Ever since I can remember I've always loved noodles or carbohydrates of any kind. Any kind of bread, pasta, pastries, muffin or doughnut was mine. If it was in front of me, there was a 99.9% chance it would be devoured in the next 5 minutes flat.
I also have a weakness for ethnic food. In particular Chinese food. Every year for New Years Eve when I was a kid we would go out for Chinese food with my entire family, which means the extended family. There were probably around 30 or some people in the back of this tiny local Chinese restaurant. We would also order family style so I have memories of just passing plate after plate of food around the table just so everyone could get everything that they wanted to eat. As the years have gone on and we have all gotten older and have made our own plans on New Years Eve, this doesn't happen and its rare to ever find all the grandkids (currently at 15) together at one time. But New Years Eve and Christmas Eve were the only times that we always reserved for family.
So naturally my first dish would be one that is the love child of two of the things I love most. Noodles and Chinese food. I present Scrumptious Sesame Noodles. If you love Chinese food and noodles half as much as I do, you'll love this dish. It sometimes throws people off because peanut butter is used in the sauce, but don't worry it mixes well with all the other flavors. There's the sharp and pungent flavor of the scallions and then you taste the nutty goodness of the peanut butter and sesame oil. None of the flavors are all that overwhelming and there's a nice balance of the nut flavors and the scallion flavor that go divinely with the tenderness of the spaghetti noodles. This dish is traditionally served cold but it tastes just as good hot. Its really a versatile dish that many will enjoy, even the pickiest of eaters!
Inspiration for this dish:
This was inspired and most of the recipe comes from the How to Boil Water cook books recipe Cold Sesame Noodles, which is by the Food Network Kitchens. I have made my own tweaks to the recipe to fit how I enjoy these particular noodles. So lets get into it
Here's what you will need
8 oz of dried spaghetti
1 tbsp. of sesame oil- I used toasted sesame oil but any will really do. The original recipe called for dark sesame oil.
1/2 lime (juiced)- about 1 tbsp. of juice
1/4 cup of creamy peanut butter
2 tbsp. of soy sauce
1 tbsp. of light brown or white sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons of rice vinegar
3 scallions or green onions
optional red pepper flakes
How to make Scrumptious Sesame Noodles
1) Get a large pot, fill 2/3rds of the way with water and put on the stove on high and bring to a rolling boil.
2) Once the water is boiling, add in spaghetti and set timer for 8 minutes.
3) While the spaghetti is cooking, make the peanut sauce for the noodles. In a medium bowl mix together lime juice, peanut butter, soy sauce, sugar, and rice vinegar. Whisk until all ingredients are fully combined and it looks like a thick sauce. Similar to the consistency of custard.
4) Once the noodles are done, reserve 1/2- 1/4 cup of the cooking water and then drain. Rinse the noodles with cold water to stop the cooking process and then return to original pot and toss with sesame oil.
5) Take the reserved water from the noodles and slowly add in 1 tbsp. at a time into the peanut sauce until its a smooth and glossy looking. There are pictures further down of this and what it should look like.
6) Pour the noodles into the bowl with the peanut sauce and mix until all the noodles are equally coated with the sauce.
7) Wash and slice scallions to your liking .
8)Put noodles in serving dish and top with the sliced scallions and red pepper flakes if wanted. Serve immediately!
If you need further clarification about the recipe, there is a full set of pictures and more in-depth instructions on what I did and what I like to do when making Scrumptious Sesame Noodles. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I am not a professional chef by any means. I am just a girl that likes to cook and shares my ideas with the world.
In this recipe I use to word scallions and green onions interchangeably. Don't worry, you are not dealing with two different vegetables. Its the same long green and white onion flavor vegetable you're using.
Also my pull quotes and links for social media and twitter are at the very bottom, so just keep going and you'll find them.
How to make Scrumptious Sesame Noodles
1) Get a large pot, fill 2/3rds of the way with water and put on the stove on high and bring to a rolling boil.
2) Once the water is boiling, add in spaghetti and set timer for 8 minutes.
3) While the spaghetti is cooking, make the peanut sauce for the noodles. In a medium bowl mix together lime juice, peanut butter, soy sauce, sugar, and rice vinegar. Whisk until all ingredients are fully combined and it looks like a thick sauce. Similar to the consistency of custard.
4) Once the noodles are done, reserve 1/2- 1/4 cup of the cooking water and then drain. Rinse the noodles with cold water to stop the cooking process and then return to original pot and toss with sesame oil.
5) Take the reserved water from the noodles and slowly add in 1 tbsp. at a time into the peanut sauce until its a smooth and glossy looking. There are pictures further down of this and what it should look like.
6) Pour the noodles into the bowl with the peanut sauce and mix until all the noodles are equally coated with the sauce.
7) Wash and slice scallions to your liking .
8)Put noodles in serving dish and top with the sliced scallions and red pepper flakes if wanted. Serve immediately!
