Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Noodles in a Hurray!

For Christmas, Alex's sister gave us a subscription to a cooking magazine called Cuisine at Home. We got our first issue two days ago. So far, I like it. There are a lot of recipes in there I normally wouldn't make, but I am glad as it will expand our cooking experience.

Soba Noodle Salad:

For the Noodles:
1 box soba noodles (8 oz.)
1/3 cup chunky peanut butter
1/4 cup low-sodium chicken broth
1 tablespoon EACH: low-sodium soy sauce, brown sugar, and minced fresh garlic.
1 teaspoon chile garlic sauce
1 tablespoon lime juice
2 teaspoons sesame oil
3/4 cup snow peas, halved crosswise
3/4 cup sliced red or yellow sweet pepper
3/4 cup bias-sliced scallions
3/4 cup bean sprouts - our stupid grocery store doesn't carry bean sprouts so we had to pass
2 tablespoons fresh cilantro
For the Shrimp:
3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
2 teaspoons fresh ginger root
2 teaspoons minced garlic
20 medium shrimp
Salt and Pepper
2 teaspoons toasted sesame seeds - we passed on these too.
Bring a large pot of salted water to boil for noodles. Cook noodles according to the package directions. Drain, rinse and set aside.
Whisk peanut butter, broth, soy sauce, brown sugar, ginger root and chile garlic sauce together in saucepan over medium heat just until peanut butter melts. Stir in lime juice and sesame oil, set aside.
Toss noodles, peanut sauce, snow peas, sweet pepper, scallions, sprouts and cilantro together in a bowl to coat.
Combine 2 tablespoons olive oil, 2 teaspoons ginger root and garlic in a bowl. Toss with shrimp; season with salt and pepper.
Saute shrimp in remaining olive oil in a large saute pan over high heat until cooked through, about 3 minutes. Serve on top of noodles and garnish with sesame seeds.
This is a pretty decent dish. The noodles and peanut sauce ROCK! Alex thought it was weird that the veggies weren't cooked up at all, but I LOVED the crunchiness of the veggies. This would be a GREAT dish with or without meat. You should definitely check it out.