Soba with Shrimp and Chinese Broccoli

Soba with Shrimp and Chinese Broccoli

I got off early last night, probably for the last time in a long time because my long-time sous chef's last day is Saturday and I have a new kitchen crew that needs guidance, so we took advantage of the nice weather (read "not raining") and took abut a 3.5-mile walk. Afterwards, we were both hungry naturally, but I didn't really feel like cooking.

While we were walking, Ann mentioned that we had some soba and that got me to thinking. While she was in the shower, I put on a pot of water for the buckwheat noodles. While the water was coming up to a boil, I raided the fridge and found some butter lettuce, Chinese broccoli, garlic, and ginger. I grabbed a couple handfuls of pre-cooked shrimp from the freezer.

I minced the garlic and ginger. I thinly sliced the thicker stems of the Chinese broccoli into coins and sliced the leaves into thin ribbons called chiffonade. In a really hot pan, I quickly cooked the garlic, ginger, and the broccoli coins. After a minute, I added the frozen shrimp and let them defrost, stirring well, for a minute. Into a bowl with these hot ingredients and to them I added a splash of rice vinegar, two splashes of soy sauce, a tablespoon of sambal oelek, and a touch of sesame oil.

As the noodles finished cooking, I tossed the broccoli leaf ribbons into the boiling water along with the noodles and drained the noodles into a colander. Into the bowl with all the rest of the ingredients, a quick toss, a slight adjustment of seasoning, and then onto lettuce-lined plates.

Tasty, flavorful, relatively healthy (while soba are better than regular pasta, they still are not great carbs), and done in less than 15 minutes. Having not had pasta in months, they were pretty awesome!