Avocado Salad Recipe by Ruth Paget
Serves 6
Ingredients:
-3 peeled, seeded, and sliced avocados
-1 cup bean sprouts
-1/4 cup sliced pimiento
-1/2 cup sliced black olives
-1/2 cup finely chopped chives
-1/2 cup French dressing
Steps:
1-Combine all the ingredients with the dressing.
2-Serve on 6 individual plates as soon as possible so the avocado does not discolor.
(A Royal Oak, Michigan recipe)
By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
Shrimp with Coleslaw Recipe by Ruth Paget
Serves 6
Ingredients:
For Dressing:
-1 cup mayonnaise
-1 tablespoon lemon juice
-1 tablespoon Tabasco juice
For Coleslaw:
-3 cups finely shredded cabbage
-3 tablespoons finely sliced scallions
-3 tablespoons finely chopped green peppers
-1 tablespoon caraway seeds
-36 cooked shrimp without shells or heads
Steps:
1-Mix mayonnaise with lemon juice and Tabasco sauce.
2-Toss sauce with cabbage, scallions and green peppers.
3-Place coleslaw on 6 individual plates and sprinkle with caraway seeds.
4-Place 6 shrimp on each plate around the coleslaw and serve.
(A Royal Oak, Michigan recipe)
By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
Coffee Cake Recipe by Ruth Paget
Serves 6
Ingredients:
-1¾ cups flour
-1 cup sugar
-1 teaspoon salt
-2 teaspoons baking powder
-2 beaten eggs
-1/2 cup milk
-1 teaspoon vanilla
-1/2 cup softened butter
Steps:
1-Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
2-Mix flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder together in a mixing bowl.
3-In another bowl, mix eggs, milk, and vanilla together. Blend in the softened butter. Add liquid ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix to form a batter.
4-Place cake batter in a greased 8-inch cake pan.
5-Bake for 35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. For a chocolate cake, add two tablespoons Valrhona chocolate.
(A Royal Oak, Michigan recipe)
By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
Japanese Noodle Lunch by Ruth Paget
With Ramen Made Simple: A Step-by-Step Guide by Christ Toy and online ingredients (if you cannot obtain the ingredients locally), it is possible to make great ramen at home with the many recipes in Toy’s book.
Toy begins his guide by telling readers that Chinese travelers brought wheat noodles to Japan in the 1800s and called them shina or chuka soba. The Japanese word ramen comes from la mien in Chinese, meaning noodles. (Chinese lo mein and chow mein are both noodle dishes that Americans might be more familiar with.)
Toy gives the following formula for building a bowl of ramen:
1-broth
2-tare sauce
3-noodles
4-toppings
The first building block of ramen is broth.
There are 5 different broth flavors:
1 - shio – salt-based broth
2 – shoyu – soy-sauce based broth
3 – miso – fermented soybean broth
4 – tonkotsu – broth made from boiling bones
5 – kare – curry broth
The second ingredient for making a ramen soup is the concentrated tare sauce. You place the tare sauce in the bottom of the ramen bowl before adding the other ingredients.
There are 4 tare sauce types not to be confused with broth types:
1 – shio tare – salt based sauce
2 – shoyu tare – soy sauce based sauce
3 – miso tare – fermented soybean based sauce with seasonings of sweet mirin wine, ginger, and red pepper added
4 – kare tare – curry based sauce
The third ingredient that goes into ramen is wheat noodles. The wheat noodles are eggless and made with flour, salt, and kansui (an alkaline water). Ramen noodles may be thin, thick, straight, or wavy.
The final ingredients for the ramen noodles are the toppings. There are many, but some of the most common follow:
-ajitama eggs – hard-boiled eggs that have been marinated in sweet mirin wine and soy sauce overnight
-chashu pork – braised or baked pork marinated in soy sauce and brown sugar
-kamaboko (naruto) – sliced, processed fish cakes that have been steamed and refrigerated
I was happy to find a recipe for a ramen I ate as a high school exchange student in Japan: kitakata ramen
Kitakata ramen comes from central Japan. Its ingredients follow:
-shoyu tare
-tonkotsu pork broth
-udon noodles
-chashu pork
-kamaboko fish cake
-menma bamboo shoots
-scallions
-chopped and dried nori seaweed
To make delicious Japanese noodles at home, let Ramen Made Simple: A Step-by-Step Guide by Christ Toy be your reference book.
By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
