Quick vegetable Lo Mein

Lo Mein is probably one of the things I like the most when I pick up Chinese carryout.  After many tries I finally found one that I make at home that I like just as much, and can easily be made just about any night,  assuming you have some good egg noodles handy.

My Vegetable Lo Mein

To start with this recipe, let me say I've tried making lo mein at home many times, with some less than stellar results.  Most of the time I started with some linguine noodles.  Unfortunately after all those attempts I found that the problem with them all was just that, the noodles.  Most pasta you get from the store has a high percentage of semolina flour, if not completely made from that.  While semolina gives you a wonderful pasta for italian foods, the results for lo mein are just not right.

Now in my previous post I mentioned my new pasta roller, this was the key to my lo mein.  I made some basic egg noodles straight off the recipe book that came with the roller. It makes a wonderful egg noodle, that is just perfect for this chinese dish.  Now if you don't want to make your own noodles, which I warn you, once you start, going back to some store bought box of noodles becomes very tough to do, you can buy some egg noodles, just try to avoid typical boxed pasta that has semolina and go for a basic egg noodle, for me I like something sized around the same as linguini.

As far as a recipe goes, this is going to be the most imprecise recipe you might ever read, but that's because I think lo mein is something that is cooked very much to taste, so I could say 2 tbsp of this and 1 tsp of that, but yours and mine tastes might disagree highly, so play around and find what you like.  The other beauty of this recipe is that with only some minor differences, you can turn it into a wonderful fried rice which I will talk about as well soon.

The basic ingredients that I start with are as follows:

egg Noodles
eggs
butter
wok oil
garlic
cabbage
carrots
green onions
oyster sauce
fish sauce
soy sauce
sugar
salt and pepper
and sometimes I even add some frozen peas


Cook your noodles as per your directions,  now me sometimes I will cook them a little longer, as I like a pretty soft noodle for lo mein, however you need to be careful, too long, and you will have lo mush, and not lo mein.

While your noodles are cooking, melt some butter in your wok, it doesn't take much just enough to coat the bottom of your wok, so your eggs won't stick too much, if you have a good non stick wok you can cut way back on it if you like.  Then scramble up your eggs, at our house we like a good bit of egg in ours, so I tend to use 3 to 4 eggs, it's also how I sneak in some extra protein into my vegetarian wife's diet.  Once you have your eggs scrambled, take them out and set them into a bowl for later.

Next I have to clean out the bit of egg that is left in the pan, my wok is not the most non stick item I have, and I don't want a ton of burnt egg in my lo mein.  Then I add some wok oil and a clove or 2 of minced garlic, depending on the size of the clove and how many vampires I want to keep away, but a lot of this is purely to your taste, if you like a lot of garlic go for 2 or more, but if you don't want to be over the top, keep it to one.

While thats sautéing, chop up some cabbage, now how much you like and how you like it cut is entirely up to you, I've made it chopped pretty fine and also as shown in the picture above cut much larger.  I do like a good bit in there, I used about half of a small head of cabbage, however if I got one of the heads of cabbage I get from my in-laws, it would be probably no more than a quarter if not less.  I have to say they have sent down some of the biggest heads of cabbages I have ever seen.

One the cabbage has started to cook a bit, I toss in some julienned carrots, I wait on them a bit because I prefer them to be less than completely cooked where as I like the cabbage to be cooked through much more.  I also cut the onions and place them in there now to cook.  I dice up the green portions as well, but save those as garnish for serving.

By now you have probably cooked your noodles, so let's strain them and rinse them well with some cold water, this prevents them from continuing to cook and keeps them from sticking together.

As your veggies continue to cook you start making your sauce.  Even for a large batch of noodles, which is probably almost a pound, it doesn't take as much as you might think.  I use about a tbsp of fish sauce, a couple tsp of oyster sauce, maybe 1/2 tsp of sugar and probably about 1-2 tsp of soy sauce.  Again I say this is all to taste, so play around a bit and find what you like, it's not rocket science, its cooking.  You can always add a little more while you toss the noodles.  Because of this I really try to go light on the soy sauce, and add a little more while it's cooking.  Mix this all up and here's where your hard work is about to pay off.

Make a bit of a well with your veggies and toss in the sauce, followed by the noodles, tossing everything together well, trying to coat everything with a bit of sauce.  Next add your eggs back into pan continuing to toss everything together.  Now add a little salt and pepper to taste and a little more soy sauce if you so desire as well.

Once everything is mixed together,  you can add the green portion of your onions to make it look like something you got from your local take-out.  you should end up with pan full of something like this:

Now you can scoop onto your plate and serve, although if you really want an unbiased opinion of your new creation, get yourself some of those little containers, and tell everyone you tried out a new Chinese take-out and see what they think.

