Texas Crude

Soba -- looks like you're using a cast iron pan? Is that preferred over a stainless steel or non-stick type pan?

This is helpful, and actually what I'm trying to recreate in my kitchen. We tried it the other night but didn't precook anything, so my broccoli was rock hard and everything kind of fell apart from there. Everyone's suggestions, especially the tutorial with pictures, have been helpful!

Very helpful. I'll try that this weekend -- we'll blanche the peppers, broccoli, and snap peas ahead of time, and then see how long it takes to get them sautéed with the noodles.

I'm going to give this a try this weekend -- thank you very much! Follow up question -- do you think the places like pasta stations and stir fry shops pre-cook their broccoli and carrots in a similar fashion to your first steps, or do they really manage to Wok them up in just a few minutes? Trying to decide how much advance prep I need to do vs on the spot cooking.

Is it the same Coolio that sang "Gangsta's Paradise"?!? I remember they played that at my 7th grade dance -- first time I danced with a girl!

Wow -- thanks for all of the replies! It sounds like I have 2 solutions to explore 1) Get a hotter pan. We have a calphalon pan which my wife told me can't be used with high heats, so I only used it at medium on the electric range. 2) Pre-boil (shock / blanche) the vegetables to get em' soft... then really just use the sautee pan to heat em' up. As a reference, this is the video I was basing everything off of (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFslUauyGDY). It doesn't look like anything is precooked -- would you agree with this? Is it really just a matter of getting a hotter pan, or am I over simplifying this? Obviously the pasta is pre boiled, but I'd guess he took it out of the water a few minutes before it would otherwise have been done? These guys make it look so easy!

Let me preface this by saying that on 10 point experience scale, I'm somewhere between Cup-o-Soup and cheese crisps. Last week I was staying at a hotel where they had a pasta station set up for lunch, where you choose your noodle, sauce, and about a dozen different vegetables and they sautee it right there for you in about 2 minutes. I think this is a healthy meal I could get my kids to eat, but I can't figure out how to cook it! We tried tonight, but it took much longer than the 3 minutes (closer to 15) and the vegetables were still too crunchy! Does anyone know how to cook like those pasta station dudes do? Does anyone even know what I'm talking about lol? If you can help, I'd appreciate it (even more if you can explain in baby steps)! They made it look so easy!