After being defeated by the brown basmati earlier, i kept opening my pantry and seeing the huge package that was pretty expensive by rice standards, i decided to give it another try. I had managed to salvage the pot i originally used, and thought i'd try and use it again! I re-read the instructions, carefully measured the portions... and really kept an eye on it. About twenty-five minutes into the supposed fifty minutes of cooking time it was burning to the bottom again!!!! I mean i'm not that good at cooking rice, but this was ridiculous!
I had been intending on making a dish inspired by one i used to love eating at Juice For Life called the Buddha, which was brown rice with a thai peanut sauce, and veggies on top. Now that i was a two-time rice failure i didn't know what i was going to do. I had some soba noodles that i had recently purchased with the intention of making a fish-miso broth-noodles type of thing. I figured i might as well try. (i can be a little stubborn)
Well it turns out that the instructions on the package were in Japanese. At this point i assumed the cooking gods were laughing at me, but they were not ready for my excellent googling skills. I found out that they were a lot like any noodles, the key was to rinse them after they had cooked. (in hot water if you were serving them hot, cold water if cold). I had been planning on having warm rice, but cold sounded like an interesting option, particularly with the veggies being cold. (tomatoes, avocados and green onion - my usual staples). The noodles cooked up brilliantly, and i felt a lot better about my abilities - perhaps its just me and rice!
I made a quick sauce out of soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, sesame oil, peanut butter and added Sriracha for heat. I dressed the cold noodles in the dressing and topped it with the veggies and a bit of chopped cilantro. A very tasty meal!
Above:
The finished product
Dining on noodles
Making the sauce
The soba noodles
Ingredients ready for whatever i don't burn!
