To my horror
I realized that I did not publish an article last week. It was a crazy week work-wise and I had
a cold and I spent two wonderful days with my daughter and “the girls” , my two beautiful granddaughters (ok, also with my son-in-law). So it was crazy.
I have a
theory about colds, which contradicts my old theory about colds. I used to believe that if you felt a cold “coming
on”, you could nip it in the bud, as it were, early on with oranges, sleep, tea
and cold medicine and it would simply sulk off into the sunset. The cold would never really get going in your
system and you would be fine. Now I believe that if you “get it early”, it
will just wait a week or so and then come back at you with a vengeance. That’s
my new theory and I am sticking with it!
So let’s get
back on topic. RICE NOODLES. I love these noodles. They are lighter than noodles made of
regular/whole wheat flour. They are easy
to make, once you know how and like most rice products they have a very subtle flavor
that does not overpower your food. These
noodles are prepared without the benefit of cooking/boiling/baking, just left
to their own devices in water, but more about that later.
Rice noodles
come in various thickness, I prefer the thicker/wider rice noodle. Try all the thicknesses to see which one(s)
you and your family prefer.
Yochi’s Rice
Noodles and Vegetables
Yup, you've see this picture before, but this time I am talking about the vegetable and rice noodle side dish only!
Portion
size: A 250 gram package of rice noodles can make between six to eight portions or more. *
Preparation
time for this dish is two and a half to three hours. I know that sounds crazy, but the two and a
half to three hours is spent soaking the rice noodles. If this is a planned lunch meal, then soak
these lovelies in the morning or if this is a planned dinner meal, then soak
them in the afternoon. If you haven’t planned
this meal in advance, then this recipe not for you (not today, at least)!
All you need to
do is soak them, they do not need looking after, story time, prodding,
coaching or lengthy therapy. Just place
them in water and go about your day. If
you have pesky curious animals (that also means pets) in your home (like I do)
you may want to cover the bowl before you leave these poor defenseless noodles
to their own devices. Otherwise you may
find dead noodle all over your floor and along with a lake the size of the Kinneret. I know from whence I speak!
By the way, I do not recommend these noodles for a Shabbat meal, unless you prepared and
cooked this dish on Thursday, as these noodles tend to get hard easily and quickly, unless they are surrounded
by copious amounts of sauce. This is a
true during-the-week-dish!
Ingredients:
·
One package
of long, thick rice noodles. I work with
a 250 gram package.
·
Large bowl (a
really large bowl)
·
Large colander
·
Large wok
·
Vegetables:
squash, zucchini, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, onions, garlic, red peppers, red and/or white cabbage*, mushrooms**
* A note about red cabbage. The red (really purple) cabbage tends to bleed and color the rice noodles. There is nothing wrong with this and they still taste good. I just wanted to warn you.
** A
note about using mushrooms: I've
discussed mushrooms in previous articles, make sure to add them near the
end of the cooking process as they tend to soak up all the liquid like a
sponge.
·
water
·
PAM
·
Basic
spices:
o garlic powder
o freshly ground pepper
o paprika
o chopped fresh parsley
·
Sauce
additions: (you can add a little of each or just one or two choices on the list)
o 1-2 tablespoons of sweet chili sauce
o 1 tablespoon of soy sauce
o 1-2 teaspoons of Dijon mustard
o 1-2 tablespoons of teriyaki sauce
How to
work:
1. Preparing the rice noodles: No cooking necessary. This stage is critical to the ENTIRE
dish. I have been experimenting with rice
noodle preparation for quite some time. Proper preparation is essential for
this dish. Ah, you can say that proper preparation
is essential for every dish, true, but if you do not prepare these
noodles correctly, you might as well eat the noodle’s plastic packaging,
because that is how they will taste and FEEL.
Believe me, this not what you want!
Carefully remove the
noodles from the packaging. You do not
want to break the noodles. Prior to preparation,
these noodles are fragile. Which leads
me to another point: when buying these noodle packages, look for a package that
contains noodle “bundles” that are unbroken.
There should be no noodle chips at the bottom of the package.
2. Fill a very large bowl with warm tap water. Now how large is a large bowl? (How long is a piece of string? How many roads …? Sorry I got carried away!) I have found that the best, most
suited-for-the-job bowl is one with a bottom that comfortably fits the
width and length of the noodles. Let me
explain: you can find bowls with a wide center; this bowl can hold the
noodles and the water in its wide center area.
But a very large bowl can easily allow the unprepared noodles to
rest easily at its bottom, thus enabling the noodles to soften more quickly and evenly.
Once the
noodles begin to soften, about an hour into the process, you can pour off the
old water and refill with clean water (it should be a bit cloudy) and turn the
noodles over. I change the water and
turn the noodles about three times during the process. You do not HAVE to do this, but if you have
the time and are visiting the kitchen anyway, why not do it?
3. When are the noodles done? I
could say, whenever they want to be. But
once they are pliant and you can bite into them and chew them they are
basically done. I usually allow the
noodles to soak in the water for an additional half hour once they have
reached the chewing stage.
