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.