Ooodles of Asian Noodles and More

When warm weather hits like it has this weekend, it's nice to be able to turn to a fairly quick and easy and filling pasta salad to sit on the plate with chicken fresh off the grill. Sweetie brushed on some teriyaki sauce while he grilled them, so that had  a nice dark color and Asian flavor. I contributed a dish I'd seen on the Food Network a week or so ago.

It's called Sesame Peanut Noodles, and it has two kinds of peanuts - peanut butter and chopped peanuts, plus cilantro, lime, fresh ginger, rice vinegar and soy sauce which combine together to make a great sauce, along with a little honey and some toasted sesame oil. The recipe called for toasted sesame seeds, too, but I'm supposed to take it easy on sesame seeds, so I skipped that part. The pasta is whole wheat linguine and the salad part includes sliced cabbage, green onion, red pepper (and some broccoli slaw because I had some and wanted to add it). Sweetie and Straight Shooter both loved it and even though it makes a big bowl, we somehow managed to polish off every strand and chunk.

The most time consuming part of this was measuring out the ingredients for the sauce, grating the fresh ginger and lime zest, and juicing the lime. The pasta cooks while you make the sauce and chop up the veggies and then you just toss the drained pasta with the veggies and sauce and sprinkle chopped peanuts on top. Yum!

Sesame Peanut Noodles
from the Food Network

Ingredients
12 oz. linguine
Peanut Dressing:
1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
3 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
1 tablespoon water
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon Sriracha (I used some cayenne pepper instead)
1 teaspoon sesame oil
Zest and juice of 1/2 lime
Salad:
1/2 cup loosely-packed chopped fresh cilantro
2 green onions, sliced
1/2 head green cabbage, thinly sliced (I used some broccoli slaw mix, too)
1/3 red bell pepper, in thin strips
1/4 cup roughly chopped skinless roasted peanuts, for garnish

Directions
Put a large pot of water on to boil. When water is boiling, add the pasta. Cook the pasta until al dente. Do not overcook. Drain, reserving some of the starchy pasta water, rinse and set aside.

For the peanut dressing: Place the peanut butter in a large measuring cup and microwave to soften, 15 seconds. Whisk in with the soy sauce, vinegar, canola oil, ginger, honey, Sriracha, sesame oil and lime zest and juice in a small bowl. Thin with the starchy pasta water if needed, 1 tablespoon at a time. (Dressing should be thick, but pourable.)

For the salad: Place the pasta in a large mixing bowl and add the cilantro and vegetables and toss with the dressing. Top with the chopped peanuts  and serve.

Satay with the Daring Cooks

Street food is very trendy right now. With the aid of Twitter and the Internet and cell phones vendors can set up, even without permits, let their 'faithful' know where they are and quickly draw crowds in urban areas, sell out, then drift off before the authorities can tag them. There have been reports of that kind of bandit street food and licensed street food becoming the hottest thing in San Francisco and Seattle and other large cities. Legitimate cart vendors often have a regular place they are found by their fans and their food is also a draw and often quite good, plus less expensive than regular restaurants.

The Daring Cooks have made some of the kinds of food that work well as street food, including pho, dosas, potstickers, and Spanish rice, to name a few. I've been unable to participate in some of these challenges but hope to do better in 2010.

To start the new year, the challenge is making satay. The January 2010 DC challenge was hosted by Cuppy of Cuppylicious and she chose a delicious Thai-inspired recipe for Pork Satay from the book 1000 Recipes by Martha Day. Satay is also a great kind of street food because it is marinated, comes on a stick for ease of transportation, and can be quickly cooked over charcoal. For this challenge Cuppy challenges us with two marinades and three sauces. I chose to make the slightly more labor intensive marinade. Actually, with the use of a food processor, this is super, super quick and easy.

Juicing the lemon was the most time consuming part. I went easy on the chilies since I'm not partial to heat spicy. While the chicken thigh strips were marinating in the 'fridge, I put together the peanut sauce, again going easy on the hot stuff. I did add some fresh cilantro, chopped, and some diced peanuts. Served up on a bed of fresh baby spinach and cilantro, this was a delightful snack or appetizer. Thank you Cuppy for stepping up to the plate as host at the last minute and for choosing a food that I've often enjoyed in restaurants but never tried making. Now it will be a go to recipe for entertaining...or just because I want some. You can use port or beef or tofu instead of the chicken, too.

Chicken Satay with Peanut Sauce

Marinade
1/2 small onion
2 garlic cloves
1 tablespoon ginger root, peeled
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
2 tablespoons vegetable oil (or peanut or olive oil)
1 pound chicken thighs, cut into 1 inch strips

In a food process or blender, place the onion, garlic, ginger, lemon juice, soy sauce, spices and vegetable oil. Process or blend until smooth. Scrape into a zip lock type bag large enough to hold the marinade and chicken. Add the chicken, lock the bag, and shake to distribute the marinade. Refrigerate, turning the bag a few times during the marinating period of 1-4 hours (and up to 12 hours).

While the chicken is marinating, prepare the skewers. Lightly oil metal skewers. Soak wooden skewers in warm water for at least 20 minutes.

Peanut Sauce - can be made toward end of marinating period or right after chicken cooks
3/4 cup coconut milk
4 tablespoons peanut butter
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon brown sugar
1/8 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon chopped fresh cilantro
1/4 teaspoon garlic salt
3-4 tablespoons chopped peanuts for garnish

Mix coconut milk and peanut butter in a saucepan over low heat. In a small bowl blend the lemon juice, soy, brown sugar, cayenne, cilantro and garlic salt. Stir into the peanut mixture. Heat through. Put into small dipping bowl and garnish with chopped peanuts.

Cooking the Satay


Remove the marinated chicken from the marinade. Thread the strips onto the skewers. Cook over preheated grill or under broiler for 5-10 minutes until cooked through, turning once.

Presentation
Group some fresh baby spinach leaves on a small plate. Place dipping sauce bowl at one side of plate. Place skewers over spinach leaves, or slide chicken off skewers onto spinach. Serve while hot. The photo is at the top of the post to show how it turned out.