Good luck in the kitchen and enjoy!

KitchenAid Pasta Roller and Cutters

Lately it's been more recipes than gadgets.  Today I get to talk about a brand new gadget that I got.  Yes I am worse than a kid with a credit card in a candy store when it comes to gadgets, admittedly that's kitchen gadgets and just about any other kind of gadget as well.  Ask my wife she will tell you how bad I could be.

Every once in a while I have to say I am more than shocked at what something can do, and this is one of those moments.  Yesterday I received a package, this one I have been pondering over for well over a month.  As I escalate my list of culinary creations at home, a couple months ago I decided it was time to try to make some fresh pasta.  I decided on a light wheat pasta, and found a recipe from KitchenAid that looked pretty good.  This was going to be by hand, well except for the mixing part.  This should be no problem right?  I certainly didn't know what I was getting into, and now I know why the mob was so rough, their momma's were tough gals after rolling out all that pasta by hand.   I mean it's a good workout rolling out that dough, trying to get it thin enough, especially if you have minimal countertop space to work on.  Then to cut it I used a pizza cutter with a cookie sheet as a guide, my noodle sizes were no where near consistent, but it worked.   The end results were very good, albeit I gave up and the noodles were a little thicker than I would have liked.

It was then I decided if I was going to make pasta it was time for a new gadget.  Now here was decision time, my immediate first instinct was the KitchenAid attachment for my mixer, it's what I have seen the most and I've had great luck with my mixer as well.  However the pasta maker attachment sets are not cheap by any means, MSRP being $249 for the basic set of roller, and 2 cutters, then they also have the Pasta press for $189.   Both options seemed a bit pricy for something I wasn't sure how often I would use, I mean how much easier was this going to be than hand rolling?  Was it really going to be something that I would use often? Would my days of boxes of dried pasta be over?  These were serious questions to which i had no answers at all.

Starting to look at the KitchenAid attachments I had to do some thinking, one was a roller and was an extruder.  Personally I like fettuccine and linguini better than spaghetti, but is there a real difference, I mean pasta is pasta right?  Well doing some research online I came across people saying that the biggest difference in pasta is whether it's rolled or extruded.  Being pushed through those tiny holes to make the pasta causes it to be kind of dense and heavy, whereas rolled pasta is supposed to be lighter and more porous causing it to hold sauce better.  While pondering this thought, it made a lot of sense, and I'd say I have to agree with it, which is why I probably tend to like the flatter noodles, more surface area to hold onto that delicious sauce, whether it be marinara or alfredo.  At this point the KitchenAid press was nixed, while the idea of making my own macaroni was nice, I'd much rather make my own fettuccine, which would definitely lead to more use, and not something else to pack in the pantry.  A roller was definitely the way to go, but that doesn't mean to say I narrowed down the decision any more.

So I got to thinking, and yes this is a very dangerous moment when I do.  A manual pasta maker, they aren't too expensive, maybe I could  get one of them and test the waters.  I began doing a lot of strolling along the web reading up on these classic devices.  What did I find? Many articles saying don't waste your money on a cheap manual rollers, statements like the handle wouldn't stay in, to not staying clamped down, to metal coming off into your pasta.  From that point the reviews pointed to 2 main contenders, Marcato Atlas, and Imperia Pasta Machines, both of which run right around $69.  I had a hard time swallowing that price for a manual pasta machine.  Manual pasta makers just seem like they are either made for two people or someone with three hands, and since I'm neither, the KitchenAid roller won out, and I couldn't be more pleased with that decision.


For my first attempt I stayed simple, standard egg pasta straight from the recipe book that came with it.  With this attachment it couldn't be easier.  I will post the recipe and some pictures the next time I get it out, which I plan on being real soon.

Making the dough in the mixer is a breeze, then let it rest covered for about 20-30 minutes, then you can actually knead it by running it through the roller on it's highest setting quite a few times, just folding it over and re-running it through, this works twofold, one by kneading the pasta, and two by helping you to create a more uniform sheet before you start thinning it out.

KitchenAid is changing their package right now, so the package will contain the roller, fettuccine cutter, and a linguini cutter, however if you look right now you can save a good bit and get their original package on clearance.  The only difference is instead of a linguini cutter you get a spaghetti cutter, this was the package I was able to get, for only $139.  The cutters on the spaghetti cutters are rounded so you get the rounded spaghetti shape, but if you are so inclined, you can still use it to make a thin linguini.  So the difference in my mind is minor.  In fact when I placed the order I wasn't entirely sure which one I would get, and I'm still not sure I care enough to spend an extra $70-$80 for the different cutter. I think the next time I make pasta I'm going to try a thin linguini and see what I think, I can't imagine I will be be disappointed.

