Traditional Food Recipes

Recipe: 15-minute Garlic Prawn Udon

By Francesca Hawksworth

Noodles!

Here’s a super quick, easy, and delicious recipe for anyone who loves noodles. This is a Chinese recipe that has easy to find ingredients and is something you can make if you're not a great cook or just don’t feel like cooking anything fancy.

Ingredients:

• 2 x 200g )7 oz) packets pre-cooked udon noodles

• 1 tsp sesame oil

• 2 tbsp vegetable oil

• 2 heaped cups sliced cabbage

• ½ tsp sugar, plus ½ tsp extra

• ½ tbsp soy sauce, plus 1 ½ tbsp extra

• 4 garlic cloves, finely chopped

• 200g peeled and deveined prawns (A deveined prawn means the dark dorsal vein is removed from it)

• ½ tsp chili flakes

• 3 tbsp oyster sauce

• ½ cup finely sliced spring onion

Step 1

Place the udon noodle into a pot of boiling water. Use tongs to gently separate the noodles and as soon as they have come apart, transfer the noodles to a large bowl. Toss them with some sesame oil. 

Step 2

Heat the vegetable oil in a wok or frying pan over high heat. Add the cabbage and stir-fry until just starting to char. Then add the ½ tsp of sugar and the ½ tbsp of soy sauce. Stir-fry for another minute or until the cabbage is nicely colored. Add the garlic and stir-fry for 20 seconds. Then add the prawns and chili powder and stir-fry until the prawns are just cooked.

Step 3

Add the noodles, remaining soy sauce, remaining sugar, and oyster sauce. Stir-fry for another half a minute until the sauce has thickened. Toss through the spring onion and serve.

This recipe was made by Marion’s Kitchen. She’s got amazing Asian recipes. From making your own chili oil to a Vietnamese lemongrass pork bowl. All her recipes are super delicious and are all definitely doable. She’s got an app, a youtube channel that has 779k subscribers, and a website. All her videos have great instructions and tips that you can use. She also has her own different salad dressings and hot sauces that you can buy. So next time you can’t think of what to make for dinner you should definitely go check out Marion’s Kitchen!

Challah Bread

By Itamar Kaplun

Challah is a delicious, traditional Jewish bread that you make during the long quarantine! This bread is challenging but fun and will definitely help to take up some time in your day. Test your baking skills, and see if you can recreate this heavenly bread!

Delicious Challah Bread!

Ingredients:

Makes two 3-Strand Challahs

-All-Purpose/Bread Flour 500g

-Granulated Sugar 60g

-Kosher Salt 10g

-Instant Dry Yeast 10g (1 tbsp) or Fresh Yeast 25g

-Lukewarm Water 200ml

-Vegetable Oil 40ml

-2 large egg 

-Extra salt for later

Tools:

-1 large Mixing Bowl

-1 Mixing Spoon

-Digital Scale

-Measuring Cup and Spoons

-1 fork

-A food brush (preferably silicone)

Instructions:

Dry Ingredients:

Place the Flour, Sugar, Salt, and Yeast in a Mixing Bowl and stir. Use your hand to make a well in the middle of the mix. 

Wet Ingredients:

Pour into the well that you created, the Water, and the Oil. Then beat one of the eggs with a fork in a separate small bowl and add the beaten egg into the well.

The Dough:

Use your fingers as a whisk to incorporate all the dry and wet ingredients together. Once all the ingredients come together as a dough, take the dough out of the bowl and start gently kneading with your hands *Arm Workout, Beware! (kneading is simply the act of  pulling and pushing dough back and forth while folding). Knead your dough for about 10 minutes until it becomes less sticky. Kneading is key to ensure softer and fluffier challah. As your arms are sending you signals that you are done kneading, DON'T  STOP! By now your dough should be nice and silky. Shape it into a ball and place it back into the Mixing Bowl, cover it well so the moisture won’t escape, and leave it in a warm place to let it sit and proof for an hour and a half. 

Braiding the Challah:

Take the dough out of the bowl, and stretch it a little. Using a knife cut the dough into six equal pieces, and then roll them out into 6 thick strands that are all about the same size/ length. Now comes the hardest part, the braiding, take three of your pieces and at the top stick/merge them together. This photo will explain the rest showing you how to do it: https://www.scotchandscones.com/braiding-challah/)

After you finish braiding one three-strand challah do the next one. Repeat the same process.

Proofing:

After your two challahs have been shaped/braided to perfection, cover it with a towel and let it proof once again at room temperature. The time depends on weather and what season in Summer it should take around an hour and a half, (90 minutes), in winter it may take 2 or more hours. You should see it has roughly doubled in size. While you wait may I suggest you read some of our other articles. Now after the time has passed, to know if the challah is done proofing, press on the dough gently using your finger, if the dough springs back quickly, it needs more time to proof, but if it springs back slowly and leaves a tiny indent. It is ready for the baking process. 

Baking:

Take your last egg put it in a small bowl and add about two teaspoons of water and then add a pinch or two of salt then beat the egg, this will make our egg wash, this will make it shine and look better, coat the dough very gently using the food brush, cover every spot but don’t soak it. At this time you can put seeds on your challah like sesame seeds, poppy seeds, and or sunflower seeds. Challah is still great without the seeds. Preheat the oven to 350℉ for 25 minutes. You know the challah is done because of the dark brown color outside and the internal temperature should be 200℉. 

Enjoy:

Now a crucial thing to eating Challah is never cutting it into pieces but to rip it off. Dips are great to eat with Challah such as Tahini, in America, they don’t sell premade Tahini, simple recipes online but maybe you may find one in a future issue? Enjoy the challah and remember to save some to make delicious french toast.