REV: Spicy Peanut Noodles with Shrimp CL 08/03

[Dewey]

Just made this tonight and it was wonderful! I know there have been a lot of peanut noodle recipes in the last two years or so, but I love peanut sauce, so had to try this one. I liked it a lot, although it had much less "complex" flavors than some of the others, but it was super fast to prepare (which is probably why it was in the "superfast" section! ). The peanut flavor wasn't overwhelming (not that I mind lots of peanut flavor, it was just nice it have something a little more subtle.) Overall, a great quick summer meal. I used 2 teaspoons chile paste, which didn't make it very hot at all, and the udon noodles, because I think they have a much better texture than linguine.

Here's the recipe for those that haven't gotten their August issue yet:

Spicy Peanut Noodles with Shrimp
If you don't like spicy food, start with only 1 teaspoon chile paste. If the sauce is too thick, thin it with a little water -- it should be the consistency of unwhipped cream.

Peanut Sauce:
1/3 cup creamy peanut butter
1/4 to 1/3 cup water
2 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
1 1/2 tablespoons rice vinegar
1 to 2 teaspoons chile paste with garlic
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt, divided

shrimp:
1 pound medium shrimp, peeled and devained
cooking spray

pasta:
4 cups cooked this udon noodles or linguine (8 ounces uncooked)
1 red bell pepper, julienned
3/4 cup chopped seeded cucumber
1/4 cup diagonally cut green onions
3 tablespoons chopped roasted peanuts
2 tablespoons cilantro leaves
4 lime wedges (optional)

1. To prepare sauce, conbime the first 6 ingredients and 1/4 teaspoon salt; stir with a whisk.

2. To prepare the shrimp, toss with 1/4 teaspoon salt. Saute in nonstick skillet coated with cooking spray over medium-high heat for 3 minutes on each side or until done.

3. To prepare pasta, combine peanut sauce, shrimp, noodles, bell pepper, cucumber, and onions in a large bowl; toss well. Sprinkle wiht chopped peanuts and cilantro. Serve with lime wedges if desired. Yield: 4 servings (serving size: 1 1/2 cups pasta).

Calories 424 (28% from fat); FAT 13.2g (sat 2.6g, mono 5.6g, poly 3.8 g); PROTEIN 25g; CARB 51.1 g; FIBER 3.5g; CHOL 129mg; IRON 3mg; SODIUM 765mg; CALC 66mg

[Peggy]

Thanks for the review and the recipe. How thoughtful of you to post the recipe for those of us wihtout our August issue!) It looks very similar to their other peanut noodle recipes, but would have to pull them all out to actually compare.

Peggy

[Wendy w]

I got my August issue yesterday and this is the cover recipe. Sorry Peggy. Although I was one who groaned at the knowledge that they had another peanut noodle recipe, I looked at it and it does look like it is worth a try. Thanks for the review, Dewey. Will be using udon noodles for this.

[dmcgreevey]

We made this last night and really enjoyed it. Very quick to prepare and nice taste. I would add more veggies next time- red pepper or even some brocolli as it felt light on the veggies and there was enough sauce to cover more.

Definitely a keeper!

[kristalsnow7]

I made this one on a whim last night. I was too tired to go to the grocery store, and I had most everything on hand for this recipe. I loved how easy this was----dinner was ready in about 20 minutes. Now that's what I call superfast! I thought it was good, and agree that more vegetables would make it even better. Make sure to add enough water to the sauce---mine ended up a little thick and I had to add water later to get the consistency right. There are other peanut sauce recipes I like a little better, but this one is worth trying for its ease of preparation.

[Peggy]

I made this recipe last week and thought it was very good. Quick to put together and it made lots!!

Peggy

P.S. Wendy - It's not fair... You always get your issue 7-10 days before I do!

[Tina V]

I made this recipe last week and it was pretty easy and tasty. But it was a bit too sweet for my taste (maybe because i left out the chile paste? I used Jif peanut butter). Next time I will add some chopped garlic and omit the sugar.

