July 16, 2008

Noodles with Peanut Sauce


Pasta, in their noodle form, was one of the most welcomed food when we were young. I had no trouble polishing off my plate if noodles were served anytime of the day. I would almost always order noodles in some form or the other when we would go out to eat! But times changed, our tastes and preferences changed. Nowadays, eventhough I dont choose noodles at restaurants, it always has a lot of fond memories associated with it, reminding me of the good, carefree times of my childhood. In those days all you had to do was "order around" your mom to get a steaming plate of noodles! ;-). I am noticing the same thing with my lil one who would eat without complaining when I serve noodles on her plate. It might be that the kids have some kind of fascination towards the long slender pasta or maybe it is sloppiness involved in eating it ;-) !

Anyways, I fell in love with this peanut sauce the first time I made it. I made a minor change, but the resultant sauce was terrific!! I made this dinner twice in the same week. The sauce is quick to make and just involves mixing together a few ingredients. The only work is to cook the noodles. The vegetables are cut very thin and again there is no cooking involved. This is a very tasty quick lunch or dinner, especially when you are feeling lazy to make elaborate meals. Try it out sometime, its delicious!!



Recipe (Serves 4) :

Egg noodles - 6 oz, fresh or dried
Salt - 1 tsp
Vegetable oil - 2 tsp
Green onions - 2, with tops, shredded
Carrot - 1 small
Cucumber - 1 medium
Snow peas - 2 oz

Peanut sauce:

Creamy peanut butter - 1/4 cup
Sesame oil - 2 tbsp
Soy sauce - 3 tbsp
Vinegar - 2 1/2 tbsp
Sugar - 2 tbsp
Water - 3 tbsp
Dry mustard - 1 tbsp

Method:

Cook the noodles with salt and vegetable oil, until the noodles are done.

Rinse with cold water and drain. Set aside.

Place the shredded green onions in ice water for 10 minutes. Drain well.

Peel the carrot and cut into matchstick strips.

Peel the cucumber and slice into 2" pieces, then cut into matchstick pieces.

Remove and discard the string from the pea pods.

Place the peas in boiling water and return to a boil.

Immediately rinse with cold water and drain thoroughly.

Cut into 1/8" matchstick strips.

To prepare the sauce, in a medium bowl, thoroughly mix the peanut butter, sesame oil, soy sauce, vinegar, sugar and water.

In a separate bowl, mix the dry mustard with 1 tbsp water until smooth.

Add this mixture to the peanut sauce and stir until well combined.

Place the noodles on a serving platter.

Arrange the carrot, cucumber, and snow pea pods in a spoke on top of the noodles.

Place the green onions in the center of the spoke.

Before serving, pour the peanut sauce over and toss gently.

Source: Everyday Chinese Cooking by Leeann Chin and Katie Chin.

Tips:
  1. I omitted cucumber and snowpeas. Since I didnt use these ingredients, the whole prep was pretty simple.
  2. I also didnt have any dry mustard.
  3. I only had chunky peanut butter, so I used the specified quantity of that.


I am sending this to "Its all about memories" event at Jeena's Kitchen of Chef Jeena! Eventhough this sauce was not something I was familiar with during my early days, noodle dishes have plenty of fond memories associated with them! ;-)

I am also sending this to "Eat Healthy-Protein Rich" event at Sangeeth's Art of Cooking Indian Food, since peanuts are a good source of protein.

24 comments:

ranji said...

hey i have tried a similar sauce on pasta ones..instead of peanut butter i used crunchy toasted peanuts :)..they tasted gr8...
your presentation is mind blowing..almost had me fooled coz those noodles look very crunchy in the photos :D...

Trupti said...

hey JZ..noodles & sauce looks delicious. Nice presentation and photo too

vandana rajesh said...

yummy jz..just love ur choice of recipes and also presentation style. Gr8 pics...feeling hingry already

Cham said...

As Ranji said, may be i should try crushed peanut, not fan of PB. Ur presen reminds my restau order! Beautiful JZ

Mansi said...

I love these kind of pasta, though without the eggs..and yeah, top it with some bean sprouts and crushed peanuts for a pad-thai like effect!:) nice presentation there JZ!:D

Richa said...

the presentation is very pretty! gotta try the cucumber in noodles, good one:)

Sangeeth said...

lovely entry JZ...loved the way u have presented it :)

Unknown said...

pretty pic..I lovenoodles..Bring back my childhood memories too..

Bhawana said...

great, how did you manage to make this shape. Looking very tempting :)

Sonia said...

Hi Sweet JZ,
I came across to ur blog first time...u have created ur blog creative and fantastic. I love especially ur Desserts recipes. I've bookmarked some of them and will let u knw abt outcome.
Keep it up buddy.
Take care.
Sonu:)

delhibelle said...

beautiful presentation!
I love how perfectly you have julienned the veggies. This recipe sounds really-2 delicious !

Bharti said...

Beautiful presentation! I make a similar recipe too and it really is delicious!

KALVA said...

Wow JZ.. noodles look delish.. I just posted one...

Lakshmi said...

peanut sauce sounds interesting..and as usual your presentation is awesome....

bha said...

those noodles look adorable.......so u are cooking from all those piled up books :)

Sunshinemom said...

JZ - I just love all your presentations - each one is a work of art! I haven't tried peanut sauce as yet - but I guess there has to be a first time:)

bee said...

i've yet to try mustard in peanut sauce. thanks for the recipe.

lakshmi said...

Not a big fan of store bought peanut butter but I absolutely love peanuts. This is a great idea which I shall put into action soon, I am thinking of making a peanut paste at home for this.

Dori said...

The peanut sauce sounds good, I love noodles with peanut sauce! I am bookmarking this for sure!

@the_whisk_affair said...

Thanks a lot for your wonderful comments Ranji, Trupti and vandana! :-)

Hey Cham, trust me, this sauce wont taste peanut-butter-y! :-)

Thanks Mansi, Richa, Sangeeth and Divya Vikram! :-)

Hi Bhawana, I used a can opened at both ends for shaping the noodles.

Hey Sonu, welcome to my blog. I am so glad to know that you loved my recipes. Do try them out and get back to me abt how they turned out!! :-)

Thanks DB, Bharti and Kalva! :-)Kalva, yours look awesome!

Thanks lg and Bhags. Bhags, I have posted many recipes from this book now! ;-)

Thanks a lot Sunshinemom and Bee!

Appreciate ur enthusiasm Lakshmi and thanks meeso! :-)

Chef Jeena said...

Hi JZ fantastic entry thank you. I love your presentation you are always very precise. :-) The peanut sauce sounds lovely my hubby would love to try it.

Illatharasi said...

You could have named it as bird's nest ;)

Again you proved your presentation skills ;)

@the_whisk_affair said...

Thanks Jeena and Vani! :-)

Anonymous said...

oh noodles with peanut butter..sounds yummmm....