USE YOUR NOODLE
These tastes-of-Asia dishes from Jamie Oliver star noodles in all their various guises. Fast, fiery and full of flavour, they’ll add spice to your life on even the dreariest of winter days.
WE’RE TAKING A TOUR around Asia – highlighting Vietnamese, Chinese, Thai and Japanese cuisines – with these deeply delicious dishes that show off the various styles of noodle that play such a huge role in cooking across the region.
Whether udon or egg, soba or ramen, each of the noodles I’m using brings a certain quality to the various recipes here. Some, such as the long, thin vermicelli in the Vietnamese bun cha, are ideal for soaking up all the flavours of a dressing or sauce. Then there are the ‘bitey’ egg noodles in the Malaysian chicken mee goreng (the name means ‘fried noodles’ in Malay), which add body and substance. This sticky, sweet dish is thought to be derived from Chinese chow mein, and you’ll find versions of it throughout Southeast Asia.
Dried rice stick noodles, which look a lot like tagliatelle, are perfect in the pad Thai. A word of warning: use a big wok or make this dish in a couple of batches to ensure the ingredients cook quickly so the noodles don’t go soggy.
But no matter the noodle, each recipe here is designed to deliver a big bowl of warming goodness. Tuck in!
VERMICELLI
The name for these long, very fine rice-flour strands means ‘little worms’ in Italian. Used fresh or dried, they require minimal cooking and they can also be deep-fried into crispy nests to use as a garnish.
UDON
Thick and chewy, these Japanese wheat noodles are best bought fresh or frozen from an Asian food shop. However, the dried variety is more widely available and will still give you a nice firm bite, which you won’t get from pre-cooked packets.
EGG
Yellow in colour and hugely versatile, these Chinese noodles are made from wheat flour and egg, and have a richer flavour than rice varieties. They are often used in stir-fried dishes and should have a firm bite when cooked.
SOBA
These Japanese noodles are made from buckwheat flour, which gives them their brown-grey colour and nutty taste. Buckwheat is glutenfree, but always check the packet in case other flours are included. A favourite for cold noodle dishes.
FLAT WHITE RICE
These large, flat rice noodles are often used in pad Thai or Vietnamese pho. They don’t taste of much on their own, but are a great vehicle for sauces.
RAMEN
These skinny wheat noodles are traditionally made with kansui, an alkaline water that prevents them from turning to mush in a hot broth. Find them fresh, frozen or dried in Asian supermarkets.