[Kayaksoup]

Had this tonite and it was delicious. Granted, I have never made peanut noodles before, but it was fabulous. I had to add an extra teaspoon of the chili sauce. It was easy and tasty and I wish I could have more!

[valchemist]

Originally posted by Kayaksoup
Had this tonite and it was delicious. Granted, I have never made peanut noodles before, but it was fabulous. I had to add an extra teaspoon of the chili sauce. It was easy and tasty and I wish I could have more!

kayak,
now that you are a peanut sauce convert, you have a lot of catching up to do! here are two of my favorite recipes with peanuts sauces. The first one is a bit sweet and the second is more savory/spicy.


* Exported from MasterCook *

Chicken and Noodles with Peanut Sauce

Recipe By :
Serving Size : 0 Preparation Time :0:00
Categories :

Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
-------- ------------ --------------------------------
5 ounces uncooked Japanese curly noodles
1/2 cup fat-free less sodium chicken broth
1/3 cup hoisin sauce
1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 tablespoons ketchup
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
2 teaspoons dark sesame oil -- divided
1 pound chicken breast tenders
1 1/2 cups red bell pepper strips
1 tablespoon bottled ground fresh ginger
1 teaspoon bottled minced garlic
1/2 cup chopped green onions -- divided

Cook noodles according to package directions; drain.

Combine broth and next 5 ingredients (broth through crushed red peper) in a bowl; stir whell with a whisk.

Heat 1 teaspoon oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add the chicken; saute 4 minutes. Add bell pepper; saute 3 minutes. Remove from heat. combine chicken mixture and noodles in a large bowl.

Heat 1 teaspoon oil in pan over medium heat. Add ginger and garlic; cook 15 seconds. Stir in broth mixture; cook 30 seconds, stirring constantly. Add the broth mixture and 1/4 cup green onions to noodle mixxture; toss well. Sprinkle with 1/4 cup green onions.



Source:
"Cooking Light, May 2002, page 174"

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Per Serving (excluding unknown items): 326 Calories; 12g Fat (32.4% calories from fat); 4g Protein; 53g Carbohydrate; 4g Dietary Fiber; 3mg Cholesterol; 1743mg Sodium. Exchanges: 0 Grain(Starch); 1 Vegetable; 2 1/2 Fat; 3 Other Carbohydrates.

NOTES :
353 calories (28% fat), 10.9g fat, 28.5g protein, 2.3g fiber, 663mg sodium, 21mg calcium

my notes:

I thought this was great! a bit sweeter, maybe, than the others? I followed the recipe exactly except that I used fresh ginger instead of bottled ginger. I also made the Asian Slaw that was featured on that "Dinner Tonight" menu. (page 174)



* Exported from MasterCook *

Spicy Sichuan Noodles

Recipe By :
Serving Size : 4 Preparation Time :0:00
Categories : Main Dish

Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
-------- ------------ --------------------------------
8 ounces ground pork -- laura's lean and lean generation ground pork
3 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons dry sherry
Ground white pepper
2 tablespoons oyster-flavored sauce
4 tablespoons natural peanut butter
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
1 cup low-sodium chicken broth
1 tablespoon peanut oil (used cooking spray)
5 ozs baby spinach
1 red bell pepper -- cut into thin strips
1 tbsp fresh ginger -- minced
6 medium garlic cloves -- minced or pressed
through garlic press (about 2
tablespoons)
3/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes (used 1/4 and that was
plenty!)
1 tablespoon Asian sesame oil (omitted)
12 ounces linguine
3 medium scallions -- sliced thin (about
1/3 cup)

