Thai-Style Pork and Peanut Spicy Noodles

Noodles are such a great comfort food. I go straight to my happy place when I take a pair of chopsticks to a bowl of noodles. There is such a huge variety of noodle dishes that there is very little chance of getting bored of noodles. I mean, I spent 4 months in Southeast Asia eating nothing but noodles, it was heaven! … I miss Southeast Asia.

This Thai-style Pork and Peanut  Spicy Noodles is a really simple and cheap dinner to whip up in an evening. The pork mince is pretty cheap (although, try to buy the best quality mince you can afford) and if you cook it beyond the browning stage it gets nice and crispy. We want our pork crispy. The flavour of this dish is salty, sweet, earthy, spicy and, well… nutty. Obviously it’s nutty. A good squeeze of lime and sprinkle of coriander when serving will lift the noodles to a refreshingly delicious place. Don’t forget them.

Thai-Style Pork and Peanut Spicy Noodles (serves 4)

Ingredients

• 4tbsp crunchy peanut butter
• 1 medium-sized red chilli, finely chopped (deseed the chilli if you like it mild and totally add extra chilli if you like spicy)
• ½tsp dried chilli flakes (increase to 1tsp if you like spicy)
• 2tsp light brown sugar
• 3tbsp soy sauce
• 2tbsp fish sauce
• 6tbsp water
• 400g dried rice noodles (but you can use the ready to wok noodles if you like)
• 500g minced pork
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 200g sugarsnap peas/mange tout/babycorn (or mixture of all)

for serving

• handful fresh coriander, chopped
• 1 lime, halved

Method

1. In a small bowl mix together the peanut butter, chilli, sugar, soy sauce and fish sauce with a fork then add the water to loosen the mixture. Whisk together until smooth and then set aside.
2. If using dried noodles soak them in a pan of boiling water for 5 minutes, drain and set aside in the sieve.
3. Fry up the pork mince over a high heat for 10 minutes or until the juices have evaporated and the pork is crisping up. (Don’t let the mince stick to the pan, add a dash of oil to loosen slightly if necessary but a dry non-stick pan will get it crispier)
4. Add the garlic and vegetables to the pan and fry for a further 2 minutes stirring continuously.
5. Reduce the heat and add the noodles and the peanut sauce mixture to the pan, toss everything together and fry for a further 2 minutes or until everything is warmed through.
6. Serve with a sprinkle of fresh coriander and squeeze of lime.

Enjoy!

Tagged as: food, noodles, nuts, pork, recipe, southeast asia, thai