Fried Noodles with Spicy Peanut Sate Recipe

If you like chilies and peanuts, this delicious dish makes the perfect choice. You can add as much sate as you like, but remember - it's fiery. The stringy rice sticks are fiddly to stir-0fry as they have a tendency to cling to one another, so work quickly and lubricate them with a little extra oil. This dish is usually served with a table salad or pickles.

Ingredients : Serves 4

30 ml

300 g

225 g

5-10ml

1 small bunch

For the sate

60 ml

4-5 cloves

5-10 ml

40 g

Vegetable oil

Beef sirloin, cut against the grain into thin slices

Dried rice sticks (vermicelli), soaked in warm water for 20 minutes

Bean sprouts

Nuoc mam

Fresh basil and mint, stalks removed, leaves shredded, for garnishing

Dried Serrano chilies, seeded

Groundnut (peanut) or vegetable oil

Garlic, crushed

Curry powder

Roasted peanuts, finely ground

Method :

To make the sate, grind the Serrano chilies in a mortar with a pestle. Head the oil in a heavy pan and stir in the garlic until it begins to color.
Add the chilies, curry powder and the peanuts and stir over a gentle heat, until the mixture forms a paste. Remove the pan from the heat and leave the mixture to cool.
Heat a wok or heavy pan, and pout in 15 ml oil. Add the sliced beef and cook for 1-2 minutes, and stir in 7.5 ml of the spicy peanut sate.
Tip the beef on to a clean place and set aside while you prepare the noodles.
Drain the rice sticks. Add 7.5 ml oil in the wok and add 15 ml sate. Quickly toss the noodles, until they are evenly coated in the sauce (add more oil if they stick together) and cook for 4-5 minutes, or until tender.
Toss in the beef for 1 minute, then add the bean sprouts with the nuoc cham. Tip the noodles on to a serving dish and sprinkle with basil and mint.

South-east Asian links

Although it is quite similar to pad Thai, one of the national noodle dishes of Thailand, the addition of nuoc cham, basil and mint give this fragrant dish a distinctly Vietnamese flavor. There are many similar versions throughout South-East Asia, made with shrimps, pork and chicken.