Just a quick post to pass on one of our favorite, go to recipes. We cooked this up last night for friends while watching the NCAA championship game. I chose it because it’s easy to make, and doesn’t take much attention. We typically call it “Asian spaghetti” because that is the nickname given by the recipe author, Ming Tsai. It is kind of like an Asian bolognese sauce - with hoisin instead of tomatoes, and ginger, fermented black beans, and Thai chiles instead of garlic and oregano. Fermented black beans come in small bags and can be purchased at Asian food stores. We store the bag in our refrigerator until they are used up. They seem to keep indefinitely without loss in taste.
Although I used store-bought hoisin for this dish, I plan to make homemade hoisin next time to avoid the modified corn starch that is typically present in the store bought version.
Sweet and Spicy Beef Noodles, from Blue Ginger
Serves 4
Ingredients
3 Tbsp canola oil
3 Thai bird chiles, finely chopped
1/4 cup finely chopped garlic
1 Tbsp finely chopped ginger
1 Tbsp fermented black beans
1 red onion, finely diced
2/3 cup hoisin
1 lb ground beef
1/2 cup rice wine
1 cup chicken stock
2/3 lb egg noodles
1 cucumber, peeled, seeded, and julienned (we only add this when cucumbers are in season)
2 carrots, peeled and julienned
2 cups bean sprouts
Heat canola oil over medium heat in a large saute pan. Add garlic, ginger, onion, chiles, and fermented black beans to pan and stir frequently to prevent sticking. Stir fry until onion is softened, about 3-4 minutes. Add hoisin, mix together, and cook for 1-2 minutes. Add ground beef and cook until no longer pink, 5-6 minutes. Add rice wine and stock and bring to a simmer. Cook until consistency is fairly thick, similar to bolognese sauce, 45-50 minutes. Sometimes it takes longer for the sauce to thicken up, so I turn up the heat to medium high to speed up the process. Just remember to stir it more frequently. While sauce is thickening, heat a pot of salted water to cook the egg noodles.
When sauce is nearly done, add egg noodles to the pot of boiling salted water. Serve sauce over egg noodles with julienned vegetables and bean sprouts over the top. As you can tell from the photo, I didn’t use cucumbers this time because they are out of season. I have also used shredded cabbage before to add more crunch and color.
Tags: Asian, beef
