colleenmomof2
Well-known member
Keeping same recipe just layering in Mason jar with sauce on bottom, veggies of choice and noodles on top. Put peanuts in a baggie on top of noodles. Stir b4 eating. See image which is Italian Pasta Salad smileys/wink.gif Colleen
Colleen's notes taken from NYT comments section:
serve immediately after combining
Chinese sesame paste can be hard to find. At my local (well stocked) Asian market I found Lan Chi brand labelled as "Chinese Salad Dressing".
Added green onion, roasted broccoli and mushrooms with garlic, ginger, olive oil and red pepper flakes.
Adding toasted and crushed Sichuan peppercorns is totally legitimate, and I always add in at least one tbsp sesame oil as well to the noodle sauce.
Love crunch of fresh cucumber, and more rather than less. I like a little julienned lettuce mixed in too. Also consider slivered carrots, waterchestnuts, jicama.
Have made it with zucchini "noodles"-- so easy to make with a spiralizer.
Added sautéed red pepper, carrots & green beans to make it a meal. I made 1.5x the sauce on advice of other reviewers & was glad I did.
Garnished with cucumber but also a large mound of fresh beans sprouts, grilled chicken or tofu, cherry tomatoes, black radishes, snow peas & anything else that comes to hand. In cold weather, my old Chinese cookbook has one add the dressed noodles to a bowl of hot soup stock flavored with garlic, sliced coins of fresh ginger, dried shrimp to chase away the blues and the sniffles of dark cold winter days.
You can get a similar "feel" by substituting thick (or standard) spaghetti for Chinese noodles, substituting toasted sesame oil for the paste (but don't omit the p'nut butter, smooth or crunchy), adding cayenne pepper if you don't have chili-garlic paste, and using any thin, crunchy vegetables to garnish, including beansprouts, fresh cilantro, etc.
I usually multiply the sauce recipe many times (I use a stick blender), and add a fairly minimal amount of the sauce to the noodles when they're still warm (I like DeCecco linguine -- I don't have a favorite Asian brand, and Italian pasta can always be reliably cooked to the proper tooth). Chill the undersauced noodles until you are ready to serve, and then mix in as much extra sauce as you need -- no dryness!
From Richard 2010
https://finerkitchens.com/swap/forum/index.php?action=display&forumid=1&msgid=160347
"The key to non-pasty noodles is to cook the noodles, drain, rinse to cool, drain, then store in a covered container in the fridge for at least a day. Then, pull the noodles out of the container, sauce them, and serve. The texture of the noodle changes and they don't soak up the sauce and coagulate. The noodles stay distinct and separate and are coated on the outside with the sauce. The perfect 1980's era Manhattan Cold Sesame Noodle! I made up a Cold Noodle kit for lunches this week. I've got containers of noodles, sauce, cilantro, cucumber strips, chopped peanuts. In the morning, I'll take out a lunch portion of noodles, sauce them, garnish them, and be on my way."
Richard's recipe choice
NYTimes Takeout-Style Sesame Noodles - Sam Sifton adapted from Martin Yan, Marian Burros, and memory.
1 pound Chinese egg noodles (1/8,-inch-thick), frozen or (preferably) fresh, available in Asian markets
2 tablespoons sesame oil, plus a splash
3 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons Chinese rice vinegar (not the same as rice wine vinegar)
2 tablespoons Chinese sesame paste
1 tablespoon smooth peanut butter
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon finely grated ginger
2 teaspoons minced garlic
2 teaspoons chili-garlic paste, or to taste
Half a cucumber, peeled, seeded, and cut into 1/8,-by-1/8,-by-2-inch sticks
1/4 cup chopped roasted peanuts.
1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add noodles and cook until barely tender, about 5minutes; they should retain a hint of chewiness. Drain, rinse with cold water, drain again and toss with a splash of sesame oil.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the remaining 2 tablespoons sesame oil, the soy sauce, rice vinegar, sesame paste, peanut butter, sugar, ginger, garlic and chili-garlic paste.
3. Pour the sauce over the noodles and toss. Transfer to a serving bowl, and garnish with cucumber and peanuts. Serves 4.
Notes
1. The “Chinese sesame paste,” above, is made of toasted sesame seeds; it is not the same as tahini, the Middle Eastern paste made of plain, untoasted sesame. But you could use tahini in a pinch. You need only add a little toasted sesame oil to compensate for flavor, and perhaps some peanut butter to keep the sauce emulsified.
2. On which subject, the whole point of cold sesame noodles is what’s called in the food trade its “mouth feel,” the velvety smooth feeling of perfectly combined ingredients. That’s why you find so much peanut butter in preparations of cold sesame noodles. Peanut butter emulsifies better than sesame paste.
3. Hey, where are the Sichuan peppercorns? Sichuan food depends on their tingly numbing power! Perhaps, but the little fruits were banned from the United States from 1968 until 2005 by the Food and Drug Administration because they were feared to carry citrus canker, a bacterial disease. And while you could always find them in Chinatowns somewhere (sitting, dry and baleful, in a pile), there are few in the true cult of sesame noodles who use them in their recipes. By all means, add some if you like: toast a tablespoon’s worth in a dry pan, crush lightly and whisk the resulting mess into your sauce.
https://www.gingerbreadgirlbakes.com/2018/11/make-ahead-pasta-salad-jars/
https://i0.wp.com/www.gingerbreadgirlbakes.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/pasta-salad-jars-3.jpg?w=667&ssl=1
Colleen's notes taken from NYT comments section:
serve immediately after combining
Chinese sesame paste can be hard to find. At my local (well stocked) Asian market I found Lan Chi brand labelled as "Chinese Salad Dressing".
