Thai Chili Rice Noodles

Regular readers know I like spicy food, but you can make these noodles far more adaptable to your heat tolerance either to the plus or minus side of the heat scale. Rice noodles are a flat type of noodle made from rice flour. They come in varied widths from very thin to wide. Thai red curry paste is available in supermarkets and Asian shops and it's not expensive.

 

Ingredients:

 

1/2 pound (8 ounces) thin width rice noodles (not the super thin type)

2 tablespoons sesame oil (divided use, 1 tablespoon to start, 1 tablespoon near end)

8 green onions (divided use, 5 for early part of recipe, 3 near the end)

1 1/2 inch piece fresh ginger, chopped

4 cloves garlic, finely chopped

2 tablespoons Thai red curry paste

1 or 2 red chili peppers, finely chopped

4 tablespoons light soy sauce

1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar mixed with 1 teaspoon sugar

1 cup chicken broth

3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro (also known to some as coriander)

Soak the noodles in warm water for 25 minutes (you will drain the noodles before adding them to the recipe). While the noodles soak, add 1 tablespoon sesame oil to a large skillet (or to a wok, if you have one) over medium heat. Add 5 chopped green onions and saute for about 90 seconds, then add the chopped ginger and garlic, cook another 30 to 40 seconds. Add the red curry paste, finely chopped chili peppers, soy sauce, rice vinegar/sugar mixture and chicken broth. Bring the mixture to a boil, and as the broth heats, drain the noodles. When the broth boils, add the noodles. After 1 minute, reduce the heat to low and let the noodles begin to soak up the broth, stirring to prevent sticking or burning (adjust the heat to very low when the broth is nearly gone). Add and mix in the chopped coriander, remaining 3 chopped green onions and remaining 1 tablespoon sesame oil. Serve.     

 

WORD HISTORY:

Castle-This word is related to "castration," a Latin word borrowed by English from that language, to "chaste" and to "chateau," Latin-derived words borrowed by English from French. "Castle" goes back to Indo European "kes," which meant "to cut," which gave Old Italic^ "kastro," which meant "a part, a share, a segment," which gave Latin "castrum," meaning "fort, fortified post, fortified town" (from the notion, "an area walled or fenced off;" that is, "cut off from"), which spawned the diminutive "castellum," meaning "fortress, stronghold." Old English borrowed this as "castel," initially with the meaning "village, town,"^^ but then later (1300s?) with the additional meaning, "walled town, fortified area," a meaning borrowed from Old Northern French "castel" (which had "castel" from Latin "castellum"). It was also in the Middle English period (seemingly in the 1400s?) that the spelling changed to "castle."

 

^ Italic is a branch of the Indo European family of languages and includes Latin, Umbrian, Venetic, and others, most of which have died out. Latin's own limited use today is mainly because its dialects evolved into several modern languages: Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Rumanian, Catalan, Sardinian, and several others. Because these Italic languages and dialects originated from Indo European, they are related to English, but further down the family tree, as English is from the Germanic branch of Indo European. 

 

^^ The original English meaning "village, town" may have come from, or was certainly influenced by, scholars of long ago using "castel" to translate Ancient Greek "κώμη," transliterated as "kome," a generally "unfortified community;" thus, "a village," in translations of the New Testament.