Oodles of Noodles

[it aint easy being cheesy]

What are your favorite family noodle recipes?

[LaNiña]

Kugel. Kugel Kugel and more Kugel.

[SobaAddict70]

Pancit. (Filipino dish consisting of glass noodles with minced chicken, pork, dried shrimp, vegetables and various seasonings -- such as garlic, patis (fish sauce) and baguong (fermented shrimp paste))

Cantonese pan-fried noodles (usually with pork and vegetables).

Ants on a tree. (rice noodles with minced pork, tofu and chili paste. the name is derived from the minced pork representing the "ants" and the noodles representing the "tree")

Spaghetti with white clam sauce.

Spaghetti (or other pasta) with basic meat sauce. I think that my interest in Italian cooking stems from having one too many bastardized versions of Bolognese sauce when I was growing up -- one jar of Aunt Millie's, ground beef, onions, garlic, 2 bay leaves, and 1 T. sugar. That's ok, but I've been corrupted -- now that I know what the real thing tastes like.

SA

[bushey]

What do you mean by noodles?

To me, spaghetti, ziti, fettucine, etc. is (are?) "pasta", not noodles. I used to live in a blue collar town where there was a large Italian-American community and everything was considered "macaroni".

Noodles bring to mind egg noodles -- both narrow and broad -- and kugel. No fruit cocktail, no raisins, no apples, just noodles, butter, lots of cream cheese and farmer cheese and sour cream. Topped with cornflake crumbs or brown sugar. A friend of mine makes a killer kugel with cashews that sounds suspect but is delicious.

Also Chinese noodles as in lo mein, cold sesame noodles, sai fun. Shanghai style crispy fried noodles with meat and vegetables. Cellophane noodle salad with minced pork, shrimp, heaps of fresh cilantro and mint, fish sauce, lime juice and chopped peanuts. Yum-yum.

[LaNiña]

Oh, I forgot egg noodles with cottage cheese.

[Steve Plotnicki]

Egg noodles, cottage cheese, sugar and cinnamon.

[bushey]

I'll see your egg noodles, cottage cheese, sugar and cinnamon, and raise you some sour cream.

[Steve Plotnicki]

Sour cream? Oh gross.

Just kidding. Sour cream on egg noodles is a thing, but it doesn't get the sugar and cinnamon topping. At least in the Jewish households I know. You know what Jews used sour cream with? Chopped vegetables. Like you can go to one of the kosher style dairy restaurants that still exist and you can have chopped peppers, cucumbers, etc with sour cream. It was never my thing but my grandmother used to eat it all the time when I was a kid. I trend towards sweet things with sour cream, like berries or blintzes and then sprinkling sugar.

[Ron Johnson]

Oh, I forgot egg noodles with cottage cheese.

Is this served warm or cold? Obviously, it is not part of the southern foods repertoire.

[LaNiña]

Hot noodles, cold cottage cheese. Either sweet, as Steve suggests, or not. Can be just plain, or have a little salt and pepper added.

[bushey]

Sour cream on egg noodles is a thing, but it doesn't get the sugar and cinnamon topping..........I trend towards sweet things with sour cream, like berries or blintzes and then sprinkling sugar.

There you go -- it's like deconstructed blintzes. When I was little I loved to watch and help my mother prepare blintzes. It was a once-a-year thing and we'd move the kitchen table near the stove top, cover it with tea towels and flour and go to it. She'd always save some of the filling for me to eat with egg noodles. And since I always have my blintzes with sour cream and a sprinkling of cinnamon and sugar, I just added it to the mix.

I still keep a box of Golden's cheese blintzes in the freezer for those times that I just can't figure out what I want to eat and nothing sounds good.

[Steve Plotnicki]

Bushey - Are you a Brit Yid? How charming if that's the case. But the blintzes story is charming all by itself.

My grandmother used to make fabulous blintzes. She was an Austrian immigrant, but not from the fancy part of Austria. But she never passed the trick of making the leaves on to my mother. So after she went to that big blintz in the sky, it was frozen blintzes for me. Then when I was in my early 20's I had a business partner whose mother made a mean blintz. I always thought the trick was getting the consistancy of the cheese, including the level of sweetness and butteriness just right.

[Kim WB]

Pierogyis. Mushroom and onion, mushroom, or potato. Sauteed with a bit of butter and salt till warmed through. I buy mine at European Provisions, in South River NJ, or the Trenton ( NJ)Farmer's market.

[Peter B Wolf]

Pierogyis. Mushroom and onion, mushroom, or potato. Sauteed with a bit of butter and salt till warmed through.  I buy mine at European Provisions, in South River NJ, or the Trenton ( NJ)Farmer's market.

