Noodles Archives - Aayi's Recipes

Stir Fried Noodles (With Homemade Sauce)

10 Comments / Noodles, Simple and Easy / By Shilpa

I have always been a big fan of stir fried noodles. I remember during college days, my roommate and I used to go to different restaurants to try out different types of noodles. Even though I like to get a take-out from Asian restaurants here, I do not remember when was the last time I had any of these dishes. I don’t use any ready made sauces these days, so I could not try it at home too. But last week when I was on my usual grocery shopping, I saw a pack of soba noodles and could not resist buying it. I also picked some frozen edamame beans for the first time. Now I had to come up with a recipe that did not use any ready made sauces. This is not any authentic recipe, but it sure tastes great.

Ingredients:
1 pack soba noodles
2 cups vegetables & fruits – carrots, beans, edamame, pineapple
1/4 cup onion
1 tbl spn ginger
1 tbl spn roasted sesame seeds
1/2 tea spn thick tamarind juice
1-2 tea spns red chutney
1-2 tea spns jaggery (or brown sugar)
Oil
Salt

Red chutney – Take about 10 red chillies, 1 tea spn chopped garlic and pour some hot water on it (or add room temperature water and microwave for 1min). Then grind to a smooth paste. Store in air tight container. This chutney can also be used for dosas.

Method:
Take carrots, beans, edamame in a microwave safe bowl, add very little water and microwave for 2mins (I did this because Ishaan cannot eat completely raw vegetables yet. This step can be skipped if you like crunchy vegetables).
Cook noodles according to package instructions and keep it aside.
Heat 1/4 cup water and add red chutney, tamarind and jaggery to it. Let it boil till the sauce thickens.
In a wok, heat oil and add onion and ginger. Fry for a few minutes and then add vegetables and pineapple. Fry on a high heat for a while. Now add sauce, salt and noodles. Mix well. Take off heat.
Add roasted sesame seeds. Serve hot.

Serves : 3-4
Preparation time : 30mins

Pictorial:

Spaghetti In Vegetable Sauce

7 Comments / Baby/Kid friendly, Noodles / By Shilpa

These days my cooking has been limited to very basic and easy dishes. As any moms with a year old toddler would agree with me, I hardly have any free time on hands. I try my best to make fresh lunch and dinner every day. Most of the dishes on the menu are decided based on what Ishaan likes to eat. The hardest part for me so far has been deciding his lunch. It has to be fresh, healthy and also something he can eat by himself. Most of the days I end up making some pasta or noodles dish. I try to sneak in as many vegetables as possible. This is one such dish which he really loves. This is actually one of my favorite lunchbox item too.

Ingredients:
1/2 pack spaghetti (I normally use wheat spaghetti)
2 tomatoes
1/2 cup onion
1/2 cup carrots
1/2 cup red bellpepper
Olive oil/butter
Black pepper (according to taste)
Salt

Method:
Cook spaghetti in salted water according to package instructions.
Blanch the tomatoes in hot water for few minutes. I just add the tomatoes to the pot in which I cook spaghetti for a few minutes. Then take out the tomatoes.
Heat oil or butter and add onions, carrots, red bellpepper. Cook on a medium heat till the vegetables are soft. With a spoon, take out half the amount of this vegetable mix and grind it with tomatoes to a smooth paste.
Add the paste and spaghetti to remaining vegetable mix. Add salt and black pepper. Cook for a min and serve hot.

Serves : 2
Preparation time : 30mins

Pictorial:

Spicy Vegetable Noodles

28 Comments / Noodles / By Shilpa

I had mentioned about our love for Mongolean grill here in US. The best part of it is, we can make the dish according to our own taste. While I like to put almost everything that is available – all vegetables, some chicken, some seafood, most of the sauces, some spices in mine – I usually don’t even remember what went into my bowl, V is very particular about what goes in his bowl. My food tastes different every single time and I like it slightly spicy and sweetish, he usually likes it hot.

