Asian Noodles With Shrimp

This dish takes me back to hole-in-the-wall restaurants in Korea where people are sitting elbow to elbow, slurping noodles, while escaping a gloomy day of rain.  There’s a level of comfort that can’t be found in a gourmet, five-star restaurant.  It’s a dish you can make for just one for a dinner in front of the TV, or for a group of people on a night spent in.  The dish is familiar, comfortable, and very homey.

 

These noodles are a marriage between a stir fry and noodle soup.  A broth is made by boiling the shrimp in water which is later added to stir fried aromatics and oyster sauce.  The stir fried bean sprouts also let out a little bit of juice which really deepens the flavor and gives it a sophisticated lift that is desperately lost in instant noodles.

 

I am definitely going to be cooking these noodles often in the upcoming winter months.  Most of these items are staple or frozen ingredients, so keep them on hand, and when it starts to rain, pour, or even snow, you can put together a cozy and soothing dish in no time.

 

 

Asian Noodles With Shrimp

Serves 2

8 medium to large shrimp, fresh or frozen, peeled and deveined
2 cups water
1 hot green pepper, sliced thin
3 garlic cloves, sliced thin
2  to 2 1/2 cups bean sprouts
2 servings oriental/japanese noodles*
2 tablespoons cooking rice wine
2 1/3 tablespoons oyster sauce
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon sesame oil

Boil shrimp  in 2 cups of water until pink and cooked, about 7 to 10 minutes.  Bring another pot of water to boil and cook noodles as directed on package.  Heat a large pan with vegetable oil and saute the hot green pepper and garlic slices for 15 seconds.  Add the shrimp and then the cooking rice wine.  After 1 minutes add the bean sprouts and stir fry.  After a few seconds add the shrimp broth and bring to a boil.  Once it is boiling, mix in the oyster sauce, sugar, and sesame oil.  Lastly, add the noodles and combine well.

*Oriental/Japanese noodles are thicker and chewier than spaghetti noodles.  They sell them frozen or refrigerated at Asian food stores.