Quick, Easy and Delicious: Shanghai-ish Noodles
I know, I know, it’s been awhile since I last posted. Life has been so busy lately (my birthday week, the final steps towards a new job, friend in town, etc.) that honestly, I haven’t been doing a lot of cooking. However, there have been a few meals that I have been meaning to blog about. So here goes the first one: Shanghai-ish Noodles, a meal anyone could easily adapt from Serious Eats.
Essentially it’s cold noodles (udon, soba, ramen) combined with blanched vegetables and meat. Basically, whatever you have on hand brought together with a delicious sauce. It’s a fun, colorful and easily prepared dish that uses the leftover remnants in your fridge to make a meal (read: cheap).
All you have to do is cook the noodles according to the packaging (the soba noodles took about 6 minutes and the udon noodles took just under 11 minutes) and then rinse them in cold water. While the noodles are cooking, blanch whatever veggies you are using. When they are done (3-5 minutes), also rinse them in cold water to stop the cooking process. If using egg, cook it in a frittata form and then slice into strips.
Make sure all ingredients are chilled enough and then divide noodles between bowls. Add vegetables and meat in sections, keeping in mind the aesthetics of the individual ingredients, and then drizzle about two spoonfuls of sauce above the whole dish. Stir all together and eat. MMMM.
The sauce (upper right) is simply a sesame dressing as follows***
3 tablespoons tahini (can be substituted for peanut butter)
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon rice vinegar (wine or cidar vinegar are also okay)
1 tablespoon dark (Asian) sesame oil
2 tablespoons water
1 medium clove garlic, minced (Serious Eats says this is optional, but if you know me, it’s not)
Chili powder or hot sauce (Again, Serious Eats says this is optional
to taste, aka at LEAST a teaspoon. I used a little less than a TBSP of gochugaru)
Directions:
If mixing by hand, place tahini and sugar in a medium bowl and gradually whisk in wet ingredients until mixture is creamy and uniform. Stir in garlic and gochugaru.
If mixing in a food processor, add all ingredients and pulse for a little bit.
***This made enough sauce for 4 serving sizes. If serving the dish to two people, halve the dressing and you should be fine. Eric and I put about 2 good spoonfuls of sauce on each serving which was enough.
Here is what Serious Eat’s dish looked like, proving that whatever ingredients and slicing methods that you choose will be fine:
Also, while I was enjoying the dish, I could not help but notice the similarities of it and bibimbap, a Korean favorite. The only real differences between bibimbap and the Shanghai-ish noodles are the sauce and the starch of choice, rice vs. noodles. Don’t tell Eric, but I think I like this dish better than bibimbap. There is something about the rice and spicy sauce that doesn’t make me want to stir bibimbap all together. Where as for the noodle dish, I stirred the ingredients in my bowl to my heart’s content.
Eric and I ate this two meals in a row and will definitely be making this again. I can see it being a delicious, light (and cold!) summer meal, or a meal that we make when we invite people over, since it is easily prepared ahead of time and delicious.
