ORIENTAL NOODLES AND SHRIMP

 

                                               Oriental noodles and shrimp

           This column needs to start with the proviso that noodles are NOT pasta. Pasta, the signature dish from Italy, is made from semolina wheat, different in texture and properties than wheat used for baking and includes egg as an ingredient. Oriental noodles do not contain egg, except for chow Mein noodles.  The main noodle ingredient can be fine ground wheat, rice, buckwheat or even mung bean starch as for glass noodles. Rice, glass, and soba noodles made with buckwheat are good for gluten free dishes, only make sure to read the labels for soba noodles, since some are made with a mixture of wheat and buckwheat. Also, check if manufactured under gluten free conditions.

          Noodles cook faster than pasta which is an advantage for quick meals. Raman as we know cooks in just 3 minutes and rice noodles need just need to be soaked in hot water for 3-20 minutes depending on thickness. Udon noodles are dense and chewy and come in diameter from 1/16 to almost ¼ inch.

The thicker versions of udon can be a challenge to eat with chopsticks as we found some years ago in a neighborhood Kyoto noodle shop filled with businessmen on their lunch break. The bowls of udon we ordered from the Japanese menu (fortunately with pictures) looked beautiful with mushrooms, snow peas and an egg on top, but it as impossible to snag any of the long slippery noodles with chopsticks or the small soup spoon. We struggled valiantly while the rest of the patrons could barely hide their amusement. They knew that to succeed you had to pick up the bowl, keep it close to your mouth and ‘slurp’ up those slippery noodles. My next recipe calls for the thinner version of udon noodles.

 

                                                   Oriental shrimp with udon

Boil 6-8 oz. thin udon noodles in salt water for 7 minutes. Drain, rinse with cold water and set aside.

Prepare the sauce in a small dish: 2 tblsp. lemon juice, 1 tblsp. Thai fish sauce, 1 tsp. corn starch, 1 tblsp. soy sauce.

In a pan sauté ½ lb. shelled and deveined medium shrimp in 1 tblp. olive oil and 1 tbsp. butter until pink and set aside. Add 1 tblsp. olive oil to the same pan and cook on medium heat ½ thinly sliced large onion and 3 large, sliced mushrooms for 5 minutes. Stir in 1 chopped Roma tomato, ½ julienned red pepper and cook for another 5 minutes. Return shrimp to the pan, stir in ½ cup chicken broth and the sauce mixture. Heat till the sauce looks slightly thickened. Divide the cooked udon among individual bowls, ladle shrimp on top, sprinkle with chopped scallions and serve.

Thai restaurants abound these days and present a variety of flavorful dishes, the most popular being Pad Thai. It is quite easy to reproduce it at home, even if you do not have a packet of Pad Thai sauce from the store, using either the wide or narrow flat rice noodles. The heat of the dish depends on the amount of added Thai red curry paste.

 

                                             Shrimp Pad Thai

Soak 8 oz thin Thai rice noodles in a bowl of warm water for 10 minutes (20 minutes for wide noodles) until they are flexible. Drain the noodles. Peel and devein ½ lb. shrimp and cut in half. Chop coarsely ½ cup peanuts, slice 4 scallions and chop 2 cloves fresh garlic. Fork whisk 2 eggs in a small bowl.

In a small bowl combine: ¼ cup rice vinegar, 3 tblsp. Thai fish sauce 1 tsblp. sesame oil, 2 tsp. sugar, ¼ - ½ tsp. Thai red curry paste to taste.

Heat a wok or large skillet. When hot swirl 1 tblsp. peanut oil and fry the shrimp and garlic for 2 minutes. Tip in the whisked eggs and scramble until eggs are set. Add the drained noodles and stir for 1 minute, stir in the vinegar mixture, scallions and half the peanuts. Toss together on heat for another minute. Divide among shallow bowls for serving and sprinkle the top with the rest of the peanuts.

Either one of these quick and easy dishes would also work well with chicken cut in bite sized pieces. Both make quick and easy meals with Oriental noodles. 

   (I. Winicov Harrington lives in coastal Maine and is the author of “How to Eat Healthy and Well for Less than $5.00 a Day: the Smart-Frugal Food Plan”; website: www.winicov-harrington.com)