Stir Fried Singapore Noodles with Garlic Ginger Sauce

Apparently the theme of the week was Asian noodle dishes, because two days after posting the Filipino pancit recipe, here's another one: stir fried Singapore noodles with garlic ginger sauce.  Drooling yet?  Well hold on: imagine soft rice noodles mixed with fresh stir-fried vegetables like peppers, shallots, mushrooms and peas, and douse it all in a garlic ginger sauce.  Now you're drooling.

In real life, if I read that explanation to my family, more than half of them would whine as soon as I said "mushrooms."  In the interest of world peace, I left them out of this recipe.  I also meant to use a few different bell peppers to add lots of color, but only found one lonely green one in the refrigerator (and of course 2 days later I found another green and a red hiding behind the giant head of broccoli).  As I said the other day, I randomly have tons of cabbage on hand right now, so I used some chopped cabbage in place of mushrooms (and bean sprouts, which I haven't been able to find anywhere in years.  Literally).

The rice noodles -yes, this is gluten-free! - get soaked in cold water while you stir fry all the vegetables until they're tender-crisp.  Then you toss the noodles in and stir fry them too.  After you remove it from the heat, you add the sauce slowly - there is a lot of it - and little by little, it gets absorbed and thickens and sticks to the noodles perfectly.  Mmmm.

This was Rachael's request; I made it for lunch one day when it was just me, her and Alex home.  They liked it but wished there were less peas (I did double the recipe, and perhaps doubling the peas was too much).  There is a lot of flavor; that sauce is full of chicken broth and soy sauce and garlic and ginger and even something called mirin, which is a sweet Japanese rice wine used in cooking (think, lower alcohol content, higher sugar content).  Apparently it has a pretty mild flavor but is awesome for making sauces "glossy" and helping it cling to foods due to its almost syrupy texture (yes I did my research).  Got any good mirin recipes for me?  Because I have a huge bottle of it now :)

Recipe:

stir fried Singapore noodles with garlic ginger sauce
from Pinch of Yum
serves 4

Ingredients:
4 ounces thin rice noodles
1 tablespoon oil
2 bell peppers. thinly sliced
2 shallots, thinly sliced
1 cup bean sprouts
1 teaspoon curry powder
1 cup sliced shiitake mushrooms
1 cup frozen peas
sliced scallions for topping
for the sauce:
1 cup low sodium chicken broth
1/4 cup low sodium soy sauce
3 tablespoons mirin
2 teaspoons minced garlic
1 teaspoon minced ginger
1/2 teaspoon sambal oelek (I skipped this; it adds spice)

Instructions:

1) Soak the rice noodles in a large bowl of cold water.  Wash and cut all the vegetables.  Mix the ingredients for the sauce in a small bowl and set aside.

2) Heat the oil in a large skillet over high heat.  Add the peppers, shallots, bean sprouts and curry powder.  Stir fry for 3 - 5 minutes. Add the mushrooms and peas; stir fry for 2 minutes.  The vegetables should be bright and tender-crisp.

3) Drain the water from the rice noodles and add the noodles to the pan with the vegetables.  Add a little splash of sauce - about 2 - 3 tablespoons - and stir fry, moving the noodles around in the pan continuously so they don't stick together in one big lump - they should move freely and easily.  After a few minutes of stir frying, remove the pan from the heat.

4) Once off the heat, add the sauce in small increments, tossing/stirring the noodles in between each addition, until the desires "sauciness" level is reached.  The goal is for the sauce to thicken slightly when combined with the other ingredients and cling to the noodles instead of soaking into the noodles.  Top with scallions and more sauce if desired.