Added green onion, roasted broccoli and mushrooms with garlic, ginger, olive oil and red pepper flakes.
Adding toasted and crushed Sichuan peppercorns is totally legitimate, and I always add in at least one tbsp sesame oil as well to the noodle sauce.
Love crunch of fresh cucumber, and more rather than less. I like a little julienned lettuce mixed in too. Also consider slivered carrots, waterchestnuts, jicama.
Have made it with zucchini "noodles"-- so easy to make with a spiralizer.
Added sautéed red pepper, carrots & green beans to make it a meal. I made 1.5x the sauce on advice of other reviewers & was glad I did.
Garnished with cucumber but also a large mound of fresh beans sprouts, grilled chicken or tofu, cherry tomatoes, black radishes, snow peas & anything else that comes to hand. In cold weather, my old Chinese cookbook has one add the dressed noodles to a bowl of hot soup stock flavored with garlic, sliced coins of fresh ginger, dried shrimp to chase away the blues and the sniffles of dark cold winter days.
You can get a similar "feel" by substituting thick (or standard) spaghetti for Chinese noodles, substituting toasted sesame oil for the paste (but don't omit the p'nut butter, smooth or crunchy), adding cayenne pepper if you don't have chili-garlic paste, and using any thin, crunchy vegetables to garnish, including beansprouts, fresh cilantro, etc.
I usually multiply the sauce recipe many times (I use a stick blender), and add a fairly minimal amount of the sauce to the noodles when they're still warm (I like DeCecco linguine -- I don't have a favorite Asian brand, and Italian pasta can always be reliably cooked to the proper tooth). Chill the undersauced noodles until you are ready to serve, and then mix in as much extra sauce as you need -- no dryness!
From Richard 2010
https://finerkitchens.com/swap/forum/index.php?action=display&forumid=1&msgid=160347
"The key to non-pasty noodles is to cook the noodles, drain, rinse to cool, drain, then store in a covered container in the fridge for at least a day. Then, pull the noodles out of the container, sauce them, and serve. The texture of the noodle changes and they don't soak up the sauce and coagulate. The noodles stay distinct and separate and are coated on the outside with the sauce. The perfect 1980's era Manhattan Cold Sesame Noodle! I made up a Cold Noodle kit for lunches this week. I've got containers of noodles, sauce, cilantro, cucumber strips, chopped peanuts. In the morning, I'll take out a lunch portion of noodles, sauce them, garnish them, and be on my way."
Richard's recipe choice
NYTimes Takeout-Style Sesame Noodles - Sam Sifton adapted from Martin Yan, Marian Burros, and memory.
1 pound Chinese egg noodles (1/8,-inch-thick), frozen or (preferably) fresh, available in Asian markets
2 tablespoons sesame oil, plus a splash
3 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons Chinese rice vinegar (not the same as rice wine vinegar)
2 tablespoons Chinese sesame paste
1 tablespoon smooth peanut butter
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon finely grated ginger
2 teaspoons minced garlic
2 teaspoons chili-garlic paste, or to taste
Half a cucumber, peeled, seeded, and cut into 1/8,-by-1/8,-by-2-inch sticks
1/4 cup chopped roasted peanuts.
1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add noodles and cook until barely tender, about 5minutes; they should retain a hint of chewiness. Drain, rinse with cold water, drain again and toss with a splash of sesame oil.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the remaining 2 tablespoons sesame oil, the soy sauce, rice vinegar, sesame paste, peanut butter, sugar, ginger, garlic and chili-garlic paste.
3. Pour the sauce over the noodles and toss. Transfer to a serving bowl, and garnish with cucumber and peanuts. Serves 4.
Notes
1. The “Chinese sesame paste,” above, is made of toasted sesame seeds; it is not the same as tahini, the Middle Eastern paste made of plain, untoasted sesame. But you could use tahini in a pinch. You need only add a little toasted sesame oil to compensate for flavor, and perhaps some peanut butter to keep the sauce emulsified.
2. On which subject, the whole point of cold sesame noodles is what’s called in the food trade its “mouth feel,” the velvety smooth feeling of perfectly combined ingredients. That’s why you find so much peanut butter in preparations of cold sesame noodles. Peanut butter emulsifies better than sesame paste.
3. Hey, where are the Sichuan peppercorns? Sichuan food depends on their tingly numbing power! Perhaps, but the little fruits were banned from the United States from 1968 until 2005 by the Food and Drug Administration because they were feared to carry citrus canker, a bacterial disease. And while you could always find them in Chinatowns somewhere (sitting, dry and baleful, in a pile), there are few in the true cult of sesame noodles who use them in their recipes. By all means, add some if you like: toast a tablespoon’s worth in a dry pan, crush lightly and whisk the resulting mess into your sauce.
https://www.gingerbreadgirlbakes.com/2018/11/make-ahead-pasta-salad-jars/
https://i0.wp.com/www.gingerbreadgirlbakes.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/pasta-salad-jars-3.jpg?w=667&ssl=1