Cold Szechuan Noodles and Steamed Haddock with Ginger

The Cold Szechuan Noodles are my favorite thing to get at the Tea House: http://ourteahouse.com/ in fact, my chef knows that if he goes here for lunch with friends and doesn't bring me take out noodles, there's hell to pay. Last night we decided to try making them at home. I started with Korean noodles I found at United Noodle (the best asian grocery store in town) http://www.unitednoodles.com/catalog2/. The noodles should be fresh or refrigerated and about 1/8 inch thick. Cook the noodles according to directions, about 4 minutes, you want them to be chewy. Drain, rinse with cold water, drain again and toss with sesame oil. In a bowl, whisk together 2 tbsp sesame oil, 3-1/2 tbsp soy sauce, 2 tbsp rice wine vinegar, 2 tbsp Chinese sesame paste (not the same as tahini, it can be found at United Noodle), 1 tbsp creamy peanut butter, 1 tbsp sugar, 1 tbsp finely grated ginger and chili garlic paste, we also added extra crushed red pepper for more heat. Pour the sauce over the noodles and toss. Transfer to a serving bowl and garnish with cucumber, orange bell pepper and crushed peanuts. Enough for 4 people. Use processed, rather than natural peanut butter, you'd think the natural would be better, but it's not. In fact, Cook's Illustrated recently named Jif the best for cooking. We'll add protein, probably chicken, in the future.

Steamed Haddock with Ginger- we made too much food. We needed a protein to go with the noodles so I stopped by Coastal Seafoods after United Noodle (right across the street), http://www.coastalseafoods.com/locations they were out of cod, so I got haddock. We use an Asian bamboo steamer, it's really easy. Simply put the fish in the steamer, top with finely sliced ginger, place in a pot with boiling water covering the bottom and steam for 5-7 minutes. The chef then created a sauce mixed with both dark and light soy sauce, 2 tbsp of sesame oil, 1tbsp of peanut oil, heat almost to smoking and pour it over the fish. He topped the fish with the ginger, scallions and cilantro.

We topped the meal off with a sparkling wine, perfectly complementing the peanut and spice of the noodles as well as the delicately flavored fish. This wine came highly recommended by one of our favorite local liquor stores, the SAV http://www.stanthonyvillagewineandspirits.com/ and proved that you cannot judge a wine by its bottle- look at it, it's horrendous! It's called "Sparkling 9.5 Cold Wine" and was very, very nice, crisp, not too sweet, very nicely balanced. We recommend. Bon Appetit!

We always eat what we kill!