Spicy-Sweet Pork Noodles (We are back!)

I am not a huge pasta fan so I generally stay away from pasta recipes but after watching Chris on the Bon Appetit Test Kitchen, I decided that it would be fun to give the recipe a try. The flavor profile was a bit different from anything else we’ve done lately.

And if you are wondering what we’ve been up to and why we haven’t been blogging, I am going to blame it on sheltering in place. Rei and I don’t have designated cooking nights anymore since my husband Zeke isn’t working late on Tuesday and Thursday nights. And with him home, he is getting in my way in the kitchen.

I talked with Rei about this and we decided to designate a few nights a week as our cooking nights and we are going to kick Zeke out of the kitchen unless we need dishes washed.

This recipe is pretty darn simple and pretty darn tasty and we modified by adding braised spinach for a single pot (serving) dish. Obviously. We haven’t changed so much as to actually follow a recipe for once.

I started by chopping ginger into matchstick type slices and thinly sliced garlic and putting into the same bowl. I added some sugar to it and set it aside. We’ll be going with less sugar next time. Just a touch, though.

There aren’t that many ingredients in this dish. Ground pork, ginger, garlic, sambal oelek hot sauce, rice vinegar, soy sauce, butter, and pasta. I asked Zeke to get some ramen noodles but he couldn’t find any at the store so we went with the spaghetti noodle alternative.

I heated some oil in a pan and added half the ground pork to brown before adding the other ingredients.

After it browned, I added the ginger, garlic, sugar, and the rest of the ground pork and cooked it through. Ya know, you’re using “I” a lot when it really should be “we.” I was there the entire time and would like some credit, please! Fair-Terri.

Then I added tomato paste and some very wilted basil sprigs and let that cook. After about 2 minutes, I added the chili paste, soy sauce, vinegar, and 2 cups of water. We brought it to a simmer, reduced to low, and let the mixture cook for about 30 minutes while we ran and delivered some Easter goodies to two friends. Dude. Bruh. I added all those ingredients (except the basil; that was all you). You just going to hog the spotlight all night, then?

Meanwhile we brought some salted water to a boil and cooked up a pound of spaghetti noodles. Once cooked, we drained, set aside 2 cups of liquid, and went to work on the spinach. If you’re wondering, we blanched the spinach in the same water we later cooked the spaghetti in, so don’t freak out at the color of the water in that picture. Or the little dark bits that admittedly look like slugs that are actually just bits of spinach we didn’t get.

Rei blanched two huge containers of spinach. I had the fun job of wringing out all the water and chopping it before the next step. Yay! I love avoiding the steps I don’t want to do!

I decided that the spinach needed to have a similar flavor profile to the pasta dish so Rei melted the butter and then added some chopped ginger and sliced garlic to flavor the butter.

Rei added the spinach and cooked for a bit to flavor it. I ended up adding pretty much the rest of the stick of butter. No regrets.

I added the pasta to the meat sauce and topped off with some butter. After I stirred it all up I decided to have Rei add the spinach to the dish.

I knew this was going to be the easiest way to make sure that Adam and his girlfriend Sophie consumed a healthy vegetable. They seem to be avoiding greens for some reason. And fruits. Do they want to get scurvy?

It was really good. When I tasted the sauce without the noodles and spinach, I thought it was a little spicy. Once it was all combined, Rei and I agreed that we could have stepped up the spice. We didn’t have the amount of chili paste the recipe called for, so we had unwillingly stepped the spice down a notch. I’m interested in how it is when we add the whole 1/3 cup.

I will be enjoying the leftovers for lunch. Not if I get to them first!

As for dessert, I had to order some random Easter candy that included some odd flavored Peeps. So after dinner, we did a Peep tasting. My favorite was cotton candy (pink spotted ones). My son Adam liked the watermelon ones (green and pink that look like crocodiles). My husband Zeke liked the blue raspberry. And Rei? Which one did you like best? I was done with all the sugar at that point, so I liked the watermelon ones (they were a little sour). The root beer ones were probably my least favorite, along with the cotton candy ones. They were all too sweet, though.

The root beer ones were good but not as good as the others.

Rei? Rei? Any chance you can step away from whatever you are doing as you shelter in place in your room on Easter (which we celebrated yesterday) and your brother’s 19th birthday? I was reading, thank you very much.

I have a chocolate cream pie to get started on for dessert tonight. Whoa whoa whoa there buddy! Hold your horses, hakuna your tatas, slow your roll! I was literally leaving my room to go start the pie and work on my bread when you told me the post was ready for me to finish, so I’d already called dibs on the pie! Back off, honey bunches of oats!

And with that, since it seems my own mother is out to steal my job, I must be off. Until next time, ciao, it’s nice to be back, and have a herongdrelusif day!

Rei and Terri