July 28, 2020
The longer days of summer have brought new life to the herbs I’ve been tending to by my window. The sweet, fragrant, and somewhat pungent scent of my basil plant has added immense flavor to my margherita pizza. The warming, aromatic thyme plant has infused earthy notes into roast chicken. The once vibrant cilantro plant flowered before I had the chance to harvest some for my summer rolls. With many of the herbs at its peak of flavor, I’ve been able to whip up tons of dishes featuring fresh herbs. The last few months of teleworking has allowed me to test out tons of cooking and baking experiments in the kitchen. Some weeks, I’m eager to experiment in the kitchen with combining new ingredients together to add a new twist on old favorites. Other weeks (in between grocery store trips), I turn to my pantry to bail me out on meals. This week was one of those weeks where I relied on my pantry to create meals. One of my go-to pantry meals over the years has been my cold chili oil noodles. My cold chili oil noodles were one of the first dishes I experimented with making in my early days of cooking. Back when I lived in Chicago, I would toss up a large batch of chili oil noodles early in the week. I would serve some for dinner and then save the remaining servings for lunch and dinner throughout the week. My cold chili oil noodle saved me from becoming hangry on especially long days when I had to teach high school during the day and attend grad school classes in the evenings. The early days of cooking really forced me to get creative in the kitchen as I found ways to cook from my pantry, save money, and have a delicious meal to eat in as little time as possible. I would play around with different sauces I had on hand. When I came across the magical combination of Chiu Chow chili oil, soy sauce, and brown sugar, I knew I had created the perfect base for dressing up noodles. Even after many years of cooking, my cold chili oil noodles are still one of the recipes I whip out on exceptionally busy weekdays. I was craving chili oil noodles last week out of the blue and put a new twist on the dish by adding in thinly sliced scallions, sesame seeds, and red pepper flakes. I usually like to add in tons of fresh cilantro as well, but I didn’t have any on hand. The addition of scallions, sesame seeds, and red pepper flakes really did add an incredible layer of flavor to the dish. I loved the flavors of the dish so much, I made it again this week. The cold chili oil noodles were just the perfect noodles to serve up on a hot summer day. Pair the noodles with a glass of iced tea and the perfect light summer meal was ready to be enjoyed.
For the chili oil noodles:
· 1 pound of your favorite dry thin spaghetti (or noodles of your choice)
· 2 tablespoons Chiu Chow chili oil
· 2 tablespoons light soy sauce
· 1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
· 1 tablespoon light brown sugar
· 1 teaspoon sesame seeds, divided
· ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
· 3 stalks of scallions, thinly sliced, divided
Directions:
1) Cook the thin spaghetti in a pot of heavily salted water following the instructions on the package of the thin spaghetti. Remove the pot of spaghetti one minute before the suggested cooking time.
2) In a large bowl, combine the Chiu Chow chili oil, light soy sauce, sesame oil, brown sugar, half of the sesame seeds, and red pepper flakes. Transfer the cooked spaghetti from the pot to the large bowl with the sauce. Toss the spaghetti until the sauce is evenly distributed and the spaghetti is coated in the sauce. Sprinkle in half of the scallions. Cover the bowl with a sheet of plastic wrap and chill the bowl of noodles for at least 30 minutes in the refrigerator.
3) Remove the bowl from the refrigerator after 30 minutes. Unwrap the plastic wrap. Toss the chili oil noodles a few times. Top the chilled noodles with the remaining sesame seeds and scallions. Enjoy as much as you can and save the rest for lunch or dinner the next day.
Takeaways: I used thin spaghetti since it was all I had on hand. If I had cilantro on hand, I would toss some into the cold noodles as well. I prefer to use super thin noodles for this dish, but feel free to use whatever noodles you have on hand. Whenever I chill the noodles in the refrigerator overnight, I like to toss in a little bit of a neutral oil (such as vegetable oil) the next day right before serving.