon of baking powder and 150ml sparkling water.

It should end up looking something like this…

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Now the fun part!  The next couple of steps need to happen fairly quickly, so it’s helpful if you have someone around to join in.  You can slow it down a bit if you’ve got a hot plate or an Aga to keep the tempura warm on, but they’re really best served as fresh as possible.

You can use this batter for anything – meat, veg, even cheese (yes, I tried it!).

For this salad, I did a mixture of prawns and chicken.  Heat up 1/3 of a pan of vegetable oil or similar.  It’s ready when you chuck a crumb of bread in and it sizzles.  PLEASE be careful, hot oil is very dangerous.  Do not flick any water into the pan by accident.

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Use two forks to dip the prawns and chicken (bite size pieces) into the batter, and then cook in the oil for 1-2 minutes.  When they’re golden, lift them out of the oil (carefully, again) and place them on a plate covered with kitchen towel.  Work through them in batches of 5 or 6 at a time – if you do too many the oil will cool down and they’ll get soggy.

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About half way through cooking the tempura, put a packet of fresh white noodles in a bowl with a tablespoon of water and zap them in the microwave for a minute (I know.. cheating..).

You can start arranging and serving your salads while your lovely assistant finishes the rest of the tempura.  This way the batter should still be hot and crispy, the noodles warm, and the salad zingy.

I placed noodles around the outside of the leaves and then put the tempura on top of the noodles in a ring.  

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Pour some dressing evenly over the leaves, tempura and noodles.  You can see the bits of garlic and ginger, which are slightly softened after marinading.

And it’s ready!  A guilt free, treat of a salad.

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And if you didn’t eat your body weight in wine gums today, enjoy the extra tempura with some sweet chilli sauce or any other dip that takes your fancy.

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