Recipe: Sort-of-Thai Noodles

Ruth Reichl, editor-in-chief of Gourmet magazine and former restaurant critic for the New York Times, published her third memoir last week. Garlic and Sapphires is a romp through the New York dining scene of the 1990s, following Reichl as she dons wigs and glasses and eats her way around town in disguise. From Lutece to Le Cirque, Tavern on the Green to Rocco DiSpirito's Union Pacific, Ruth (or Molly or Brenda or Emily) dines and dishes about humbling the behemoths who dared rest on their reputations, promoting (at the time) unsung cuisines like Japanese and Korean, navigating politics at the Times, and ultimately changing the kinds of restaurants that the nation's preeminent paper reviews.

Like her first two memoirs, Tender at the Bone and Comfort me with Apples, Garlic and Sapphires is honest and full of real-world anecdotes about colleagues and friends without stooping to gossip or meanness. It's a quick read - I clocked in at a day and a half - and gives you a sense of how restaurants treat different customers. It lacks the revelatory pain and personal growth of her first two books - it's there, just hastily and superficially done - but makes up for it in the descriptions of food, by turns tantalizing and stomach-turning.

I've always had great success with the recipes Reichl publishes and decided to give her Thai noodles a try. Like her brownies, lemon pasta and crab cakes, the recipe for Thai noodles had me and Mr. Food Musings oohing and aahing all dinner long.

Sort-of-Thai Noodles
Yield: 4

I cut the recipe in half for the two of us. Make sure you get the peanut oil nice and hot so the shrimp sizzle and spit - great fun! Tongs really come in handy when you're making this dish, so if you don't have any it might be a good time to invest. Pot stickers make a great starter to the meal.

1/2 lb. rice noodles (rice sticks)
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup Asian fish sauce
1/4 cup rice vinegar (or white wine vinegar)
2 TBSP peanut oil
1/2 lb. medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 lb. ground pork
4 scallions, sliced into 1/2-inch lengths (including about half of green parts)
2 eggs
1 tsp. crushed red pepper
1/4 cup fresh lime juice (about 2 limes)
1/2 cup salted peanuts, chopped
1 lime, cut into wedges
Sriracha chili sauce

1. Soak the noodles in hot water (I brought mine to a near boil) to cover for 20 minutes, until soft. Drain and set aside.
2. Mix the sugar, fish sauce and vinegar together and set aside.
3. Heat oil in wok till smoking. Saute the shrimp just until they start to change color, about 1 minute. Remove from the wok and set aside.
4. Add garlic, then the pork and half the scallions. Saute just until the pork loses its redness, then add the drained noodles and mix quickly. Add the reserved fish sauce mixture, reduce heat to medium and cook until the noodles have absorbed all the liquid, about 5-8 minutes.
5. Move the noodles to one side and crack one egg into the wok, breaking the yolk. Tilt the wok so you get as thin a sheet of egg as possible, and scramble just until set. Then mix the egg into the noodles. Repeat with the second egg.
6. Add the shrimp, remaining scallions and red pepper flakes and mix thoroughly. Add the lime juice and cook, stirring for another minute.
7. Transfer noodles to a serving plate or individual bowls, sprinkle with some of the peanuts. Serve with lime wedges, remaining peanuts and chili sauce.

Comments

[Theresa]

I made this last night and my husband and I loved it. I also enjoyed Garlic and Sapphires, almost as much as Tender at the Bone and Comfort Me With Apples. Thanks for posting this recipe because I copied it from the book that I checked out from the library and accidentally threw it out.

[Catherine]

Theresa -- thanks for reminding me about it, I'd forgotten (so many recipes...) and it really is delish.

[FE]

Garlic and Sapphires was one of my favorite books of last year, and I finally got around to making these noodles, which I'd been meaning to do since reading the book, last night. They were excellent, though it was a bit hard to mix the noodles with the pork, eggs, and other ingredients, though I suspect that was probably because I didn't soak the noodles quite long enough (I was worried they'd fall apart) and made it in a 12-inch skillet, not a wok (I was too lazy to haul down the wok from the high shelf). Still, they came out great, and my kids and I totally enjoyed them. Thanks to Reichl for both the book and the recipe.

[Catherine]

This was a really great recipe, and thanks to your comment, it's come back to my attention! I'll have to make it again soon.