Mae West said that too much of a good thing is wonderful; I'm apt to agree. Rarely one embrace self denial, I'm often up for one more glass, one more scoop, one more kiss or one more chapter. Sometimes it gets me into trouble, resulting in headachy mornings, larger pants sizes, chapped lips, and sleep deprivation.
Sometimes, my penchant for pleasure works out for the better, because not all of the things I hate to abstain from are bad for me. Take, for instance, my nearly baccanalian consumption of vegetables. I'm never content with five asparagus spears or a half cup of peas. I happily eat plates brimming with sautéed broccoli and mashed carrots, can go through a bag of mesclun in one sitting, and will eat a whole bunch of radishes with sea salt as a hearty snack. My passion for produce is especially obvious when it comes to pasta.
It depresses me to order a dish with a name like Penne with Mushrooms, Spinach, and Peas, only to recieve an enormous, America-sized pasta portion sprinkled with nine peas, six leaves of spinach, and two sliced mushrooms. When I make such a dish, I lean ever closer to a 1:1 pasta to veg ratio. It may not be classic or authentic, but I want the vegetables to be the star.
I made these Peanut Curry Noodles with Stephen's taste in mind. Anything creamy, spicy, and a bit slurpy inevitably pleases him. I particularly enjoyed how the red bell pepper functions as a real textural component, not just a flavoring or ganish. The recipe is very adaptable. Feel free to leave out the pork or use chicken, shrimp, or tofu instead. Consider spinach or bok choy, mushrooms, zucchini, snow peas, or cauliflower for more or different veg. I ate the leftovers cold for lunch the next day, tossed with some shredded raw cabbage for crunch.
Peanut Curry Noodles
For the noodles:
1/2 pound pork loin, cut into very thin, 2-inch pieces
1/2 red onion, julienned
1 small red bell pepper, julienned
about 5 ounces green beans, cut on a bias into pieces
2 carrots cut into 2 inch pieces and shaved into ribbons with a vegetable peeler
7 oz long noodles (udon, rice stick, linguine, or similar)
2 cloves garlic
2 teaspoons Thai red curry paste (or to taste; this was pretty spicy so less is an option, but I might have liked a bit more)
1 1/4 cup chicken stock
neutral flavored oil, like canola
For the sauce:
1/3 cup coconut milk
1 1/2 teaspoons fish sauce
1 generous tablespoon peanut butter
Whisk together the coconut milk, peanut butter and fish sauce in a small bowl and reserve for later.
Garnish:
2 tablespoon toasted, chopped peanuts
3 tablespoon chopped cilantro
juice 1 lime
Saute the green beans over medium-high heat in 1 tablespoon canola oil for 2-3 minutes, then add the bell pepper and onion and saute until just crisp-tender. Remove the vegetables from the pan, add another tablespoon of oil, the pork, garlic and carrots, toss for 30-45 seconds, or until the pork is almost cooked.
Stir the curry paste into the pan. When it is fragrant, add the chicken stock to deglaze the pan. Stir in the coconut milk mixture and bring to a boil, simmering briefly until the sauce begins to thicken. Add back the reserved vegetables. Stir in the lime juice and 2 tablespoons of cilantro, and toss the cooked noodles into the pan to coat with the sauce. Garnish with the remaining cilantro and the peanuts.
Oh Mae West--I wish she could come over and have cocktails with us! And I couldn't agree more with you on the veg to pasta ratio--you've made me realise how desperate I am to go food shopping...