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Soba Shrimp Stir Fry: A colorful noodle dish garnished with rainbow veggies.
Last year, I had the pleasure of attending the Texas Book Festival. I spent the entire day in the cooking tent, watching celebrity chefs, authors, and television personalities prepare recipes from the books they were promoting. Every demo I watched that day was peppered with great tips and insight into cooking and food prep. Some of my favorites from the festival were Lynne Rossetto Kasper from NPR’s The Splendid Table, The Fabulous Beekman Boys, and Tyson Cole from Uchi. I even got to see Alton Brown speak at the Paramont Theater! I’m a pretty avid reader, but even as a book lover I was surprised at how much fun the festival was. I have to admit it sounds like a snore, but seriously, the Texas Book Festival is totally where it’s at.
That afternoon I watched a special demo by Tyson Cole, who is a bit of a local food celebrity, and the chef/owner of Austin’s wildly popular Uchi Restaurant. He’s also the co-author of The Uchi Cookbook
Anyway, something that he said hit a chord with me. He challenged the audience to cook with their eyes, to select the ingredients for a dish not only by flavor, but by color. He asked us to go home and try cooking meals first in monochrome, then in varied palettes, just like you would paint a picture. I’m a pretty visual person, so the idea of painting up a recipe really resonated with me. I’ve kept his advice in mind while constructing many of my favorite dishes, but this one illustrates his point very well. I invented Rainbow Soba by sketching it out with pen and paper, then “coloring” in the ingredients with veggies that I thought would also taste nice together. The result of this experiment was not only pretty, but tasty too!
I started with a neutral base of brown soba noodles, dressed in a sweet and spicy marinade that goes down like a good romance: sweet as sugar, hot as a flame. I added red fresno peppers, peach colored shrimp, yellow peppers and mandarins. Fresh cilantro and shredded scallion added a punch of green to the spectrum. I sauted some violet colored Japanese eggplant to finish off the rainbow. This particular bowl of noodles was delightful to behold, but eating it was even better. In fact, I do believe the leftovers are calling my name.
Stir Fry Ingredients
- 8 oounces soba noodles
- 8 ounces large raw shrimp, peeled & deveined
- 1 yellow bell pepper, sliced into strips
- 1 Japanese eggplant, halved and sliced
- 1 fresno pepper, seeded and sliced
- 2 small mandarin oranges, peeled and divided into segments
- 1/2 bunch scallions, shredded
- 1 handful cilantro, removed from stem, roughly chopped
- cooking oil, as needed (peanut, canola, vegetable, or sunflower)
- salt & pepper to taste
Sauce Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons turbinado sugar (demerara or brown sugar would also work)
- 1/2 cup hot water
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon hot chili paste (siracha, or chili sauce would also work)
- 1 teaspoon ginger powder
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
Directions
Cook soba according to package directions, then drain and rinse with cold water until cooled. Set aside. In a small sauce pan, whisk together sauce ingredients and heat until simmering. Allow to simmer for 5 minutes, then remove from heat and set aside. Add a little cooking oil to a large skillet or wok, and heat over medium. When the oil is hot, add the eggplant, and cook for about 3 minutes, or until it begins to soften. Add the bell peppers, and cook for another two minutes before adding the fresno peppers. Allow the veggies to cook together for another minute or so, then add the scallions and mandarin oranges. Cook for just a minute or so, then remove the veggies from the pan. Return the pan to heat, and add a little more cooking oil. When heated, add the shrimp and cook just until finished. Add the veggies and noodles back to the pan, followed by the sauce. Toss the ingredients together to coat the noodles, and heat everything through. Taste, and season with salt and pepper if needed. Add the cilantro, then serve immediately.