And I buy mine at this Polish Place in this Polish Town:

Millie's in Chicopee Massachusetts.

http://www.milliespierogi.com/

Truly excellent.

[coolranch]

--Old fashioned chicken n' dumplins--the dumplins being REALLY thick, homemade egg noodles .

--kugel--not the sweet kind--no raisins and such, and topped with extra sour cream and a sprinkle of salt.

[Jinmyo]

Zaru soba when it's hot. Udon in a soup when it's not. Rice noodles or ramen for a salad. Tea noodles in a green tea and mirin/lemongrass dashi.

Pasta is a whole other thing: Ziti, ziti, ziti. Linguine.

Dumplings are a whole other thing: shiu ma, gyoza, mushroom pierogies with caramelized onions and celeriac puree with a shot of champagne vinegar.

[Miss J]

Noodles for me are invariably of the Asian variety these days (pasta is a whole different foodstuff), although the 'comfort' variety I was raised with was much more along the lines of egg-noodles with meat stews. They're nice, but not high in my favourites at the mo'.

Noodle dishes that currently make me go weak at the knees:

Ants-Climbing-A-Tree

Dan-Dan Noodles

Pho

Zaru Soba (my first-ever Japanese meal when I was a homestay student in Yokohama)

Miss J

[Charlene Leonard]

Noodle dishes that currently make me go weak at the knees:

Ants-Climbing-A-Tree

you HAVE to give the recipe for this...!

[StephenT]

Ants-Climbing-A-Tree

I've never had that, but it reminds me of a very amusing noodle/pasta-related incident.

My wife and I were camping and we had cooked some spaghetti and something or other. I dropped a fairly long strand of cooked spaghetti onto the ground and soon some of the ants that were on the ground came up and inspected it. After a short while, a whole lot of ants arrived, picked up the piece of spaghetti and marched it off... it looked like a long white caterpillar with black legs. Then they marched the whole thing down their ant hole inch by inch.

[researchgal]

Million dollar spaghetti

It's a spaghetti in meat sauce casserole-type thing involving cream cheese, sour cream, green onions, green pepper. It's great comfort food. It's part of my repetoire of dishes I make to bring friends after they have a baby, crisis, etc. (maybe that's an idea for another topic--what dishes you make to bring to family/friends in need?)...

[bushey]

Steve P -- nothing so exotic. Just garden-variety 2nd generation American by way of grandparents who emigrated from Lithuania (the " Pale": sometimes Russia/sometimes Poland). We called the leaves bletlach. I think you should start a thread on filled batter pancakes in different cuisines. Blintzes, crepes, dosas, canneloni. Moo shu would be tough call because the pancakes aren't technically made from batter. Are crepes better because they're french?

Peter B Wolf -- do you actually buy them from the source at Millie's? I love pierogies, especially the potato and cheese kind. Pan fried in butter, and topped with what else? sour cream

researchgal -- I have two favorite spaghetti comfort foods: a shallow bowl of spaghetti topped with butter and garlic oil then sprinkled with toasted bread crumbs and parmesan cheese and a spaghetti frittata. Heat up some good olive oil with a tbsp of butter and throw in a whole clove of garlic and to flavor it lightly. Toss out the garlic and add a couple of handfuls of cold, cooked spaghetti. Just enough to spread out on the bottom of the pan. Let it sizzle until the bottom of the spaghetti starts to get crispy, then pour in a couple or three well beaten eggs. Let the eggs set on the bottom, lifting the sides occasionally and tilting the pan . When it's almost set, sprinkle with fresh grated parmesan cheese and put it under the broiler for a minute or two. Grind on some sea salt and lots of black pepper.

[Steve Plotnicki]

Bushey - I thought you were British for some reason? Must have been a different Bushey . I'm not enamored with crepes though I haven't really had a good one I suspect. I think one needs to go to Brittany and have one made from buckwheat flour. Dosas are really good though. That combo of lentil and rice flour has that nutty thing going on. Sort of like sourdough bread. I'm surprised nobody has worked them into Western cuisine. I've been thinking about how one would do that but they are so fragile that won't hold anything for long.

[coolranch]

Tea noodles in a green tea and mirin/lemongrass dashi.

That sounds wonderful--do you use Udon noodles for that?

[Jinmyo]

coolranch, no the noodles are ocha-somen, thin wheat noodles with tea flavouring. And macha for the dashi.

[helen jackson]

Pad Thai for me - it's the ultimate in comfort food.

Egg noodles with cottage cheese, cinnamon & sugar is intriguing me - never heard of that before so will give it a try - not sure if it sounds good though or not - will let the 6 year old be the judge!

Are there any tips or suggestions I should know before I make it?