Friday, April 17, 2009

dinner: Napa Noodles

So, I liked dinner tonight enough to post on it. I got the recipe from Rachel Ray's April magazine (it's not online, so I think she has some sort of delay to benefit people getting the mag). Anyway, it's called Napa Noodles. There are a lot of different ingredients here, but the flavors come together really nicely. Also, I found out that HH LOVES noodles. I didn't know he had such a passion for them, but now I do ... nice to know!

If you were to be into growing your own herbs (we'll see if I can manage that this summer; I'd really like to), this would be a fairly inexpensive meal ... but buying fresh basil and fresh mint sort of drove the price up. Also, I bet you could easily add stir-fried chicken to this for a more substantial meal; the only other change I'd make is perhaps using half the oil (2 Tbsp). I used 3 Tbsp and it still tasted/felt greasy -- if it seemed like things were sticking/burning, I'd add a few dashes of water to steam-cook the veggies; but 1/4 c. oil definitely seems excessive now. And maybe I'd use less noodles, because I like a higher veggie-to-noodle ratio, but that's totally subjective. Oh, and don't plan to do all the chopping while the noodles are cooking -- pre-chop and measure everything so you can just dump it in while you're stir-frying; the cooking goes too fast to do much else while you're actually in the middle of it.

On the whole, this is totally a keeper recipe, in both mine and HH's opinions.

Napa Noodles.

1 (12-ounce) package soba noodles or 1 pound whole wheat linguine pasta

1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 head Napa cabbage (about 2 pounds), thinly shredded
1 cup frozen shelled edamame, thawed
1 bunch scallions, cut on an angle into 2-inch pieces
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 (2-inch) piece fresh ginger, grated or finely chopped
1/4 cup hoisin sauce
3 tablespoons soy sauce
Grated peel and juice of 1 lime
1 teaspoon coarse black pepper
1/2 cup mint leaves, shredded
20 basil leaves

Bring a large pot of water to a boil, salt it, add the pasta and cook until al dente. Drain.

While the pasta is cooking, in a wok or large skillet, heat the oil over high heat until rippling. Add the cabbage and edamame and stir-fry for 2 minutes. Add the scallions, garlic and ginger and stir-fry for 1 minute. Stir in the hoisin sauce, soy sauce, lime peel, lime juice and black pepper. Add the pasta, mint and basil and toss.

Serves 4.

1 comment:

Sharon said...

YUM!!! I will be planting both those herbs soon -- and maybe a cabbage or two, so I look forward to making this in the future. BTW, where does this energy come from at the end of a busy work week, Molly?