Recipe - Peanut Noodles

1 pound Chinesestyle noodles,
fresh
One half tablespoon Garlic chili paste
2 tablespoon Peanut butter, good
(without added sugar)
1 tablespoon Nam pla (fermented
fish sauce)
One half cup Water
2 Scallion stalks, chopped

Boil a lot of water for the noodles; this is the most timeconsuming step.

Rinse and trim scallions, then slice thinly. In a small mixing bowl,
combine peanut butter and chili paste with a fork. Mix thoroughly. Add
water to the peanut mixture. This is tricky, since peanut butter and water
do not want to mix. Start with a tiny bit of water, mix thoroughly until it
is homogeneous, and then add some more water. You can begin to add larger
quantities of water as the sauce gets thinner. The water and peanut butter
really will mix, if you are patient.

Continue adding water until the sauce has the consistency you want; I make
it about the consistency of ketchup. Stir in the nam pla.

Once the pot of water is boiling, cook the noodles until they are just
done, and not mushy. Drain noodles and immediately mix in the sauce. Toss
until the noodles are evenly coated. Garnish with scallions and serve.

NOTES:

* Chinesestyle noodles with a spicy peanut sauce This recipe is not
authentic Chinese; it was created by combining readily available
ingredients and doublechecking against a Satay recipe. It's close to a
Satay sauce, but not quite the same thing. It's also similar to a recipe in
"The Enchanted Broccoli Forest," by Mollie Katzen.

* The ingredients are readily available at oriental grocery stores.
Substitute soy sauce if you can't find nam pla. For fresh noodles, you can
substitute several packages of ramen noodles, discarding sauce powders.

* This basic recipe may be varied by modifying quantities. Vary the chili
paste to control hotness, and the nam pla to control saltiness (but the
sauce will taste saltier before mixing with the noodles). If you use this
as the main dish of a meal, it serves only two. This will keep for at least
a week in the refrigerator.

* Serve with a good beer; it's too spicy for most wines.

: Difficulty: easy.
: Time: 5 minutes, plus waiting for the water to boil.
: Precision: No need to measure.

: Jeffrey Mogul
: Digital Equipment Corp., Western Research Lab, Palo Alto, California, USA
: mogul@decwrl.dec.com decwrl!mogul

: Copyright (C) 1986 USENET Community Trust

From Gemini's MASSIVE MealMaster collection at www.synapse.com/~gemini