Yesterday I worked on a recipe containing 4 ingredients I’ve never used before: soba noodles, chilli oil, sesame oil, and rice vinegar. They may seem pedestrian to you but, they were new to me!
Even though I have been trying to cook new recipes at least 3-4 times per week for the past 2 years, I still don’t mind when I’m directionally clueless while seeking out items in the super market; it usually turns me on to other new ingredients. I had no sense where I’d find the oils as they weren’t stocked alongside the regular canola, vegetable, and olive oil varieties. I found them in the “Asian Fusion” section and simultaneously got turned onto many other condiments and spices integral to Asian-accented dishes.
I decided to make a flavorful shrimp dish since we’re still overloaded from too much chicken and beef from last weekend. I found a Shrimp and Soba Noodles recipe from Good & Fresh magazine that I knew I wanted to adapt. I had never cooked with soba noodles and had no clue what they were. (I’ve now leaned that they’re thin Japanese noodles made from at least 30% buckwheat flour and also wheat flour.)
Like most others on this blog, this recipe is super easy and takes less than 30 minute to make.
I decided I wanted to sauté the shrimp in a traditional scampi style instead of boiling them. I also used the left over sauce from the skillet in which to sauté the broccoli heads- YUM!
The soba noodles took 6 minutes to cook and while they were boiling on the stove, my son and I made the peanut sauce –which he now claims is chief rival to my mom’s flank steak marinade!
I chopped the noodles into fork-sized pieces and then added in the shrimp, broccoli and onions. I omitted the nuts.
We loved our asian dinner-in-a-bowl! And, the best part? The cold leftovers I had for lunch.
Go on and try it for yourself.
Sauteéd Shrimp and Soba Noodles
serves 5 people
Ingredients:
- 2 pounds fresh or frozen shrimp
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2-3 tablespoons butter
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 1/2 cup white wine
- 8 ounces dried soba noodles
- 5 cups broccoli florets
- 1/3 cup cream peanut butter
- 1/4 cup light soy sauce
- 3 tablespoons rice vinegar
- 2 tablespoons toasted sesame seed oil
- 4 chopped green onions
Instructions:
- Heat a large skillet on high heat. Reduce the heat to medium and add the olive oil and butter
- After butter is completely melted, add the garlic. When garlic browns a little add the shrimp to the skillet, then add the white wine and stir so that the shrimp is completely coated with the oil butter and win
- Increase the heat to high and let boil vigorously for 2-3 minutes.
- Flip shrimp over and cook for another minute before removing from pan. Set aside.
- Bring water in a large pot to boiling. Add soba noodles and cook for at least 4-5 minutes.
- While noodles are cooking, add broccoli florets to skillet used to sautée shrimp. Use left over wine, butter, oil mixture to sautee broccoli for 3-5 minutes on medium-high heat.
- In small bowl mix together peanut butter and soy sauce. Add in vinegar, sesame oil and chilli oil.
- Drain noodles and add to bowl.
- Add in shrimp, broccoli, green onions.
- Pour !peanut butter mixture over top and toss to insure all ingredients are lightly coated.
- Enjoy
Really cool article, highly educational and well-written..Good Career