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Soba Noodles with Pork and Scallions

Sometimes I may have a hundred recipes bookmarked in a cookbook, but when I finally cook from it, none of the bookmarked recipes are what I finally make. Though this recipe for Soba Noodles with Pork and Scallions was bookmarked in America's Test Kitchens The Best 30 Minute Recipes cookbook, it wasn't high on my list. What was high on my list was trying to use the many ingredients in my pantry that seem to have disappeared from my cooking radar*. I went looking for recipes in my cookbooks that used soba noodles and this is the recipe that showed up in my Eat Your Books library.

I know that Americas Test Kitchen is all about following directions and ingredients exactly. They spend lots of time and energy figuring out what makes a recipe good. That being said, I didn't quite follow what was written but the dish was still good. Had a really good flavor. I'm sure this dish would taste excellent if you followed the Americas Test Kitchen's instructions to a tee. But it was pretty damn good the way I made it. Took me more than 30 minutes from start to finish, but then that's not unusual for me.

SOBA NOODLES WITH PORK AND SCALLIONS
(The Best 30-Minute Recipe)

3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 1/2 pounds pork tenderloin, cut into thin strips
10 ounces shiitake mushrooms, stemmed and quartered
6 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
3 cups bean sprouts, well rinsed
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup mirin
1/4 cup rice vinegar
8 ounces soba noodles (see note)
salt
4 scallions, sliced thin

MAKING THE MINUTES COUNT:
Prep the mushrooms before cooking the pork. then prep the remaining ingredients while the mushrooms brown.

1. BOIL WATER FOR NOODLES:
Bring 3 quarts water to boil in large pot.

2.STIR-FRY PORK:
Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in 12-inch non-stick skillet over high heat until just smoking. Add pork, spread into single layer, and cook without stirring for 1 minute. Stir pork and continue to cook until most, but not all, of pink color has disappeared and pork is lightly browned around edges, about 3 minutes longer. Transfer pork to clean bowl, cover, and set aside.

3. STIR-FRY MUSHROOMS: Add remaining 2 tablespoons oil to skillet and return to medium-high heat until shimmering. Add mushrooms and cook until browned, about 4 minutes.

4. COMBINE PORK, MUSHROOMS, AND SAUCE: Stir garlic and ginger into mushrooms and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Stir in bean sprouts, soy sauce, mirin, rice vinegar, and pork with any accumulated juices. Cook until pork is just heated through, about 1 minute. Remove from heat, cover and set aside.

5. BOIL AND DRAIN NOODLES: Add soba and 1 tablespoon salt to boiling water and cook, stirring often, until al dente, about 4 minutes. Reserve 1/2 cup of cooking water, then drain soba and return soba to pot.

6. TOSS NOODLES WITH PORK, MUSHROOMS, AND SAUCE: Stir pork-mushroom mixture and scallions into noodles. Add reserved cooking water as necessary to moisten, and serve.

Makes 4 servings.

NOTE FROM COOKBOOK:...avoid the darker colored sobas made from 100 percent buckwheat, as they take twice the amount of time to cook as the lighter colored soba, which are made with part buckwheat and park regular wheat.

NOTE:  My soba noodle package was a bit over 9 ounces...but I was trying to use up stuff in my pantry and not have a small portion of something left over, so I threw in the entire amount. Was it too much noodle? Yeah, but I don't necessarily consider that a bad thing.

NOTE:  Probably didn't add as much garlic as required but added a bit more ginger (since that used up the nub of ginger that I had).

NOTE: Used Brown mushrooms (baby portabelas)  and there wasn't 10 oz, but again I used what I had.

NOTE: Next time I'd cut the pork into smaller pieces.

*I used soba noodles from The Pantry Project. They were number 72 on the list of the numbers that Greg picked. Yes, I am still going through my pantry...things keep seeming to multiply because the dang pantry always seems overstuffed!

 

 

Meat Sauce Over Rice Stick Noodles

When my Mom and I decided to make a Filipino dish called Pansit for Thanksgiving, we set out to find the correct noodles to go in the dish. It's been a while since we've made Pansit and we weren't sure exactly what noodles to buy as all the packaging seems to have changed. We found some "Oriental Style Vermicelli" at a Korean grocery store. The ingredients were listed as 'Mung Bean Flour and Starch'. They looked like the noodles we usually use...where you just put them in really hot water to soften up.

Not wanting to wait until the holiday to make sure we had bought the correct noodles, I tried to find a recipe in one of my cookbooks that could incorporate the noodles. I found this recipe for Meat Sauce Over Rice Stick Noodles in the Martin Yan Quick & Easy cookbook. The recipe called for Rice Stick Noodles but I figured the noodles I had would work.

Alas, these noodles were the kind you had to boil for 5-6 minutes to be usable. Yes, it was amusing watching me stand over the noodles in a bowl full of hot water for ten minutes trying to make them pliable. I finally boiled some water and tossed them in for a minute to get the noodles right consistency.

Other than having to deal with the noodles issue, this recipe was fairly quick to put together. You do have to let the ingredients marinade for a bit, but the meat sauce comes together quickly and you can be cooking the noodles while prepping the meat side of this dish.

Great flavor in such a small package. Not serving the meat sauce on the requested noodles wasn't a problem as Martin Yan says that it can be served over wheat noodles or steamed rice (I'm thinking even thin spaghetti noodles would work). Yan also said you could add some rich broth or pickled vegetables to the recipe. I found the meat sauce had a wonderful deep flavor and made a nice comforting dish while I panicked about not finding the right noodles for the Pansit dish!

MEAT SAUCE OVER RICE STICK NOODLES
(from Martin Yan's Quick & Easy)

Marinade:
2 teaspoons dark soy sauce
2 teaspoons Chinese rice wine or dry sherry
1 tablespoon cornstarch

3/4 pound ground pork, beef, or chicken

Sauce:
3/4 cup chicken broth
2 tablespoons oyster-flavored sauce
1 tablespoon hoisin sauce
1 tablespoon sesame oil
2 teaspoons dark soy sauce
2 teaspoons chili garlic sauce
1/8 teaspoon white pepper

 

1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 tablespoons minced garlic
2 green onions, chopped
2 teaspoons cornstarch dissolved in 1 tablespoon water
4 cups cooked rice stick noodles
Chopped fresh cilantro and green onions for garnish

To make the marinade, combine all the ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Add the ground meat and stir to distribute evenly. Let stand for 10 minutes.

To make the sauce, combine all the ingredients in a bowl and mix well.

Place a stir-fry pan over high heat until hot. Add the oil, swirling to coat the sides. Add the garlic and the 2 green onions and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 20 seconds.

Add the ground meat and stir-fry until browned and crumbly, about 3 minutes. Add the sauce and bring to a boil. Add the cornstarch solution and cook, stirring, until the sauce boils and thickens, about 30 seconds.

Divide the cooked noodles among 4 large soup bowls. Ladle about 3/4 cup of the meat sauce over the noodles in each bowl. Garnish with the cilantro and green onions to serve.

Makes 4 servings.

Note: Per Yan, it's important to use dark soy sauce as it adds an intensity you can't get with regular soy sauce. I found some in my local grocery store and at a local Asian market.

Note: I used pork. I used dry sherry.

Note: I don't own a conventional wok. I own a Pampered Chef wok looking non-stick pan. It works fine  for most dishes like this I stir-fry.

Really nice flavor to this. Lots of ingredients, but once they are measured out everything comes together pretty quick. I'd definitely make this again using any type of noodle I happened to have in the pantry (or even rice).