My wife sent me this recipe. So in an attempt to be a giving, supporting, and simply just amazing husband that I aspire to be, I gave this recipe a try. It's a good thing too, because every once in a while I have to remind myself how much I hate cooking meals with noodles that have to be combined with other ingredients. It's mostly the stir fries and thai recipes that do this. All that said, this recipe is absolutely amazing. As much as I might hate cooking with noodles, the taste of this meal was fantastic. I hated that it was fantastic but it was. The spice of this meal is right where I like it. The options of all or any veggies you want to use is nearly unlimited. It's hard to say how long this took me to cook because I was all over the place while cooking - I'll explain later. Ultimately, the recipe is easy to follow and it truly COULD take only one dish to cook the whole meal.
This recipe come from Domestic Superhero http://domesticsuperhero.com/2015/05/26/one-pot-spicy-thai-noodles/
As usual, this is mine. Just for the record, I'm jaded with my performance as a Recipe Follower with this recipe, and it's the noodles fault. Before I get into my story, this recipe is fantastic and you should try it. Also, the author is correct when it's suggested that a large pan with high sides is needed. I thought I had one, but it wasn't enough. This didn't help my performance. But I want one.
Ok, with that said; first of all, you don't need/want a whole pound of linguine pasta. Go ahead and cook a whole pound if you want, but when it comes time to combine the pasta with the veggies, judge for yourself how much you want to use.
For myself, I don't want to cook a meal without a meat, so I decided on chicken and shrimp - but I didn't use the chicken. The notes in the recipe suggest that if you want to add shrimp, add them when there are 2 or 3 minutes left while the veggies are cooking. Well, for me and the pan I was using, the shrimp takes a little longer than 2 or 3 minutes to cook. The result was waiting longer for the shrimp to cook with veggies and the veggies got soggy. Next time, I'd like to cook the shrimp first thing - still in the one pot. This way I'd be able to season the shrimp a little and I know they're done. Then I can cook the veggies and leave a little crunch on them.
About being all over the place with cooking this meal, I started with a 12 inch high sided pan. This was good for most things until it came time to combine everything. As soon as I realized that I was quickly running out of room while adding noodles, I swapped the whole thing over to my trusty dutch oven. Really not a big deal, but then getting all bent out of shape trying to mix the noodles with the soggy veggies just got me bent. Crying over. If you have a dutch oven (and you should), use it first.
All this drama aside, I'm going to have to try this recipe again, even as much as I hate cooking with noodles. There are improvements to be made on my side that can make this a great meal if I could just work it out right. If you try this meal, please tell me how you did. New cooking ideas are always welcome.
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