Spicy Asian Noodles At Home: Yes You Can

    

      I inherited my love of Chinese food from my father. I grew up going to our local Chinese restaurant the Harbin Inn on 100^th Street and Broadway almost every week. As I grew my travels took me all over the world and eventually led me to spend some time living in Hawaii. Why, with all that exposure to Asian influenced cooking was it so difficult to travel to my local Asian market and pick up the ingredients necessary to create one of my favorite ethnic foods at home?

     It was not until I was in my thirties that I began to experiment with unusual labels and ask questions about various exotic sounding ingredients. Through experimentation I found I had been missing out on some wonderful flavors.  Since then I have made a point of putting together several delicious and economical Asian meals I can prepare in very little time.

     I urge everyone to take a trip to the Asian markets, talk to the vendors and try something new. More and more supermarkets are including larger ethnic departments so if there is no Asian market in your area explore your local grocery store. I’ll bet there is more available than you realize.

I have fallen in love with this product called spicy chili crisp

½ olive oil and ½ sesame oil to coat pan (whatever is on hand is OK)

½ large head of cabbage (shredded)

1 med yellow onion (diced)

2 carrots thinly sliced

1 rib of celery diced

¼ cup diced red peppers ~about ½ of a pepper (optional)

1 baby bok choy

3-6 cloves of garlic ~to taste (minced)

1-teaspoon approx Chinese chili sauce 

(to taste as some will find it hot)

S&P to taste

Beginning to cook the veggies

place the oil in a large skillet

add the onion to pan and cook till almost translucent

add the garlic and cook one more minute

add the cabbage, carrots and bok choy

cook down till all are soft

add soy sauce (any kind you wish 2-4 Tbs) (to taste)

add Chinese chili sauce 
(I use the one pictured below)

(invest in a trip to the Asian market or international aisle of your grocery store)

add cooked noodles to the veggie mix and let them soak up the flavors

continue to stir and mix  the veggies with the noodles

(I made my own noodles but use any kind you are comfortable with maybe try several till you find a few you love) I used my standby pasta noodle recipe.

Total around $5.00 for this trip across the globe

Ready To Serve