If you need further clarification about the recipe, there is a full set of pictures and more in-depth instructions on what I did and what I like to do when making Scrumptious Sesame Noodles. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I am not a professional chef by any means. I am just a girl that likes to cook and shares my ideas with the world.
In this recipe I use to word scallions and green onions interchangeably. Don't worry, you are not dealing with two different vegetables. Its the same long green and white onion flavor vegetable you're using.
Also my pull quotes and links for social media and twitter are at the very bottom, so just keep going and you'll find them.
Cooking the pasta:
Start off by getting a big pot.
And filling it 2/3rds to 3/4ths of the way full with water that you will bring to a rolling boil.
And add your spaghetti.
Now I know mine looks crazy and the usual thing is to break spaghetti it in half so it fits in the pot. But I'm a person that loves long noodles so I just wait it out until the ends of the spaghetti that are in the water start to soften and then I push the spaghetti down so it fits all the way in the pot. That's just me, do it how you please. Once all the pasta is completely submerged and the water is boiling again, set the timer for 8 minutes and start working on the sauce.
See look at that! Nice long noodles!
Chopping the scallions:
Now while the noodles are cooking you will want to start the sauce. First take your scallions and wash those babies so they do not have any left over dirt. If there are any wilted leaves, make sure to take those off.
And get your trusty assistant. Say hello to Mr. Grant. This is the only part he will do for this recipe, so I put him to work.
Look at those chopping skills. Make sure to cut off the roots and discard them.
Hard at work.
Now you'll want to cut the scallions or green onions starting at the white root end until you get to the dark green part. So about half way up the scallion. Some people like to use all of the green onion, but its really all up to you on how much you want in your pasta.
Tossing the noodles:
Now once the noodles are good tender, which will take around 8 minutes, you will need to reserve about 1/2 to 1/4 cup of the pasta water. I will explain why later. I like to test and see if my noodles are done by fishing one out of the pot with a fork and seeing if its soft all the way through when I bite into it. I personally like mine a little past aldente, which means "soft to the tooth", but cook them how you like them. Once you do that you can drain your noodles and rinse with cold water, and return to their pot and toss with the sesame oil. You rinse the noodles with cold water to stop the cooking process and this dish is supposed to be served cold. But if you forget to do that (which I have a few times...) the dish turns out just fine. Its good hot or cold.
I have found that there is honestly no substitute for sesame oil. Unlike other foods like Greek yogurt which can replace sour cream, sesame oil has this nutty richness that cannot be replaced. I tried making these exact noodles before with out the sesame oil and it did not go well.
Here's an article from Livestrong.com that compares sesame oil and olive oil.
Making the sauce:
Now its time to mix together all of your sauce ingredients. Get out a medium sized bowl and mix together the soy sauce, peanut butter, lime juice, sugar, vinegar and optional red pepper flakes. I just use regular soy sauce but you are more than welcome to use whatever kind fits your fancy. But I have found that I prefer the Kikoman soy sauce. Here's an article from the New York Times that discusses the tastes of different soy sauces on the market.
Some sugar.
Here it is all before the mixing.
And then you take a whisk to it and just keeping whisking.
This takes a while to mix. Make sure everything is fully mixed together before you proceed to the next step.
So remember that pasta water you saved from earlier? Well once everything is whisked together and combined you're going to have to thin the sauce. So start pouring about a tablespoon at a time of the water into the sauce to thin it.
Pouring.
Keep mixing until its glossy and beautiful like this.
See? Its pretty thin but not super thin.
Finishing it off:
So now take the noodles and combine it with the sauce. And mix and mix until...
You have this! All the noodles should be covered equally. Now add the green onions on top and serve immediately to loved ones!
Eating at last!
I'm pretty sure I'm just a fat kid trapped inside of a body that has a high metabolism.
And serve it up.
Its a hit!
He's actually enjoying something for once!
That face.
And then there's me... I really like food.
And then we took it outside because it was raining.
And here we are cold and enjoying it!
Pull quotes :
"None of the flavors are all that overwhelming and there's a nice balance of the nut flavors and the scallion flavor that go divinely with the tenderness of the spaghetti noodles."
"I'm pretty sure I'm just a fat kid trapped inside of a body that has a high metabolism."
"Any kind of bread, pasta, pastries, muffin or doughnut was mine. If it was in front of me, there was a 99.9% chance it would be devoured in the next 5 minutes flat."
"I have found that there is honestly no substitute for sesame oil. Unlike other foods like Greek yogurt can replace sour cream, sesame oil has this nutty richness that cannot be replaced. I tried making these exact noodles before with out the sesame oil and it did not go well."
"There's the sharp and pungent flavor of the scallions and then you taste the nutty goodness of the peanut butter and sesame oil."
Twitter/ Social media tags:
ScrumptiousSesameNoodles
Fatkidtrappedinsideofabodythathasahighmetabolism
Sharpandpungentflavorofthescallions
