Noodles and Egg Rolls

Week 12 (March 24, 2010)
Featuring Special Contributing Writer Geoffrey Gonzalez, commentary by Mayra.

For today's meal, I decided to stick with another ethnic theme and tried my hand at a Cold Sesame Noodles with chicken and cucumber and Baked Egg Rolls recipe.  I think I'm trying to make healthier and lighter meals cause I know that my cooking will never be done before 8:30!  The recipe for the cold Noodle salad was pretty simple and full of flavor.  I don't think I've used Udon noodles before, but they cooked so fast, like 5 minutes!  Boiled those up, tossed them in the mixture of sesame oil, chile paste, rice vinegar, soy sauce, honey and fresh ginger and voila, the dish is 80% done.  I knew this recipe was going to be a challenge (not to make), but to make Mayra happy cause she's not a fan of cold noodles.  But nevertheless, I was hoping the flavoring would be showcased and that maybe, just maybe, it could win her over.  Ok, back to the recipe.  Noodles were done, tossed them in the fridge to cool off and all that was needed was to add some cucumbers, green onions and shredded chicken just before serving. (Comment: For the record, I like cold noodles, I just don't enjoy them soggy. Hmmmph!)

Then I starting preparing the egg rolls, well actually, I was already chopping up the veggies that would go in the egg rolls while the udon was boiling.  So, the egg rolls were pretty easy too cause it was only veggies I was putting in. The recipe called for ground turkey, but I decided to leave that out and make them vegetarian.

Veggies were prepped (carrots, celery, garlic, ginger, cabbage, onion, pepper and soy sauce) and the next step was to carefully spoon them into the egg roll wrappers, make them neat and pop 'em in the oven.  Nothing to it!  The recipe had a dip that I was suppose to make, but I got lazy and just decided to buy a sweet and sour dip (I think that was Mayra's favorite thing on the night, thanks...)
(Comment: Wow, someone is in a great mood today. Yes, I did enjoy the sweet and sour dip, it was actually a sweet chili sauce. But, I also enjoyed the baked egg rolls and Geoff did a good job rolling them into egg rolls, very professional!)

Yes, I know it takes a while to cook, and dinner probably wasn't done until close to 9, but I take my time in the kitchen because I'm constantly washing dishes so they don't pile up in the sink.  Cause who wants to wash dishes at like 11pm??? That's just crazy.  Wish we had a dishwasher, oh wait, we do...me.  (Comment: Shouldn't have lost all of those bets with me. And btw, washing dishes as you are cooking was my idea!)

Another success in my book.  Since Mayra was on the fence about this meal, I ended up eating all the leftovers for lunch and dinner the next day. So full!

If you do try this recipe, I would probably use less rice vinegar in the noodles and add the meat to the egg roll dish. (Comment: Yes, less vinegar on the noodles to keep them from being soggy would be doog<--good backwards.)

Our rating for these recipes were 7.25 (Mayra: 5; Geoffrey: 9.5).

Good eating,
Geoffrey