Asian Sesame Noodles

Asian/Sesame Noodles

Ingredients

• 75 ml (1/3-cup) soy sauce
• 75 ml (1/3-cup) rice vinegar (try to find the rice vinegar as it makes a more compelling taste. If you can’t however, substitute red wine vinegar and up your ginger.)
• 75 ml (1/3-cup) Peanut oil combined with sesame oil
• 1 thumb or 2 heaped tablespoon fresh ginger (peeled and grated )
• 5 cloves garlic (peeled and crushed or chopped)
• 500 g (1-1/4 lb) thin, long pasta such as angel hair or spaghettini
• 1 bunch scallions (thinly diced)
• 1 bunch cilantro (chopped)
• 1 of each: yellow, orange or red peppers (cored, and diced into small cubes)
• 60 ml (1/4-cup) sesame seeds (black) (toasted on a hot non-skillet until they pop)
• 1 of each: yellow, orange or red peppers (cored, and diced into small cubes)
• 60 ml (1/4-cup) black sesame seeds (toasted briefly in a non-stick pan until they begin to pop)

Optional Ingredients

• 300 g (11 oz) poached chicken breasts, shredded off the bone (if you want to add this ingredient to make the dish more of a main dish, be sure to add it just before serving: ginger and garlic eat away at chicken during a marinade process. )
• 2 cucumbers (peeled, seeded and diced into small cubes.)
• 200 g (7 oz) snow peas (blanched)

Directions

1. Combine soy sauce, oil, and vinegar liquids into a large jar with a lid. Shake to combine. Add the grated ginger and garlic, and shake again. Set aside.
2. Cook the pasta in a large pot of salted water. Drain, then return the pasta to the pot. Pour the sauce onto the pasta and set aside. Allow at least 1 hour, better 2, for the pasta to absorb the liquid. I usually make half again as much to reintroduce when I toss the final ingredients.
3. After the pasta has absorbed the sauce, toss the pasta with the peppers, cilantro, sesame seeds, scallions as well as any of the optional ingredients you’ve decided to include.
4. Serve at Room Temperature

Notes:

The sauce combination can be made ahead and kept in a tight-lidded jar in the fridge for quite a while.

If you are hankering after the sesame noodles you got from the Chinese delivery people in London or NYC, the thing to do is to add 3 Tablespoons of peanut butter or Tahini to the sauce and wisk them together in a food processor or mixer to combine.  This will make a much more viscous sauce that will stick more firmly to the pasta, instead of the base recipe, which combines slippery and crunchy.  This is up to you.  Both ways are good.  I like to introduce some chopped peanuts if I go for the stickier/peanut butter version.