It was on my to-do list for a long time to make his version at home. The only noodles I had on hand were Pad Thai noodles. Since he is not a big fan of Pad Thai, I thought of making something else with these noodles. I asked him what are the sauces he uses at Mongolean grill. His sauces were pretty simple. Since I did not have the exact sauces or vegetables, so used the sauce that I had and the final result was really great. I also added some peanut powder to give a crunch – which was actually a replacement for roasted sesame seeds, I was out of my sesame seeds stock. We both enjoyed a hearty dinner (which took hardly any time to put together). I am going to stick to this recipe hereafter. Any kind of noodles can be used for this.

Ingredients:
1/2 lb noodles
2 cups vegetables (snow peas, carrot, onion, red and yellow bellpeppers)
1 tbl spn lemon juice
2 tbl spn coarsely powdered roasted peanuts
Olive oil

Sauce (mix together):
2 tbl spns red chilli sauce
1 tea spn brown sugar
1/2 tea spn ginger powder
2 tea spn chopped garlic
Salt

Method:
Cook noodles according to packet instructions. Keep aside.
Heat olive oil in a thick bottomed pan (ideally use a stir fry pan, I don’t have it, so used a thick bottomed pan).
Add all vegetables and fry for about 2 mins. Add noodles and the sauce mixture. Mix well, if it becomes too dry, you can add little starchy water used for cooking the noodles. Spread peanut powder and mix well. Add the lemon juice, mix and take off the heat.
Serve hot.

Serves : 2
Preparation time : 30mins

Pictorial:

Pad Thai

28 Comments / Noodles, Simple and Easy, Thai / By Shilpa

Few days ago, we had invited our friends for dinner. Our friend Jyoti told us, she makes this delicious Pad Thai atleast once a week to take in her lunch box. What interested me most was the fact that she told me, she does not use any kind of sauces in it. Though I have used Soy sauce, fish sauce etc in the past, I am making a conscious effort not to use them now due to various reasons. The only sauce I have on hand these days is hot sauce. I asked Jyoti for her recipe. I made some minor modifications and absolutely loved the end result. This is not a traditional Thai recipe, but I can safely say it is a healthy and easy version of the classic.

Read more about Pad thai. Check Nupur’s version.
I don’t have exact measurements for this. I used whatever vegetables I had on hand instead of buying specially for the dish.

Ingredients:
1/2 lb Pad Thai noodles
1 Egg
1 tea spn garlic
1 tea spn red chilli flakes
1 tea spn red chilli sauce
2-3 tbl spn brown sugar
3 tbl spns coarse peanut powder
1 tbl spn coriander leaves
2 tbl spns lemon juice
Oil
Salt
Vegetables –
Green beans cut into thin long pieces
Carrot cut into thin long pieces
Snow peas
Zucchini
Extra firm Tofu (did not use these)
Bean sprouts (did not use these)
Broccoli (did not use these)

Method:
Cook noodles according to packet instructions.
Heat 2 tbl spns water, sugar and red chilli flakes till it thickens a bit.
Heat oil in a big wok and add tofu. Stir fry them for few minutes. With a spoon, push them to a side of wok and add eggs in the remaining space. Scramble the eggs.
Now add all the vegetables, garlic and fry them for few minutes. Let them cook for a bit.
Add cooked noodles, salt and the prepared sugar-red chilli sauce. Add the red chilli sauce(if using). Mix everything well. (Taste it at this point and add more chilli flakes or sugar if necessary).
Add lemon juice, peanut powder and mix well.
Garnish with coriander leaves and serve hot.

Serves : 1-2

American chopseuy

44 Comments / Noodles / By Shilpa

I remember that day in Belgaum, my friend and I had been to shopping. We got late and thought of having food in our favorite tiny restaurant. We wanted to try some dish with noodles – according to us, everything with noodles was Chinese dish :). We were a little surprised to see a dish with the name American Chopseuy in the Chinese list because we were confused to why an American dish is in Chinese list. We wanted to give it a try. For those who have never been to such restaurants in India, any non Indian dish is converted to suit Indian palate, so no matter what you order, it will be quite hot, no bland dishes.

