Sesame Shrimp Noodles

                      Alright so if you are keeping track of my Asian cooking progress, this makes my 3^rd dish! I feel pretty accomplished making a rice dish, rice noodle dish, and now a spaghetti (like lo mien) dish. This dinner came together rather quickly and featured some of my leftover refrigerator veggies. I think this is one of the best parts of this type of cooking: how basically anything you want to throw in to a stir fry totally works and taste delicious! I also recently added sesame seeds to my newly acquired Asian “pantry”, aka small section of the middle shelf of my cabinet, lol. Although the seeds don’t yield tremendous flavor, the sauce here was the winner in that category, they offer nice texture and a beautiful presentation. If you haven’t already added them to your kitchen repertoire, I suggest you do as they are easy to find and very cheap. They definitely are worth making a trip out for and once you add them to this dish or something else, you will be thanking meJ Enjoy……

Sesame Shrimp Noodles

Serves: 2-4

Adapted from: MediterrAsian.com

OBJ: TCW be able to create an Asian noodle dish that is both sweet and spicy

Ingredients:

4 TBS soy sauce

4 TBS vegetable oil, divided

2 tsp Chinese rice wine vinegar

1 tsp chili garlic sauce

1 tsp  brown sugar

½ lb thin spaghetti

20 medium shrimp, peeled and cleaned

1 C baby carrots, julienned or roughly chopped

2 ½ C string beans, rinsed and cut in ½

2 TBS sesame seeds

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 tsp fresh ginger, finely grated

Procedures:

1. Boil water and cook pasta according to package directions, drizzle and toss with about 1 tsp oil, set aside

2. Whisk together soy sauce, 1 TBS oil, Chinese rice wine, chili garlic sauce and brown sugar in a small bowl

3. Heat a wok or large sauté pan over medium-high heat, add  1 TBS oil and cook shrimp, about 2 minutes (shrimp should be completely pink)

4. Remove shrimp from pan and set aside

5. Reheat the pan over high heat, add the remaining 2 TBS oil, then add the carrots, string beans, and sesame seeds, stir well then cover pan for 3-4 minutes

6. Uncover pan, add the garlic and ginger, stir fry for about 1 minute

7. Add the spaghetti, cooked shrimp and sauce mixture. Stir fry until well combined and heated through

8. Sprinkle with additional sesame seeds before serving

*** FYI: After finishing the dish and bringing to table, I noticed that my spaghetti absorbed a lot of sauce. Because of this and the fact that I like “saucy” dishes, I whisked then heated an additional 2 TBS soy sauce, 2 tsp rice wine vinegar, and 1 tsp brown sugar. I added this on top of entire dish then tossed to incorporate.  ***