An important
caveat: do not be tempted into rinsing the noodles and cooking them, either in boiling
water like “regular noodles” or cooking them in the sauce of the vegetable dish. They will either become uneatable mush or end
up a combination of a very hard and very soft mess. Not appetizing!
4. Keep in mind: you are not working with wheat pasta. Rice noodles cannot get over-cooked or soggy,
if you prepare them correctly. Just keep
them resting nicely in water until you need them.
5. Now begin to cook your vegetable accompaniment. As I always say, I believe you should match
the length and cut of your vegetables to the size and shape of your pasta. So with long thick noodles, you should
prepare Julian sliced vegetables.
6. Clean and cut your vegetables into Julian slices (the kind you would
see in a stir fry).
7. Use a wok that is big and deep enough to comfortably cook
the vegetables and later hold both the vegetables and the rice noodles. Spray with PAM and put on the flame.
8. Add the vegetables to the hot wok in the order they cook; harder
vegetables that take longer to cook should be added first and then the softer
vegetables.
As you saw, I
did not list the quantities for the vegetables, as I truly believe that
there is no such thing as too many vegetables in this dish!
9. Always cook and toss the vegetables with a wooden spoon, to avoid
cutting or ruining the vegetables' (and the pasta's) shape.
10.
As the
vegetables cook they turn a deeper shade of their natural color, this is the
time to begin to add your spices. Stir
continuously.
11. Begin to
create a sauce for the vegetables. Sauce making is a delicate art. Work slowly. Add in any and all of your sauce
additions. Remember to go very gently on
the soy sauce, as this is a salt mine and a sodium killer!
Rice noodles need
a greater volume of sauce than ordinary noodles. Wheat noodle can stand on
their own and I believe, should not be drowned in sauce. This is NOT the case for rice noodles. The reason is twofold: firstly the rice
noodles are nearly tasteless and need a full-bodied sauce to give them flavor
and secondly, you want to ensure that your rice noodles always stay soft and
chewy. They can “re”harden very quickly.
12.
Once all your
sauce ingredients are added, you should have a reasonably thick, nearly
strong-tasting sauce that can hold up to the rice noodles. Taste the sauce and re-spice if needed.
13.
Now pour the
water out of your noodles and drain in a colander.
15.
At this point
you can either mix the noodles with the vegetables OR keep the vegetable
and rice noodles separate and plate the noodles and then pour the vegetable dish on
top.
a. Mix noodles and vegetables: With
tongs, add tong-fuls of rice noodles into the wok and mix. Once all the rice noodles are mixed in the wok,
ensure that you have enough sauce to neatly cover the noodles and vegetables. If not, make more!
b. Plate separately: Plate out the noodles on to each dish and then pour a
vegetable portion over it. You may be
tempted to simply pour more prepared sauce on top of this.
Do not do this! Measure out teaspoon/tablespoonfuls, do not go back to indiscriminate
portion sizes. ALWAYS MEASURE!
16.
Whatever method
you choose, leftover noodles and vegetables should be combined and saved together in one
covered dish, to ensure the noodles stay moist.
17.
This dish can
be served hot or room temperature.
Be'teyavon!
* A
note about portion size. As
we are dealing with large noodles – portion size is a difficult issue. Again the vegetable to rice noodle ratio is
high on vegetables and low on noodles, but a portion size is about a quarter of
an average dinner plate.
Treating myself.
I mean really treating myself!
I was never big on “treating myself”, with food that
is. I do believe in listening to your
body and giving it what it craves from time to time, but not, well, treating
it. Let me explain: At times I have felt the need to eat
something salty or something sweet or something a little starchy and the answer
was – pickles for salty (don’t judge…), sweet was anything from carrots to
pudding to even a glass of Cola or Sprite and starchy was – well I guess pretzels.
But actually treating myself with food
was not what I was looking for. A treat
was always a pair of shoes (or jewelry, or a handbag or clothing).
But recently something happened: I needed something sweet, truly sweet
and it had to be (drum roll please) ice cream. I can hear the gasps of
shock and horror. I understand. I was shocked and horrified myself! But I allowed it.
I asked Sid to (wait for it) buy us ice cream. What some
husbands have to do for love. Now, when I
said ice cream, I meant an ice cream cone or maybe a small container of ice
cream. What he brought home (well, you
know men from Venus and women from…) was two tubs of ice cream, in yummy
flavors. I love ice cream with stuff in
it – preferably chewy, chunky stuff. So
there we were with two, TWO, TWO (!) tubs of great stuff.
I am proud to say we ate our fill that night and
it took us several days to finish off the tubs.
We only ate the ice cream together; no sneaking a bowl in the middle of
the night; no sneaking a lick, leck or tablespoon when the other wasn’t
looking. I got the need out of my
system.
No, we did not start to buy ice cream on regular
basis or a just-Shabbat treat regular basis.
We’ve been down that road before and I prefer to send the sales girl back
to get me a smaller size dress than start with treats, if you know what I mean. And IT WAS A GREAT
TREAT.
So go ahead. Do
something nice for yourself and treat yourself.
I know, Jimmy Choo is also a treat, but I am talking about the little
treats that do not require the sale of a kidney.
Shabbat Shalom y’all!