Now, coming back to our order, we had to wait for a while to get our Chopseuy served. But when the waiter came with it, we were shocked. We could see everyone around us, including the waiter, were laughing at us. It was a huge pile of crispy noodles, which looked like a bird’s nest, having some kind of sauce on it. No need to say, we could not even finish half of it. From then on we didn’t try it again anytime in restuarants.

That continued till my final year of college. One day, we had been studying something at my friend Ameet’s home. He asked his mom to make this American Chopseuy and he gave the instructions. I still remember the taste of it. It was awesome. Last few months, I pestered him till he gave me the recipe. Since then I have prepared it many times. Â We both love this.Â

I follow Vivnidhi’s method of baking the noodles instead of deep frying it. It needs some baby sitting to see the noodles are equally crisped up, but definitely, it is a healthy version.

I have never seen this dish in any restaurants here so far. So I really don’t know if there is any connection between America and American chopseuy :). So please enlighten me if any of you know more about it.

Ingredients:
1 chunk maggie noodles (I use 1/2 packet soba noodles or hakka noodles)
1/2 cup onion slices
1/4 cup green capsicum
1/4 cup cabbage
1/4 cup carrot
1/2 tea spn garlic paste
1 tea spn ginger paste
3 tbl spns (approx) tomato ketchup
1/2 tea spn soya sauce
1/2 tea spn chilli sauce Â or 1 green chilli
1/4 tea spn red chilli powder
Oil
Salt

Method:
Chop all vegetables into thin strips.
Boil the noodles in salted water according to packet instructions until cooked. make sure you don’t overcook them. Drain, pour 1 tea spn of oil over it and toss the noodles. This ensures that the noodles don’t stick.

Heat oil and deep fry the noodles in batches until Â crispy , golden in colour. Remove on a kitchen towel. (Or line them on a baking sheet and bake on on low heat till they crisp).

For the Sauce – Heat oil in a shallow pan and add onions. Saute for 1 minute, add capsicum and cabbage (and carrots, if using). Reserve few shreds of cabbage for garnishing later. Stir Â constantly for 5 mins until they seem only 75% cooked.
Add garlic, ginger and chilli sauce/chilli. Stir for 30 secs.
Â Add soya sauce stir, then add tomato sauce. Stir continuously adding water to thin the sauce according to the consistency desired. Bring to boil while stirring constantly.

Serving – Put crisp noodles in to serving bowl/plate and pour in the sauce over it. Garnish with cabbage shreds.

Serves : 2
Preparation time : 45mins

PS: I used green beans because I wanted to use out some that I had. Also, since I was not having green capsicum, I used the yellow one.

Vegetable and noodle stir fry

30 Comments / Noodles / By Shilpa

Last few days, due to various reasons, my number of cooking experiments have drastically gone down. I look for some easy dinners which can be made in no time and are equally delicious. What else can fit in this situation other than a simple stir fried noodle dish loaded with vegetables?

I have liked all kinds of noodle dishes for a long time now. Remember those Indo-Chinese dishes available in almost every restaurant back home? I was missing them for a long time now. Then after drooling over one post after another by fellow bloggers, I picked up a pack of soba noodles a couple of days ago. Well, I didn’t know they were soba noodles till I cut opened the pack while making this stir fry, I had picked it up randomly on one of my shopping sprees (yeah..I do that a lot. Just pick up something that looks interesting and then figure out what to do with it).

Then my experiments with it began. I used different sauces that I had with me. Finally I got this combination, which we have really loved. I am making this a lot these days. This is my entry to Archana’s one dish meal event.

Ingredients:
1/2 packet noodles (Hakka noodles or soba noodles, the pack I used weighed 200gms)
2 cups vegetables (onion, capsicum, tofu, carrots, beans all chopped in long strips)
2 tea spns hot chilli sauce
1 tea spn worcestershire sauce
1 tea spn vinegar
1-2 tea spns brown sugar
2 tea spns soya sauce
1/4 tea spn freshly ground pepper
1 tea spn fresh ginger-garlic paste
Oil
Salt

PS: Change the quantity of sauces according to taste. You can leave out worcestershire sauce if you don’t have it.