1. Combine pork, 1 tablespoon soy sauce, sherry, and pinch white pepper in small bowl; stir well with fork and set aside while preparing other ingredients. Whisk together oyster-flavored sauce, remaining soy sauce, peanut butter or sesame paste, vinegar, and pinch white pepper in medium bowl. Whisk in chicken stock and set aside.
2. Bring 4 quarts water to boil in large stockpot over high heat.
3. Meanwhile, heat 12-inch skillet over high heat until hot, about 2 minutes. Add peanut oil and swirl to coat pan bottom. Add pork and cook, scraping along pan bottom and breaking up pork into small pieces with wide metal or wooden spatula, until pork is in small well-browned bits, about 5 minutes. Stir in red bell pepper and spinach. Stir in ginger, garlic, and red pepper flakes; cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add peanut butter/chicken stock mixture; bring to boil, whisking to combine, then reduce heat to medium-low and simmer to blend flavors, stirring occasionally, about 3 minutes. Stir in sesame oil.
4. While sauce simmers, add noodles to boiling water and cook until tender (refer to package directions, but use them only as a guideline and be sure to taste for doneness). Drain noodles; divide noodles among individual bowls, ladle a portion of sauce over noodles, sprinkle with scallions, bean sprouts, and ground Sichuan peppercorns, if using; serve immediately.


Source:
"modified from Cook's Illustrated"

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Per Serving (excluding unknown items): 672 Calories; 29g Fat (38.7% calories from fat); 30g Protein; 74g Carbohydrate; 5g Dietary Fiber; 41mg Cholesterol; 981mg Sodium. Exchanges: 4 1/2 Grain(Starch); 2 Lean Meat; 1 1/2 Vegetable; 4 1/2 Fat; 0 Other Carbohydrates.

NOTES : my notes - excellent and very easy. the ground pork works well. stop and shop has a lowfat ground pork. don loved this too.

JeAnne: One word: unbelievable!! I can safely put this on the "don't need to look anymore" list. This tops all the CL sesame noodle recipes. It's savory and tangy with a hint of sweet...less sweet than the CL ones IMO. I made modifications which I'll post below on the recipe. Thank you so much for redirecting me to this recipe!!!

Oh and I served it with whole wheat linguine...yum!

[Kayaksoup]

Thank you for the recipes. I have copied them and I will give them a shot

[badunnin]

Excellent! Now I can use the pound of leftover shrimp I have cooked up in my refrigerator! (It was just grilled with S&P, so it should be perfect for this)

[LaraW]

We had this for dinner last night and we both enjoyed it. I think next time I will add some more veggies - I like the broccoli idea. I thought that the sauce could use a bit more heat so I will up the chili paste next time or add red pepper flakes.

I am impressed that we like this - the reason I say that is because we have made several peanut sauces that we have not liked as well as the one that goes with the Spicy Soba Noodles from, I believe 1999 or maybe 2000.

[honeygirl1971]

Thanks for the review, Dewey! This was one of the August recipes that really caught my eye. (Maybe b/c it was on the cover? How suggestible am I? ) I'm glad to know it's a good one.

[ssusan]

Thank you. I sat down at the computer to input the shrimp recipe into mastercook, so I could print it before making it tonight, and there it was on the site. Added bonus with the chicken and pork recipes. I love Satay kind of stuff.

-Susan

[ssusan]

Report of the shrimp: can you say yum!

Changes I made:
I stir fried red pepper with shrimp and fresh green beans from the garden. I omitted the sugar. I only used 1 teaspoon of the chile paste. I will increase it to 2 next time. Yum! A keeper for sure!

-Susan

[Elbows]

I made this for dinner tonight... another peanut noodle convert After reading the excellent reviews for peanut noodle recipes on this board, I had to try. I'm glad I did and will eagerly try other recipes I've copied here and filed away.

I used chicken (allergic to shrimp) and added some lightly steamed broccoli. Lacking a kitchen scale, I had to eyeball the linguine, and ended up with about 3 cups cooked. I can't believe the local organic/healthy food store had every kind of noodle imaginable...but udon. Hopefully I can try this soon with udon noodles.

