Wednesday, July 29, 2009

recipe review: sesame peanut noodles

Review: Nigella does it again! Super simple to make, and easy to swap out or substitute ingredients. Don't worry about making such a large quantity...it gets better with time!


My family went through a Chinese food phase for a few years, during which we dined at Szechuan Garden (and eventually Hunan Gourmet once SG became an Italian place) every Saturday night. We would pretty much always order the same dishes, and I would always pick out every single piece of baby corn as soon as said dishes were set on the table. My baby brother was young enough where I trumped him, and having never had the opportunity to snag a piece of baby corn (I was a quick little thing), he never really knew what he was missing.

This recipe doesn't include baby corn (you can groan at my seemingly useless anecdote now), but it should! Next time I plan on including copious amounts. In fact, you can easily swap out or substitute ingredients as you wish...especially any veggies you like or don't like. The hardest part is cutting the vegetables, and maybe whisking if your wrists just don't move that way. The final product comes close to a decent Pad Thai dish you can order at any number of cheap Thai or Asian delivery joints, but since you control the ingredients, you know you aren't getting anything too sketchy.

Sauce Ingredients:
*1 T sesame oil
*1 T garlic-infused oil [Or just mince some garlic into oil and let it sit for a few minutes. I used olive oil and did not notice any funky taste because of it. You could probably use canola oil as well.]
*1 T soy sauce [I used a low-sodium version.]
*2 T sweet chile sauce
*1/3 cup peanut butter [I used a natural, chunky one from Whole Foods.]
*2 T lime juice [1-2 limes, juiced]

Pasta Ingredients:
*1 1/4 lbs. cooked egg noodles [Cook al dente or just under. I used whole wheat linguine from Whole Foods.]
*2 cups bean sprouts, rinsed [I forgot to rinse mine...don't tell Husband]
*1 1/2 cups snow peas [We forgot to buy these, but they would provide a satisfying crunch.]
*1 red pepper, seeded and diced
*2 scallions, finely sliced [I used 5 scallions and just diced them randomly.]
*1/4 cup sesame seeds [Buy a tub and it will last you forever.]
*1/4 cup freshly chopped cilantro [Omitted because we always seem to waste the extra cilantro after completing a recipe.]

Directions:
1) Whisk together the dressing ingredients in a bowl or small pitcher.
[I did not think the dressing would be enough to cover all of the ingredients, so I doubled the dressing recipe.]
2) Put the noodles, bean sprouts, snow peas, red pepper, and scallions into a bowl. [I added the sesame seeds as well.]
3) Pour over the dressing and mix thoroughly to coat everything well.
4) Sprinkle with sesame seeds and cilantro and pack up as needed.

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