Sesame Noodles
with Chopped Peanuts & Cilantro

 

Ingredients:

2 Tbsp olive oil.
4 Garlic cloves, chopped fine.
2 Tbsp fresh ginger, chopped fine.
3 Tbsp sesame oil.
2 Tbsp soy sauce.
2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar.
1 1/2 Tbsp dark brown sugar.
1 Tbsp hot chili oil
1 1/2 Tsp salt

6 oz Chinese noodles. About 4 of the rolls pictured in "Ingredients".
6 green onions, sliced thinly on the bias.
1/2 Cup coarsely chopped peanuts, of the "Lightly Salted" sort.
1/2 Cup chopped cilantro.

Directions:

In a wok, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Sauté garlic & ginger until it begins to color slightly.

Turn off the fire. Pour in the sesame oil, soy sauce, vinegar, sugar, chili oil & salt. Whisk well..

Meanwhile, cook the noodles in salted boiling water until just tender. Rinse in water until cool and drain.

Add the noodles & onions to the mixture in the wok. Toss to coat the noodles. Let stand for one hour to absorb the sauce.

Add the peanuts & cilantro. Mix and serve at room temperature.

Notes:

This will serve two with extra for lunch the next day ... or three with no left over. The clusters of noodles expand almost exponentially. So 4 will serve 2. Do not be tempted to add "just one more", because they are small, unless you just want to see what happens.

The key to this seems to be letting the noodles absorb the sauce for an hour.

This is based on a recipe from Bon Appetit, July 2007 (I think), p. 70. The Bon Appetit recipe required Thai basil ... in place of cilantro. And it used egg noodles in place of the flour noodles I used. It must be a good recipe because it withstood my changes and still got comments like "This is really good!" and "Do this again!".

Besides chopping the garlic & ginger, there is no effort to it.