Spicy Calamari Salad

It's summer time here in Sydney. My indoor plants start showing some flowers. Very exciting! I really doubted that they would flower this year as I haven't done much except water them when they look a bit floppy.
As summer can be very challenging for me to stay in the kitchen, I tend to prepare salad more often. So, I recently came up with the idea of spicy calamari salad. Thu and I really like it and will definitely prepare this for all the chilli lovers that we know. The recipe below is for 4 servings.

Ingredients:

• 3 pieces of calamari tubes (cut into squares)
• zest and juice of 1 lemon
• 2 bird's eye chillies (finely chopped)
  
• 2 garlic gloves (finely chopped)
  
• 4 tsp kecap manis
• 4 tbs olive oil
• a pinch of salt
• freshly ground peppercorns
• mixed salad (baby spinach, mixed lettuces, and rocket leaves)
  
• grape tomatoes
• a handful of toasted almond flakes and pumpkin seeds

Marinating Sauce for Calamari:

• 2 tbs olive oil
  
• 2 bird's eye chillies (finely chopped)
  
• 2 garlic gloves (finely chopped)
• zest of 1 lemon
• juice of half lemon
• a pinch of salt
• 2 tsp kecap manis

Salad dressing:

• 2 tbs tbs olive oil
• 2 tsp kecap manis
• juice of half lemon
  
• a pinch of salt
• freshly ground peppercorns

Preparations:

1. Wash calamari tubes and pat dry with paper towel. Cut into medium-sized squares and marinate overnight with marinating sauce.
   
2. Pan fry the calamari squares (3 mins each side) on a hot pan without any additional oil. Do not overcook the calamari. In the same time, start toasting the almond flakes and pumpkin seeds until they turn slightly brown (my mini oven does this for 5 mins).
3. Wash the salad and grape tomatoes with salad spinner. Add cooked calamari, toasted seeds and salad dressing to each bowl.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chinese Noodle Salad

My Chinese colleagues at work like to prepare this noodle salad during special occasions when everyone brought some food to share. I always enjoy this kind of gathering and forget about science for a little while. Science is sometimes too mysterious and this really tests my patience. What I love about science is that once you get an interesting result, it's very rewarding. This, of course, makes you feel good.

Anything can be added to chinese noodle salad, depending on your preference. You can have prawns or chicken or BBQ pork/ duck or vegetarian style. I spent last weekend making this salad based on what I had in the fridge. There were Hokkien noodles, cabbage, shallot, coriander, chicken thigh filllets, five-spiced tofu, dried beancurd and toasted sesame seeds. This salad is very delicious and so perfect to enjoy during summer. Give it a go!

Salad dressing:

• 1/4 cup kikkoman soy sauce
• 2 tbs dark soy sauce
• 1/4 cup brown vinegar
• 1/4 cup sesame oil
  
• 3 tbs hot chilli oil
• 1 tbs sugar

This salad dressing is enough for 2 packets of Hokkien Noodle (6 servings). If you only prepare a small portion, reduce the dressing by half the amount. You can adjust the amount of soy sauce and vinegar depending on your taste. 

Salad Ingredients:

• Hokkien noodles (blanch in boiling water and drain)
• shallot (cut thinly)
• coriander (cut thinly)
• cabagge (cut thinly)
  
• toasted sesame seeds
• Stir fry: olive oil, minced garlic, chicken thigh fillets (cut into strips), tofu (cut thinly) and dried beancurd (soaked in water overnight, then cut thinly). Add a pinch of salt, pepper and dark soy sauce.

I prepared my thigh fillets in stir fry to avoid having raw garlic in my salad. You can boil the meat for the salad and add raw garlic. This is easier to prepare but the garlic taste will be quite strong. You can balance it by adding minced young ginger. So, here are some pictures showing my salad preparations.

 

Thai Chicken Noodle Salad

Here is a nice and easy recipe for busy people. I understand how tiring it could be to prepare dinner after a long day of work. As a solution, I always try to prepare dishes that require a small number of ingredients as possible.

I got this recipe a while ago from a cooking demo held in Westfield Eastgardens, 10 mins drive from our place. We tasted the dish and Thu said "Let's cook this tonight!!". Just a reminder that Thai sweet chilli sauce has so much sugar in it. If you're diabetic, please reduce the amount of the sweet chilli sauce.

Ingredients:

• half pack of Wai Wai noodle
• basil leaves (chopped thinly)
• 2 tbs olive oil
• a pinch of salt and pepper
  
• 2 chicken thigh fillets (cut into strips)
• 2 tbs Thai sweet chilli sauce
  
• 0.5 lemon
• 200 grams long green beans (cut into small pieces)

Salad dressing for noodle:

• 3 tbs soy sauce
• 1.5 tbs sesame oil

Preparations:

1. Boil noodle for 2-3 min, then drain. If noodle are too long, chop them with scissors before adding the salad dressing.
2. Toss the noodles in a bowl with sesame oil, soy sauce and chopped basil leaves.
   
3. Heat olive oil on the wok, add chicken thigh fillets, salt and pepper. Stir fry until they are fully cooked. Add Thai sweet chilli sauce, lemon juice and long green beans. Cook for maximum 3 mins. The green beans should be crunchy.
4. Serve the chicken with green beans on top of the noodles and garnish with basil leaves.