Cook With Us Week #15- New Year's Noodles

Welcome back @cookwithus season 2. I hope @pandamama, @offoodandart, and @chefsteve had a nice break. When I read this week's theme was national holiday food, the first ingredient that popped into my mind was noodles. My family's heritage is Chinese and Japanese and noodles play a big part in celebrations. Every New Year's Eve we would have soba noodles which symbolizes good luck in Japanese culture and every Chinese New Year we would celebrate by eating egg noodles for longevity. As a child I remember my parents reminding me to never break the noodles because the longer the strands, the longer life we would have or better luck. Before we would start eating, my sister and I would always have a competition to see who could pull the longest strand of noodle. Instead of making a traditional noodle dish I had growing up, I thought I would make my own version of a vegan noodle dish based on a few of my childhood favorites.

Vegan Meat Sauce

• 2 King oyster mushrooms, diced small or any meaty mushrooms, equivalent to 1 cup.
• 116g fresh textured soy protein or extra firm tofu, diced
• 1 leek, sliced
• 2-3 garlic scape, thinly sliced or garlic cloves
• 1 tbsp canola oil
• 1-2 tbsp soy sauce or to taste
• 1.5 tsp dark soy sauce
• pinch of five spice powder
• 1/2 tsp brown sugar
• 1/4 cup water

In a saute pan, heat the oil over medium high heat. Add in the leeks and garlic scape. Garlic scapes are the flower buds of a garlic plant. The taste is just like garlic so if you can't find them, just us garlic. Add in the diced mushrooms, and textured soy protein. Soy protein is defatted soy that is pressed and the texture is similar to meat. I usually find this product in Asian supermarkets by the tofu. If you can't find it you can use firm tofu in place or baked tofu. Season the mushroom mixture with soy sauce, water and five spice. The dark soy is not as salty as regular soy sauce. It is used more for coloring. Slowly simmer until the water has evaporated and the mushrooms are cooked.

I like to make my own chili sauce. The chili sauce is mildly spicy but the shallots add a rich savory flavor. I find fresh Holland Chilis are not spicy enough on their own so I add some dried red chilis for extra heat. The cinnamon and star anise flavors the oil rounding out the chili sauce. Star anise is a pod from an evergreen plant and it adds a licorice flavor to foods.

Chili Sauce

• 5 fresh Holland red chilis
• 3-4 whole dried red chilis
• 1 small stick cinnamon
• 1 star anise
• 1 medium shallot
• 145g canola oil
• salt to taste

Place the dried chilis into a food processor and process into coarse pieces. Add in the fresh chilis and pulse until small bits. Transfer into a small sauce pan. Add in the shallots into the food processor bowl and pulse until finely chopped. Add the oil into the chilis along with the cinnamon stick and star anise and cook over the lowest heat setting. Cook about 8 minutes. Add in the shallots and continue to cook over low heat until the shallots are tender. You want to gently cook this sauce or the chilies and shallots will burn and impart a bitter taste. Place into a sterilized jar and this sauce will last for 2 weeks in the refrigerator unless your spouse eats it all. I know mine is obsessed with this sauce and he will add it to every dish!

To finish this dish, I briefly sautéed some bean sprouts in oil and seasoned it with some salt. To add some freshness I made some cucumber ribbons. I like to use thick fresh Chinese noodles for this dish but you can use any type of dried or fresh pasta you want.

For serving, place the cooked noodles on the bottom of a bowl, top with vegan mushroom sauce, bean sprouts and cucumber strands. I like to serve the chili sauce on the side so you can add in as much or as little as you like. The chili sauce really makes this noodle dish pop. Just before digging in, toss all the ingredients together. I like the combination of the earthy mushrooms along with the spicy chilis, crunchy bean sprouts and cooling cucumber. Happy slurping!