Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Noodles with Spicy Cabbage and Pork

It seems the food I'm cooking lately is just so very...brown.  Maybe I should just call it "earthy".  Could be part of the reason I've switched to this pink and blue background since my food is somewhat lacking in color.  But the flavor of this noodle dish (once again from Mark Bittman's "Food Matters" cookbook) made up for the lack of color.



I really liked just about everything about this dish.  I loved the texture of the rice noodles; it had just about the right amount of heat for me.  I think the only thing I might do different is just go all vegetarian and omit the pork, maybe add some mushrooms.  It was pretty good left over too.  Here's the recipe. 


Salt
2 tbsp vegetable oil
8 oz ground pork or thinly sliced pork shoulder
1 tbsp minced garlic
1 tbsp minced ginger
1 head Napa cabbage, chopped (I used regular cabbage)
8 oz rice, buckwheat, or wheat noodles
3 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp sesame oil
2 tsp chile oil
black pepper
chopped cilantro
lime wedges

1. Put the oil in a large deep skillet; add pork and brown it, sprinkling with salt.  Remove from pan with slotted spoon and lower heat to medium low.

2.  Add garlic and ginger to skillet, stirring occasionally cook about one minute.  Add the cabbage, along with 1/2 cup water and cook about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Lower the heat and cook about 5 minutes more until cabbage begins to brown.  In the meantime cook noodles according to directions, making sure they don't get mushy.  Drain the noodles and reserve some of the cooking water.

3.  Toss the noodles in the skillet along with the pork, soy sauce, sesame oil, chile oil, and black pepper.  Add some of the cooking water if the mixture seems too dry.  Sprinkle with cilantro and serve with lime wedges.  
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16 comments:

Lara said...

Colorful or not, the flavors in this look fantastic!

Amy said...

Looks tasty to me!

claire said...

LOOKS DELICIOUS! not too brown or earthy for me... i could take 10 bowls of this down :)

Kim said...

I can see why you liked this one so much. I could easily eat a noodle dish like this every day for lunch. I love all those flavors.

Looks like you're enjoying the new Bittman book.

Anonymous said...

I made a salmon stir-fry on the weekend that came out the same colour, lol! By the time I added the curry paste etc., everything turned brown. But it tasted good! I'm a sucker for sesame oil, I absolutely love that stuff so would devour this dish!

Anonymous said...

By the way, love your new background!

The Blonde Duck said...

That sounds really good. Would chicken work?

Julie said...

I bet you could put just about anything you want to in there!

teresa said...

fantastic! i would slurp this right up!

Monet said...

I'm a huge fan of cabbage, so I know that this would win points with me. Delicious. Thank you for sharing with me, sweet friend. I hope you have a fantastic weekend. Enjoy the cool-down :-)

Joanne said...

Brown food is not necessarily bad food! After all...cabbage is one of the healthiest veggies out there. Sounds like a great dish!

Chris said...

I might add carrot or red pepper to brighten it up a bit but it sounds fantastic to me.

Lorraine said...

Yum! This looks really good. I love the thick noodles you used. I bet this would be good with chicken too:)

Reeni said...

The noodles look pretty darn good to me! So does your new look! Love it!

Pam said...

It looks hearty, flavorful, and so delicious!

Leslie said...

Sometimes blah looking food can be the tastiest! Sounds wonderful to me!