24, May 2007
Hot Shumai and Shiitake over Somen

I was looking to make a quick meal out of what I had in the house, so some noodles with a vegetable stir-fry seemed like just the trick. I had both some shrimp and some chicken shumai in the freezer, and I thought it would be tasty to throw the shumai in. Rather than try to make sure they were thoroughly defrosted in the stir-fry, I just microwaved them first. So anyway, that worked out pretty nicely.



Ingredients
1 onion, diced
2 serrano peppers, sliced
5-6 shiitake mushrooms, stemmed and sliced
a bit of broccoli, like separated into broccoli shapes etc
12-15 chicken (or whatever) shumai
2 thingies of somen noodles
olive oil, soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, sesame oil

Directions
Heat some water in a saucepan for the noodles. Heat some olive oil in a skillet in high. I was using frozen shumai, so I popped them in the microwave for 2:30 or so. Once the oil’s hot, throw in the onion and serranos and stir fry for a couple of minutes. Add a bit of soy sauce and the shiitakes. Add vinegar or soy as needed to keep things from totally drying out. After a few minutes, add the broccoli and shumai. Meanwhile, drop the noodles in the saucepan when the water boils and boil for 2-3 minutes. Drain them, rinse with cold water, and toss in a couple of bowls with a little sesame oil.
Verdict
putting the shumai in the stir-fry was frankly briliant. that was good, and they went nicely with the shiitake and other ingredients. the problem was the serranos. two were enough to pervade the whole thing with a little too much heat. one would probably have been about right, or less strong peppers. other than that, it was nice for a quick weeknight dinner.