Cold Peanut Noodles

When we wrote The Ultimate Peanut Butter Book, I was for a time in heaven. Peanut butter is just one of those things: comforting, deep-tasting, salty, sweet. That the French hate it so much is a mystery to me. I consider it the foie gras of America. (Well, OK, almost.)

The great thing about cooking with peanut butter--particularly savory cooking--is that you're starting with an already developed sauce, as it were. There are so many deep, caramelized flavors going on in peanut butter that you're miles ahead of the sauce-making game from the get-go.

So this easy side dish--or main course for a light lunch--is a wonderful thing on a summer day. (I wouldn't know--it's raining and cold here in the Berkshires. But I have a pretty vivid imagination.)

Start by cooking and draining 12 ounces dried Chinese egg noodles or dried udon noodles in a large pot of water over high heat, then draining them in a colander set in the sink.

Once that's done, make the sauce by whipping up all this in a food processor or a large blender: 6 tablespoons toasted sesame oil, 3 tablespoons natural-style peanut butter, 2 tablespoons soy sauce, 2 tablespoons Chinese black vinegar (or 1 1/2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce and 1/2 tablespoon white wine vinegar), 2 teaspoons chile oil, 2 teaspoons sugar, and 2 teaspoons minced peeled fresh ginger. Just process or blend until it's a wet paste.

A note on two of those ingredients. Chinese black vinegar is made from fermented, glutinous (aka sticky) rice and sweetened with various aromatics, usually star anise. It can be hard to track down outside of Chinese grocery stores, so I offered the substitute above. Not the same thing but close enough. And chile oil is the pale red or orange oil made by steeping chiles in, well, oil. It's a common condiment in the Asian aisle of most supermarkets.

See? A sauce in seconds, no simmering needed. Pour that into a large bowl and add the drained noodles.

Then add a couple minced scallions, a seeded minced cucumber, and a seeded, cored, and thinly sliced red bell pepper. Toss it all up and you're ready to serve. Or cover and refrigerate for up to 3 days, tossing it all again before serving.

Comments

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