Welcome to Wongs Eat! For those who are new, this blog is different. We are a family of four with not just a love of eating but also a love of quips and silliness. Here you see serious opinions from Kevin and Sylvia mixed in with funny side commentary from Rowan and Declan (aged 7 and 9). May our family dynamics bring you joy, for food is only as good as the company you keep. And please follow us; we’d love to get to know you!
As promised, our recipes are either grand showcases or dead easy scrappy recipes for weekday nights. This is more of a showcase thing, but still pretty easy to make.
As you can tell from Kevin’s ramen post we like soup noodles. We like them A LOT. The key to good soup noodles of course, is amazing broth, but it takes hours and hours to make, so it’s not usually something we attempt.
But recently I’ve found a secret trick to making it all easier: using leftover ingredients, especially bones, and freezing the broth in between simmers. That way you don’t need all the ingredients on hand at once, and can just use whatever avails itself over time.
Since we order takeout soup noodles a lot, I’ve started using leftover broth too. A lot of times the restaurants send more than we’d use. Not all the flavours of different broths mix well so you have to use your judgment, but it’s a lot easier than starting from scratch and I highly recommend it if you’re short on time. It’s also much much tastier than using store-bought generic chicken broth.
For the shrimp spinach noodles pictured here, I created a duck broth. I used one of the leftover duck carcasses of Kevin’s roast Peking duck, put it in a large pot and poured in just enough water just to cover there bones. From there I simmered for an hour before cooling and freezing. When we had a bunch of leftover clamshells from making clam pasta, I defrosted and repeated the simmering. The clamshells can add a lot more flavor than you think. I also added in some extra cilantro, and a giant side pot of soy sauce that came from one of our takeout orders.
And then it was back into the freezer again, until I wanted to make this recipe. As luck had it, we had more leftover broth from a restaurant that was what I call “clear” – flavorful but not thick and therefore not overpowering. And so I heated the clear broth up in a pan, added my previous frozen broth in, and when everything was boiling, added shrimp to get it cooked through.
The result was the best broth I’ve ever made, which probably doesn’t say much since I’m no professional cook, but I dare say it rivals the broth I’ve had in restaurants. It’s even better knowing I made use of things that would have been thrown out otherwise. So I encourage you to try your own hand at broth making; just be creative! Left over chicken bones, fish bones, veggie scraps, it all can work! Just two suggestions from my part: 1) shrimp shells are amazing and are a must-try, it’s the secret to many wonton noodle broths and 2) never try bitter type veggies like kale, it ruins it all.
The broth also can last at least a month or two in the freezer so you can keep on standby for whenever you want it.
Just make sure you taste the broth at the end of each simmer so you don’t serve it prematurely. You want to simmer it enough times, with new added ingredients every time, that the broth alone is enough to send your taste buds to heaven. That way, when you’re ready to make the final recipe you can pull it off with no extra seasoning required. Which is what I did for these shrimp noodles.
Now, about the shrimp noodles themselves:
Sylvia: boys, what do you think, do you like these noodles?
[Rowan puts out his bowl for thirds]
Declan: the noodles remind me of worms, but green
Sylvia: but you like them, don’t you?
[Rowan slurps down third bowl]
Declan: yes, they’re very delicious
Sylvia: then let’s not mention worms again
Ok, on to this Shrimp on Spinach Noodle in Duck Broth recipe.
You will need:
- One pack fresh spinach noodles
- 1 lb shrimp, defrosted if frozen
- Homemade broth (be creative, just make sure it’s flavoured enough to carry the whole dish through)
- Chilli flakes and green onion to garnish
Instructions:
- Make noodles according to package instructions and drain
- Boil broth and add in shrimp until they’re pink and firm, just cooked through
- Serve with chilli flakes and green onion as garnish
And yes, you will notice there is absolutely no salt or other seasoning aside from the broth. It’s very key to use as little water as possible when starting your broth out so that you don’t water it down too much. If you make it too salty by accident you can always add more water to dilute down.
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