Sort-of Thai Noodles

Inspired by our venture into Korean/Asian food last week, I decided to try my [wobbly] hand at my own Asian cuisine.  Again, I've never really done any sort of Asian cooking, or ever used a wok in my life, but I figured there's no time like the present.  What the hell else am I doing?

My b-fri Moll sent me this fun book for my birthday, which I highly recommend to anyone who likes food and writing.  

Garlic and Sapphires by Ruth Reichl

In it, she has various go-to recipes along the way and I came across one for her "Sort-of Thai Noodles".  I decided to give it a whirl.

The cast of characters: green onions, lime, peanuts, peanut butter (didn't call for it but I added it anyway), eggs, sugar, rice sticks/noodles, veggie oil, fish sauce, Sriracha Chili Sauce, rice vinegar, red pepper flakes, shrimp/prawns, and ground pork.

These were the guys I got at that huge Asian market!  

It tells you to begin by soaking your very thin Rice Sticks in warm water for 20 minutes.

While those guys are soaking, mix up your sauce.  This calls for 1/4 cup of sugar, 1/4 cup fish sauce, and 1/4 cup of rice vinegar.  Measure each one out and whisk it away.  And don't be surprised when the fish sauce starts stinking up your ENTIRE kitchen!  Man, that shit is gross.  But it makes good sauces I guess.

After about 10 minutes, you'll realize your noodles are way overdone, even though the recipe called for them to soak for a full 20 minutes.  You'll drain them and realize how gummy they are, which will turn around and bite you in the butt later.

As all this is going on, heat up your wok with some veggie oil in it, and throw the shrimp in to saute them and pink them up for about a minute.

Remove those guys from the wok and set aside.  It also called for garlic, and I naturally forgot to get some cause I thought I had some in my fridge, so I just chopped up an onion as a substitute.  Even though there's not really a substitute for good old fashioned garlic.

Oh and chop up some green onions too.

Throw the onions in with a little oil and get those cookin...

Then throw in half of your green onions....

And begin to crumble your ground pork into the hot skillet to cook with everybody else.

Then take your gummy noodles that won't unstick and try to ladle them into the wok.

They may dump out in one big noodle block.  Damnit!

And try to break them up with your spoon.  And fail.

Then pour your stinky sugary vinegary fish sauce mixture into the noodles and mix everything up!  (Oh, and I added some peanut butter to the sauce, and then again later to the noodles, cause peanut butter and peanut sauces taste good with all that stuff.  At least in my opinion.)

Ruth then tells us to move everything to the side and crack an egg into the center of the wok, "breaking the yoke.  Tilt the wok so you get as thin a sheet of egg as possible, and scramble just until set.  Then mix the egg into the noodles."  

There was no way in hell I was gonna be able to move my gummy noodle block to the side of anything so I got a separate pan for this step.

Add the shrimp back in with the remaining scallions (not pictured)....

And sprinkle with as many red pepper flakes as you like...

Add the juice from two limes and stir around for another couple of minutes to cook it all up.

Then it should be time to eat!  Plate or bowl your noodles, add as many peanuts as you want (we like a lot of them)...

And then add as much Sriracha chili sauce as you can handle.  I've been on a bit of a heat kick lately so I kept adding more and more.

And there you have it!  Sort-of Thai Noodles!

Though this dish turned out to be gummier than I thought (due to the thickness of my "thin" noodles and the lengthy cooking time), it was still delicious and made a TON.  We ate it pretty much every day for the rest of the week cause that's how we roll.  If you want the actual recipe, you can get it on Ruth's website here.  

Thanks for the book and recipe, Moll!

Drew and I are off to Scotland for the weekend so I won't be blogging but check back on Monday for pics!

Ok, have a great weekend!