cold vietnamese noodles

serve with extra crushed peanuts for garnishing individual servings

Did you try making the iced tea last night? (Weird. I just took a sip of my iced coffee after I wrote that and it tasted gross. I thought it was iced tea...but that doesn't really have to do with this post.) It has been suddenly very hot here lately, and our air conditioner isn't installed yet (because do we really want to run it starting in May? No, not really.)

My idea for natural air conditioning is iced tea and cold noodles. Here is my recipe, which I never write down, never remember exactly how I make it from year to year, and thus always make it a little differently. Hopefully this doesn't ruin the spontaneity of this dish. Oh well, I don't have to reread it, right? Try this dish tonight. It is really great. The vinegar is cooling. And the peanuts and tofu are filling in just the right way. I have taken the liberty of photographing some of the ingredients so you can find them more quickly in the store.

rice noodle packets come in hot pink mesh, Chinese rice vinegar

ingredients (serves 2)
3 packets thinnest rice noodles
Chinese rice vinegar
1 lime
soy sauce
Sriracha hot chili sauce
sesame oil or canola oil
fresh ginger root
pea pods
carrots
fried tofu
1 scallion
peanuts
fresh mint

Sriracha hot chili sauce, fried tofu triangles

recipe

1. boil water in a pot, then turn heat off
2. soak noodles in hot water, stir for 2 minutes or so until they become a bit maleable and opaque (not too soft! they will disintegrate)
3. drain and set aside
   
4. wok the ginger (cut into short thin strips), carrots (sliced into small discs), peapods (cut into smaller angled rectangles), tofu (cut into short thin strips) in a pan with oil. add a bit of water to steam them towards the end of cooking.
5. make your sauce in the bowl you will serve in as follows: if you don't have a lime, use 4 parts vinegar (if you do, juice of one lime, 2 parts vinegar), 1 part soy sauce, 3 parts Sriracha. stir.**note, if you like fish sauce, you can add it too, but it is too salty for me.
   
6. cut the scallion and mint into small pieces, add to sauce.
7. in a separate bowl, mix noodles and wokked veggies together. cut the noodles with scissors to be 4 or 5 inches long. this will help the noodles and veggies integrate.
8. 20 minutes before serving, combine the noodles, veggies and sauce. toss with crushed peanuts. refrigerate to cool a bit, optional. **note: the vinegar will continue to "cook" the noodles, making them too soft, so do not combine too far ahead of time.