This attachment has now lead me to stock up on all purpose flour and I'm sure will lead to the purchase of some semolina flour to experiment with as well.   I see a good bit of pasta in my future, but very little if any from those little boxes in the grocery store, thanks primarily to my KitchenAid pasta rollers.  If you want to make fresh pasta and have a KitchenAid mixer, this in my mind is almost a must have.  I can't even imagine hand rolling pasta now.

Best of luck in the kitchen....Ciao!

Cinnamon Rolls similar to Cinnabon

Copycat recipes are out there all over the internet for just about anything, sometimes they are good sometimes they aren't even close.  The one thing you can't always find or confirm are the brands they use to get that exact taste.  When I made this version of the Cinnabon copycat, I used a couple generic branded items, and I would say that if I used a couple alternative brands, my results would have been practically indistinguishable from Cinnabon, or at least taste so good as to be a wonderful alternative.  Even the generics I used resulted in delicious rolls.

Cinnamon Rolls (Cinnabon Copycat Recipe)

Let's start with the ingredients:

Dough:
1 Cup warm Milk
2 Eggs at room temp
1/3 cup melted butter
4 1/2 cup flour (I used bread flour)
1 tsp salt (as normal for me I use Kosher salt)
1/2 cup sugar
1 package active yeast

Filling:
1 cup brown sugar
2 1/2 tbsp ground cinnamon
1/4 cup melted butter
another 1/4 cup butter to spread on the dough

Cream cheese icing:
3 oz cream cheese
1/4 cup softened butter
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
pinch of salt
1 1/2 cup of powdered sugar

Let's begin to make these wonderfully rich treats.

Warm up the milk, you can microwave it for about 45-50 seconds, you want it warm but not hot.  I used my Kitchenaid bowl and dissolved the yeast in the milk, then added the eggs, butter, salt, sugar, and flour.  Using the dough hook, I started it slow until it was mixed then raised the speed a bit until it combined everything and pulled most of the dough off the bowl and gathered on the hook.

Once your dough is completed, take another bowl and either spread some oil or nonstick spray over the entire bowl.  Now roll the dough to cover the entire ball of dough in the oil or nonstick spray.  Next cover the bowl and let sit for in a warm area till it's about doubled in size.  Should take about an hour or two.

As you are approaching the end of your rising period, it's time to prep the cinnamon sugar mixture for the filling.  This one is easy, take the 1 cup of brown sugar, 2 1/2 tbsp of cinnamon and 1/4 cup of melted butter, mix them together making a nice little sugary mixture.

Once your dough has doubled in size, take it out onto a well floured surface.  Roll your dough out to a fairly uniform thickness, size and thickness I think are a personal preferences, I made my dough just under a  1/4" thick or so.

Next spread the 1/4 cup of melted butter over your dough, following the butter spread your cinnamon and brown sugar mixture over the dough, then roll up the and cut your rolls and place them into a well greased pan.  Give them some space between each roll, because now you are going to cover them up and let them raise a bit more.

While your rolls are rising again, preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  Once your oven is up to temp and you are satisfied with the rising of your rolls, I wouldn't go much more than 30-40 minutes on rising time, bake the rolls at 350 for about 20-25 minutes.  Now is also your chance to begin making the icing.

For the icing, I used my KitchenAid with the whisk attachment, creaming the butter, cream cheese, vanilla, and salt.  Next I added the powdered sugar and slowly brought the mixer up to speed as it incorporated the powdered sugar.  Just in case you are impatient like me, take your time with this and start out very slow, or you might have a cloud of sugar all over your counter and you.   Once the powdered sugar is incorporated into the mixture, you can run it at high speed for a bit to really whip up the icing.

Once your rolls are done, I let them cool just a bit, but still very warm so the icing melts all over and into the rolls.  Enjoy fresh out or wrap them up and save for later.  A batch of these made on Friday evening could give you breakfasts for the weekend, or shorter depending on the number of sweet teeth you are satisfying.

Now I had mentioned at the beginning that I used some generics in this recipe, and I do believe certain brands would have made the taste impact on these to make them so close to an actual Cinnabon roll that you might find yourself believing you picked up a pack on your way home.  So the 2 generics that I used that I will swap next time for some name brands are the cinnamon and the cream cheese.  Cinnamon should be no surprise, go for the Cinnabon brand if you want that authentic taste.  The cream cheese I would go for Philadelphia brand, the off brand I used was fine, but it still doesn't have that same taste that Philadelphia has.

Whether you consider this a copycat recipe or just another cinnamon roll recipe, these are some very fine cinnamon rolls, hope you enjoy them as much as my family has.

Good luck in the kitchen!