I’ve been on a cooking streak the past couple of weeks. Partly driven by the fact that I am trying to save up for some travels I have planned for the first half of 2012, and also by my conscious effort to incorporate more veggies into my diet. Tonight’s menu consisted of a merry line up of vivid colored vegetables like radicchio, pea sprouts, spanish onions, a healthy helping of chopped garlic because the remnants of my pre-NYE flu is still there and carrots and 2 varieties of mushrooms – oyster mushrooms and sliced button mushrooms.
Marcella Hazan, an Italian cook who brought mainstream Italian cooking to the American population recommended in one of her many cookbooks the mixing of 2 or more varieties of mushrooms to obtain the best flavor of each individual type of mushrooms. I never really gave it much thought when I first read that tip, but when I happened to have both types of mushrooms lying around in my refrigerator one day and decided to throw both lots into my stir-fry, boy was that the best stir-fry I ever achieved on my own and it’s safe to say I never turned back since.
Some fresh prawns (ok, they weren’t organically farmed I have to admit, but I have yet to find any so if you know of some being sold in Kuala Lumpur, do tell!) in a base of vegetable soup and some brown rice vermicelli noodle to come together as one of the craziest combination, flavorful noodle soup I’ve tried making from scratch – yay me!
Part of tonight’s success, I believe is attributed to this amazing vegetable bouillon I recently picked up from the organic section at Jaya Grocer. The brand is Rapunzel and the type I have is the one seasoned with sea salt.
I am never much a fan of cubed broth because before discovering the MSG-free, preservative-free organic version, I have always associated it with a flavorful cube of chemicals of no-good-for-you. But trust this organic Rapunzel that has changed my mind. And I am not the only one who seems to think so. Ninie Ahmad, the gorgeous celebrity yogi, whom I *absolutely* adores and think she’s perhaps the most amazing thing to happen locally since laksa johor was invented, mentioned it in her video below too.
I added a few dash of the Himalayan pink salt to my broth because it turned out, I got a little over-enthusiastic with the volume of water added (I roughly measured 2 cups, which I think possibly amounted to be 2 1/2 cups, clearly I was responsible for some of those minor explosion in chemistry class during high school..). That plus the gajillion amount of vegetables thrown into the pot, I also ended up with a pot full of noodle soup enough to feed a whole family. Guess that’s all I’ll be having for the next 3 days at home! 🙂
Almost Hijau 