Friday Feast 19 February 2010: Asian Sesame Noodles

Before getting to our Friday Feast recipe today, two quick things of note this chilly (19) and snowy Bozeman morning.

First, back when we first starting posting the Friday Feast posts (initially on Best Fly Fishing Yellowstone and later here on ChiWulff) we had no idea of how popular the food topics would be.

If web stats are to be trusted (some are, and some aren’t…) the Friday Feast category has been one of the most read here on our blog. Much to our surprise, we’ve even been invited of late to join a couple of foodie networks (one stateside and one from England). Who woulda thunk it possible?

Secondly, a couple of emails have come in this week suggesting that our food posts have been woefully ignorant of current economic times – one friendly correspondent (Lisa L. from Houston) offered this -

My husband and I have enjoyed your food posts over the past year or so, but dammit, not everyone is eating steak and shrimp these days. Times must be good in Montana, but lots of us are eating more beans and hamburger than the high dollar stuff. How about some good spicy recipes that don’t bust my whole week’s budget for high dollar beef cuts or seafood? Personally I think you’d do well to add some recommendations for inexpensive but decent wines to go with your recipes too.

It’s not the Firehole or the Madison but if your (sic) ever down this way we’ll show you where some decent redfish hang out….we fish a lot of the Texas bays from kayaks…..

Lisa – appreciate the comments and the offer. On the new food site we’re announcing shortly we’ll be reviewing beers and wines along the way; none of our crew (save for maybe Al) are wine snobs asshats experts and lean toward good but cheap inexpensive well-valued wines. Beer is another issue as most or our crew appears to be increasingly drawn to innovative microbrews….

And we’re slated to be in Houston the first week of March – how’s the fishing been lately????

Today’s recipe fits Lisa’s criteria well – Asian Sesame Noodles – it’s well-valued for today’s budget minded home chef, lemon squeezy easy peasy simple and highly customizable. Really good sesame oil kicks this dish up a notch or two.

The recipe could in theory stretch to feed a dozen as a side-dish sized serving, but we’ve also had 4 hungry fisherfolk demolish this volume of food – it would probably feed 6 to 8 normal human appetites.

16 ounces dried Asian noodles or linguini
½ cup Asian sesame oil, divided
Generous 1/3 cup or more chopped peanuts
Generous ¼ cup minced fresh ginger
6 garlic cloves, minced (yep – 6, DON’T cut back here)
¾ cup (or more to taste) bottled or home-made teriyaki sauce
¼ cup fresh lime juice
1 tbs (or more to taste) chile-garlic sauce
¾ cup thinly sliced green onions
¾ cup thinly sliced red onion
2 large carrots, peeled and sliced thinly on the diagonal
1 red bell pepper, thinly sliced

Cook the noodles to al dente, drain, return to pot with the peanuts and 2 tbs of the oil.

Pour the rest of the oil into a skillet over medium heat; when hot first add the garlic and ginger and stir for about 20 seconds. Next add the carrots and red peppers and stir for 20 seconds. Then add the teriyaki sauce, lime juice and chili-garlic sauce; simmer for a minute.

Dump the onions over the noodles and pour the sauce / vegetable mixture over and mix well.

Serve warm or at room temperature with more chili-garlic sauce on the side, and mixing in a little shredded grilled chicken or pork makes it even better.

Enjoy.

Tags: Chi Wulff, Friday Feast