As I mentioned last week, one of my culinary New Year’s resolutions is that once a week, I’ll cook a new-to-me recipe from one of the multitude of cookbooks I own. So with trembling hands, I launched this challenge on its maiden voyage late last week with a batch of Veggie Singapore Noodles from Simply Chinese, a cookbook written by Suzie Lee. This is a cookbook I picked up a year or so ago during one of my pilgrimages to The Strand bookshop in New York City but had, sadly, not done much with since. I made a couple of recipes right away, but then life took over; you know how that goes.
I have a soft spot in my heart for Singapore noodles, so I knew this was a recipe that I just had to try. I’d never made Singapore noodles before in any incarnation, so with trembling hands I got to work.
The trick with this recipe is to have everything prepped before you get started, as once things start cooking, it all comes together fast. In one pot I boiled my vermicelli noodles; in a pan, I scrambled some Just Egg, then took it out, then started stir-frying vegetables and quickly adding the spices, perfuming the entire home with a beautiful curry-chili blend. Meanwhile, I did add one thing to the dish – some gazed tofu, which I was cooking up in another pan.
I won’t include the recipe here – Suzie Lee has a book to sell, after all – but I will just say that it came together in no time, despite some timing errors from yours truly. Also, before the dish came together I was confident that I had boiled too many noodles, but not so! The finished product had plenty of room for as many noodles as I could mix into the pan.
And about that finished product: It was a beautiful symphony of interesting flavors, from the curry powder to the chili powder to the garlic and soy sauce and even the scallions I garnished the dish with. And the flavors! They sang in concert with one another in such an unexpected way. I rarely cook with curry powder, for instance, outside of Indian cuisine, but it’s right at home in this dish. Paired with the mildness of the noodles and the sturdiness of the vegetables – and, yes, the slightly sweet glaze I’d made for my accompanying tofu – it was a lesson in culinary coordination.
LeeLee and I each ate two helpings and were delighted to find we had plenty for lunch the next day.
“Is this a recipe you’d like me to make again?” I asked.
“Yes!” was his resounding reply.
And with that, our first resolution recipe is in the books – literally. Seriously, go pick up Simply Chinese at once!
:)
Leave a Reply