Recipe: Asian Noodle Bowl

I'm pretty much a maverick in the kitchen. Recipes are suggestions.

Suggestions for SISSIES!!!

Ok, that was uncalled for. I get excited.

Some recipes are extremely useful and should be followed explicitly. Such as Julia Child's Boeuf Bourguinon. Yeah, you don't want to mess around with that. Which reminds me, I need to schedule making this bad boy.

But I found a recipe for a Vietnamese Noodle Salad over at Harper's Happenings and was intrigued, especially since the creator also made the wonderful Brussel Sprouts/Bacon Rigatoni I made last week.

It got in my head that this needed to be added to our menu for the week. Of course, when I went grocery shopping, I forgot what the recipe called for.

And also, that I really don't like mint and cilantro in my savory food.

And also, that I've only had Vietnamese food once or twice, and don't remember enough about it to replicate it in a bowl of stuff.

It was a pickle.

But I believe in cheerfully working through adversity, and came up with a still yummy creation, even though it is absolutely not Vietnamese.

First, I marinated some boneless pork chops in some chinese rib sauce. Just popped the chops in a ziploc with the sauce and tossed it all in the fridge for a few hours.



Then I baked the chops at 425 for about 35 minutes. They were thick.



I put some store-bought egg rolls in the toaster oven, according to package directions. They were organic, veggie rolls in whole wheat wrappers. Mine are better.



I made a sauce for my noodles. I did about 1/4 cup rice wine vinegar, 1/4 cup low-sodium soy sauce, a teaspoon of sugar, a big blop of sriracha (Yes. Blop is a technical cooking term.), and a blip of hoisin, for good measure. I whisked it all up.



I put a big pot of water on to boil for my noodles, and then got to work prepping the veggies. I cut up carrots, scallions and cucumber.



And then I added the vermicelli to the boiling water for 3 minutes and 45 seconds. Not a second longer.



I cut the pork into pieces, while I was waiting.



When the noodles were ready, I drained them, returned them to the pot and drizzled with the sauce.



Then I tossed until they were all coated evenly.



To serve, I heaped some noodles in the bottom of the bowl, and then added the pork, carrots, scallions and cukes. I cut an egg roll on the bias and used it as garnish.



Yum.



MacGyver loved it. He was nervous that it was going to be too spicy, but I went easy on him. Personally, I would have used two blops of the sriracha, but that's ok. I can compromise.


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