[stacy7272]

I made this the other night and DH and I loved it! I halved the recipe (the shrimp, udon noodles, sauce) but I didn't halve the green onions or cucumber (I ommited the red pepper since DH and I dislike it) since many of you said that there was enough sauce for more veggies and you wished there were more veggies...and since I left out the red pepper. That feedback really helped. It really turned out well and I would really recommend this dish. It was also very simple to make!

[lisas3575]

I made this tonight and really enjoyed it. I thought that the cucumber made this dish different from all the other variations. I'm looking forward to the leftovers.

I served it with this edamame recipe from Alysha, which was excellent as well.

[emily]

I followed the advice of others when I made this last night and added more veggies. I juillienned (did I just make up a word?) a carrot, cut up a small head or broccoli, and threw in about a cup and a half of snow peas. I added all of those to the boiling pasta water in the last minute of cooking so that they'd blanch a bit and just strained everything.

Also, the shrimp I'd planned to use in this was used to make the shrimp and corn bisque earlier in the week, so I browned some tofu with ginger and garlic (a substitution my family was not happy with ).

Um, yeah, another also, I left out the salt and sugar and didn't miss them. I used the two tsp of chili paste and thought it could have held more. So obviously, I barely followed the recipe at all, well I did keep the cucumber, green onions and udon but I enjoyed what I ended up with. It's not the best peanut sauce recipe, but it is super quick and I like that it doesn't use any broth. I'll be having the left overs cold for lunch today and am looking forward to it.

Emily

[Terrytx]

We had this last night and it's another very good vote. We have made all the CL peanut noodle dishes and I couldn't begin to remember what was different about any of them, but they have all been good.

[RebeccaT]

Made this for a quick supper last night - and it was definitely "superfast!" We loved it!

My grocery had gorgeous super-jumbo (I only got 13 in a lb.!)shrimp on sale last night, so instead of sauteeing them to be tossed with the pasta, I marinated them for about 20 minutes in Soy Vay's Island Teriaki sauce (which is great to have on hand!) and the juice of 1/2 a lime, and DH grilled them in their shells in the grill basket. I served the Peanut Noodles on the side.

My changes to the pasta - just a couple. I added about 1 1/2 cups of snow peas (quickly blanched them by draining the pasta over them in a colander). I also added the juice of 1/2 a lime to the peanut sauce before tossing it with the rest of the ingredients. I was too laszy to chop peanuts, so I left those off.

It was a great meal for dining "al fresco" (with temps below 80 for the first night in a long time!) and having a lovely conversation with DH. A keeper!

[Lynn B]

Made this for dinner tonight and thought it was a very fun and delicious recipe. I liked the cucumber and the red bell pepper! I used 1 1/2 pounds of shrimp ('cause that's what I had) and whole wheat linguine because I didn't have udon noodles. It was very good... DH rated it 8.5/10 and I gave it an 8.

Lynn

PS Maybe my chopping skills are just slow... but while I thought that it was definitely "fast" I'm not sure I'd call it SUPER fast!

[sunberst]

i was very happy with this recipe!

i used 2 teaspoons of thai chile paste, and threw in some crushed red pepper flakes at the end for good measure.

this dish looked fantastic. there was a lot of sauce (and i used 10 oz. of udon instead of 8 oz. and more shrimp) so it was nice and creamy & peanutty.

however, i do not wish there were more veggies like some others stated. i felt the amount was perfect, and it was more reminiscent of traditional asian noodle dishes where there are not a whole lot of veggies or meat. you could definitely add more if thats your thing because there is a decent amount of sauce to spread around a little further.

served this with torn green leaf lettuce & a sesame miso dressing. dessert was going to be vanilla icecream with sliced starfruit, but we were so full after this meal, no room for dessert!

[Pony]

Finally made this recipe! We are both fans of peanut sauces and this did not disappoint. Only change I made was to saute the red peppers instead of leaving them raw. Looking forward to leftovers tonight!!

Michelle