Method:
Cook the noodles according to packet instructions with enough salt. Run cold water over it to avoid it getting soggy.
In a large pan, heat oil, add vegetables and ginger-garlic paste. Fry for few minutes till the vegetables are half cooked but still have the crunch.
Now add all the sauces, sugar, pepper and little salt. Add noodles, fry for few more minutes.
Serve immediately.

Serves : 2
Preparation time : 20mins

Noodles stir fry – A Mongolean grill mock up

27 Comments / Noodles / By Shilpa

We have been trying different cuisines these days. Our latest favorite being Mongolean Grill – BD’s and Genghis Khan. Those who have not been to this restaurant – they have this big collection of vegetables, meat, sauces, dry powders. You can build your own bowl, add whatever vegetables, meat, sauce, spices you want to add and take it to a big frying pan. The chefs empty the entire content on this big pan and use two big iron rod kind of things to flip the content, something like shown in this ad. The final product is a bowl of perfectly fried vegetable/meat mix. Since we build up the whole dish, we can change it according to our taste. Somehow the frying method takes these dishes to a whole new level. I love to watch those chefs do the frying so artistically. When my parents were here, we had taken them to many different restaurants and their favorite was Mongolean.

Though they have all kinds of veggies and meats, the way I build up mine is like this – I add the veggies that I recognize, then goes few shrimps, chicken pieces, few sauces – basically those I can recognize, then I add a generous amount of curry powder, chili powder, salt, garlic powder. Usually one bowl is quite big and very filling. Once the chefs fry it, I add a generous amount of fried sesame on top. Ohh..Yumm…

Now that we love it so much, I wanted to make at least a mock up stir fry at home. Usually I throw in whatever I have in hand. But I usually like to keep it mild. Since I don’t have the curry powder they use, I add a Madras curry powder(I have a huge pack of this and have no idea how to finish this off). I don’t like garam masala, coriander-cumin in this because they make this dish totally Indian. Both in BD’s and Genghis Khan, a kind of egg noodles is included, which also gets fried with other stuff, if we choose to add it to our bowl. When I am making this at home, I use thin rice noodles. I tried to use Maggi once and it was a huge flop :).

I keep changing the proportions to suit my taste. How you want to make it is your choice. You can totally replace any of the ingredients here. You can even make it a combination of vegetables and meats. I just prefer to make it all veg at home. Just fry everything at a time till all are well cooked. This has become a perfect lunch box item for me and my hubby for last 2 months – less work, healthy, tasty and very filling.

Ingredients:
2 cups of vegetables sliced – onions, capsicum, bean sprouts, zucchini, potatoes, cauliflower, celery, corn
1 cup of cooked and drained rice noodles (or egg noodles)
1/2 tea spn curry powder
1/2 tea spn chili powder
1/2 tea spn vinegar
1 tea spn soy sauce
1/2 tea spn sugar
1 tea spn worcestershire sauce
1/4 tea spn Tabasco sauce
1/2 tea spn fresh chopped ginger
1/2 tea spn fresh chopped garlic
1 tea spn roasted sesame seeds
Oil
Salt

Method:
Heat oil in a big frying pan. Throw in all the veggies, ginger, garlic and fry for about 3-4 mins till the veggies become a bit soft. (I don’t add everything at one time because it requires constant stirring and high heat to cook evenly. So I wait till veggies are bit soft and then add the sauces/spices).

Add all sauces, spice powders, salt and mix for some more time till the veggies are 3/4th cooked. Do not let them cook completely. They should be crunchy.

Now add the noodles and keep mixing for another 3-4 mins.

While serving, top it with fried sesame seeds.

Serves : 2
Preparation time : 20mins

PS: Following is my entry to Jai and Bee’s Click photography event. This month’s theme is Noodles.