Although it’s technically our summer holiday, I’ve been busy. And no, it isn’t just socializing. It’s about packing, buying presents, shopping for themed party costumes, sorting out next year’s rent and planning moving logistics. It’s slightly crazy and ‘eating’ away at my time for cooking and baking. But then again, I did spend the whole of last week FEASTING. And by feasting I really mean gorging myself on bbq after bbq, pizza express, Strada at The Mailbox, loads of gelati from Morelli’s, that kinda thing. Unfortunately, all that fantastic indulgence has resulted in a pot belly and a lack of posts on my blog.

Due to the parties and other preoccupations such as learning to deejay from Alex (as if I really did learn), nearly crashing his Ferrari laptop, sunbathing, playing pseudo volleyball,etc. I have not been catching up enough with the food blogosphere. Lots of catching up to do indeed.

I have received a couple of emails about the Beauty and the Feast. Again, thank you all who participated. I’ll think about whether I’ll continue the challenge. I’m not too sure about it as it was pretty much a once-off thing. Let me know what you think and I’ll see how it goes, depending on the response.

Trying to do quickcook meals is the new cool and highly essential when you can hardly find time to sleep and housekeep because of a busy schedule. So here’s a post dedicated to Japan’s fast food! At least I think it is since I used to see boxes of yakisoba loads at train stations for quick takeaways and in my mind, that’s definitely ‘fast’ food.
I love yakisoba. Tasty and really quick to make. The sauce is really the essential bit that marries everything together. If I’m not wrong, yakisoba sauce is quite easy to find pre-made in bottles. I looked through some recipes online for yakisoba sauce and they required oyster sauce which gives fantastic flavour. I’m sure you can find vegetarian oyster sauces made with, what was it, mushrooms? But I’m not too sure if it’ll taste exactly the same as the real thing. Doubt it. I’ve chose to go for a vegetarian yakisoba sauce, not because I’m iffy with oyster sauce. I love it! But I don’t have any in my pantry. I haven’t really tried to make traditional yakisoba by using all the right ingredients but have instead thrown it all together with what I have lying around and that’s bordering on rotten.

Don’t be put off by the name ebi sakamushi either. It is so simple and flavourful and hardly requires any thinking. It is basically sake-steamed prawns. You can use drinking or cooking sake. Either way it gives off a lovely smell and infuses the prawns in a sweetness, enhancing its naturally sweet flesh with tinges of malty rice flavour as well. I really like this and makes a great appetizer too. I placed the prawns in paper nut cups and popped them into a bamboo steamer which made them easy to serve out onto individual plates. This also helped the prawns to cook in their own juice without the sake flowing away.

Here’s a recipe that yields 2-3 servings.

Vegetarian Yakisoba with Ebi Sakamushi
Ingredients

2 tied portions of soba noodles
1/2 cup sliced cabbage
1/2 cup thinly sliced green peppers
1/4 cup thinly sliced carrots
2 small onions, sliced

For the vegetarian yakisoba sauce:
1/4 cup shoyu
80ml rice vinegar
3 tbs mirin
1 tbs Worcestershire sauce
3 heaped tsp sugar

For ebi sakamushi:
1/2 cup large king prawns
2 tbs sake

To prepare the sauce first, whisk all ingredients together in a bowl and set aside.

Now cook the noodles in hot water. Once cooked, run under cold water and set aside. You can leave them soaked in cold water to prevent them from sticking.

Heat some oil in a large frying pan. Golden brown the onions, then add all the vegetables and stirfry. Next, add the soba noodles and the yakisoba sauce. Fry until all the sauce has been absorbed into the noodles. It might get a little sticky due to the sugar caramelizing but that’s fine. If you prefer not to have your noodles uber sauced-up, you can use about 2/3 of the prepared sauce and fry on high heat.

For the ebi sakamushi, simply place prawns in nut cups and pour the sake over the prawns into the cup. Steam until prawns are cooked through and bright pink.

Serve noodles with sesame seeds, gari pickles (optional) and the prawns on the side.