Tuesday, February 09, 2010

My Love/Hate Affair with Cooking Light....

I have always loved the healthy recipes from Cooking Light but never liked the layout of the magazine. I would give it a try for a few issues but then the jumble of recipes and lack of photos inevitably turned me off and I would abandon the magazine...

so you can imagine my delight when some design and editorial changes were made at the magazine and it became visually more appealing - cleaner layout, photos for the recipes etc.... I decided to give it another go and have been very pleased. It has helped me with my new resolution to plan meals and make them healthy!

Last night I tried Dan Dan Noodles from the Nov 09 issue and it received a 5 out of 5 from my gang! Give it a try and let me know what you think... I am giving the recipe as it appeared in the magazine and indicating the changes I made...




Ingredients

* 1 pound frozen fresh wide Chinese egg noodles, thawed (I used Chinese RICE Noodles as that was what I had on hand)
* 2 tablespoons canola oil
* 1/3 cup dry-roasted peanuts
* 3 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
* 1 tablespoon sambal oelek (ground fresh chile paste) (subbed red hot pepper flakes)
* 1 teaspoon sugar
* 2 garlic cloves
* 1 (1/2-inch) piece fresh ginger, peeled (used closer to 1 inch)
* 8 ounces lean ground pork (used 99% ff ground turkey)
* 1/8 teaspoon salt
* 3 tablespoons fresh lime juice
* 3/4 cup thinly diagonally sliced green onions
* 1 1/4 cups chopped seeded peeled cucumber
* 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro (more like 1/2 c - I love cilantro!)

Preparation

1. Cook noodles in 6 quarts boiling water for 3 minutes. Drain in a colander over a bowl, reserving 3/4 cup cooking liquid. Place noodles in a large bowl.

2. Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add peanuts to pan; sauté 2 minutes or until fragrant. Remove from heat; cool slightly. Combine peanut mixture, soy sauce, and next 4 ingredients (through ginger) in a mini chopper; process until finely ground.

3. Cook pork and salt in skillet over medium-high heat 8 minutes or until done, stirring to crumble. Add peanut mixture and 3/4 cup cooking liquid to pork; bring to a boil. Cook 1 minute, stirring frequently. Add pork mixture, juice, and onions to noodles; toss well. Place about 1 3/4 cup noodle mixture in each of 4 bowls; top each serving with 5 tablespoons cucumber and 1 tablespoon cilantro.

this could be good if you marinate the cucumber in some rice wine vinegar and sugar for a few hours before adding to the noodles!

Enjoy!

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