| By: Sophy Huang|
When I was still living in Shanghai, one thing I was most excited about each summer was eating cold noodles. Wrapped in a special sauce of peanut butter, vinegar, and more, cold noodles are always refreshing and provide a rich taste. The various toppings also add more nutritional value to them. This time, because of the pandemic, I could finally recreate this summer taste of Shanghai.
Ingredients
Yield: 3-4 servings
Total Prep & Cooking time: 30 minutes
400g noodles (any kind)
3 tablespoons peanut butter
2 teaspoons vinegar
3 teaspoons light soy sauce
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon sesame oil
½ teaspoon salt
100ml water
2 tablespoons olive oil
Optional ingredients:
2 eggs (cook them over medium, as a topping)
½ cucumber (slice it as a topping)
1 teaspoon chili oil
Cooking Instructions
Noodles:
Add water to a pot and place a steaming rack inside. Place and spread out the noodles on a plate to permit heat to penetrate evenly.
Put the plate of noodles onto the steaming rack and cover the pot with a lid. Steam the noodles over high heat for 10 minutes to make them half-cooked.
After the noodles are steamed, take both the noodles and the steaming rack out. Shake the noodles apart so they don’t stick.
Add the noodles to the boiling water and cook for another 10 minutes, until they are soft and fully cooked.
When the noodles are almost done, cook the olive oil for 1 minute in another pot.
Take out the noodles and use cold water to rinse them. Put them into a leakage basket to remove the water.
Add the olive oil to the noodles so they won’t stick together. Stir the noodles over and over until they are cold.
Take out some noodles and add your favorite toppings and sauce. (I added sliced cucumber and over medium eggs). Enjoy the dish now!
Sauce:
Add peanut butter, vinegar, light soy sauce, sugar, sesame oil, salt, and 50ml of water into a bowl. Mix together thoroughly (you may also add the chili oil if you want the sauce to be spicy, but this is optional).
Add the remaining 50ml water to the bowl. Mix again until smooth.
Notes
Any kind of noodles will work, but noodles with a harder texture taste better. I used spinach noodles because I had them at home and modified the recipe.
2 tips on saving time: first, you may add some salt to the water to make it boil faster. Also, make sure you don’t boil the noodles too much—otherwise the taste won’t be as good; second, when cooking the noodles, you may meanwhile prepare the sauce if you want to save some time.
You may stir the noodles under a fan to cool down the noodles more quickly!
Some common and recommended toppings for Shanghai Cold Noodles include shredded eel (鳝丝), shredded bamboo shoot with green pepper (茭白青椒肉丝), and fried three slices (炒三丝).
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