Peanut Sesame Noodles

Photo featured on Foodgawker.com, 1/23/11 & Photograzing 2/18/11

This simple, nearly foolproof recipe yields outstanding cold sesame noodles with a nice spicy kick. You don’t have to serve them cold, I prefer mine at room temperature, which is why I’m calling these ‘peanut sesame noodles.’ ‘Room temperature sesame noodles’ doesn’t quite work.

This tasty dish is really versatile; it’s great as an appetizer for an Asian-inspired meal, it’s a delicious side dish for chicken, pork, fish, or even duck, (see forthcoming post) which is how I incorporated it.

At this point you might be thinking, ummm, you’re ‘All Seasons Cuisine’, wouldn’t cold ahem room temperature sesame noodles be more of a summertime dish? Well, perhaps. There are certain dishes I consider seasonal and others that are just plain great year-round. This is one of those year-round dishes. And secondly, as you’ll see from my forthcoming post, I used these noodles as part of an Asian-inspired seared duck dish with roasted pears that I made last year on Valentine’s Day. It’s the perfect special, romantic, out-of-the-ordinary meal you want to serve your Sweetie for Valentine’s or any special occasion. I’m posting it as a Valentine’s idea now for all you plan-aheaders out there.

Cooking Asian noodles took me a few tries to get right when I first started with them, because being Italian, Asian noodle cookery goes against everything I’ve been taught. Here’s why – with Asian noodles, you have to rinse them under cold running water really well immediately after draining or they will stick together. This goes for soba, udon, pad thai, rice noodles … you get the point. Now let me be clear – when you’re cooking regular Italian dried pasta, you would never want to rinse your pasta after cooking it. If you do it’ll wash away the starchy goodness of any clinging pasta cooking water, which helps add body to the pasta and thickens the sauce. But with Asian noodles, you really must follow the directions on the package, which instruct you to drain and rinse them well. And just like cooking pasta, you want your noodles on the al dente, or slightly toothsome side, not soggy and overcooked.

I do hope you give these a try. If you do, I guarantee you’ll be ordering Chinese take-out a lot less frequently!

peanut sesame noodles

• 1/2 lb dried soba (buckwheat) noodles
• 8 Tbs sesame oil
• 1-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled, roughly chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1/2 large jalapeno or 1 small red thai chili, minced (with seeds)
• 2 Tbs brown sugar
• 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
• 1/4 cup rice vinegar
• 1/4 cup low-sodium soy sauce
• 6 Tbs water, room temperature
• 1 Tbs chili sauce
• 1 Tbs sesame seeds
• 1 bunch green onions, thinly sliced
• 1 lime, cut into wedges (for garnish)

1. Bring large pot of water to boil. Season with salt. Add noodles and stir to keep them from sticking. Cook until barely tender, 3-4 minutes. Drain and immediately rinse with cold running water. Toss with 3 Tbs sesame oil and set aside.

2. In saucepan, heat 1/4 cup sesame oil over medium heat. Add ginger, garlic and jalapeno or Thai chili. Cook, stirring, for 2-3 minutes. Put mixture in blender along with brown sugar, peanut butter, rice vinegar, water, chili sauce, and remaining Tbs sesame oil. Puree and refrigerate until cold.

3. Put noodles in serving bowl and toss with 1/2 the sauce and combine (you will likely not need to use all the sauce). Add more sauce as needed to coat. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and green onion. Garnish w lime wedges. Serve cold or at room temperature.

Serves 4 side dish portions or 6 appetizer portions.

Recipe adapted from Tyler Florence, Food Network.com