Noodle Strainers

Understandably, most people use colanders for pasta, but Asians mostly use strainers for the noodles.  The fine mesh gets rid of water quickly and the design of a great noodle strainer is there to help you out in the kitchen.  I recently got a strainer like they use in ramen restaurants.  It's super useful!

It's a deeper strainer with a hook to latch your strainer to the pot.  Oftentimes, a strainer that is not as deep means that the water won't sufficient cover the noodles and consequently, the noodles don't get cooked well.  With this deeper strainer, you may need a slightly taller pot, but it keeps the noodles swimming in the water and it allows the noodles room to move.  I drop one or two portions of noodles into it (I find you shouldn't do more than two portions or else it's too full), hook it on the pot, and work on the rest of my ingredients while the noodles cook.  I used to not even use a strainer when cooking.  I'd just slowly fish out the noodles to a bowl and hope that I got all of it out of the pot.  With this, I've been cooking noodles and easily tossing the perfect portion right into the bowl when ready.  Add soup or sauce and meat and veggies and you have an awesome bowl of noodles ready to eat!

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Stir-Fried Chicken Udon

I am a huge fan of Japanese food.  One of my favorites is stir-fried udon.  Typically, udon noodles are used in a noodle soup, but I love having it stir-fried.  You can buy packaged udon from your local Asian supermarket.  I typically buy a five-pack pre-cooked which comes with the soup base individually packaged as well.  This makes prep so fast when you want something to eat.

Ingredients:
- 2-3 packs of udon (I use 3 for two people since we eat lot!)
- 1 chicken thigh (slice the meat off the bone into small cubes)
- 1/2 an onion (chopped)
- Taiwanese bok choy (chopped)
- scallions (chopped)
- salt & pepper
- soy sauce

First, stir fry the chicken over medium heat with some vegetable oil.  I wait until most of the pink is gone before adding in the salt, pepper, and a dash of soy sauce.  Then I stir until all of it is evenly coated and the chicken takes on a nice brown from the soy sauce.  Put this aside in a bowl now.

Next, cook the veggies.  I did the onions first since they take a little longer to soften and then added in the bok choy.  Add a little bit of water and cover to let it simmer.  In about 5 minutes, it should be done.  Now, add some salt to taste.

Add in the udon.  I just rip open the package and plop it right into the pan.  If you still have some water left in the pan, great, if not, add a little in.  I like to stick my chopsticks in to break apart the noodles.  Then cover it and let the udon noodles soften.

After the noodles have softened, add the chicken back in.  Then add the soup base packet in.  Since I used 3 packs of noodles, I only used 2 packs of the soup base.  That way, it's not overly salty since it's meant for use as the soup.  Now, you just stir fry the noodles until it is well mixed.  Add scallions on top and give it a good mix before plating.