Vietnamese Noodles

I am lucky in all the classes that I teach to meet so many nice people. In my cooking class, I have a woman in class of Vietnamese origin who grows many herbs, including a number of Vietnamese ones that she doesn't know the names (at least the English ones) of. Last night in class, she brought in quite a few of her herbs for me to try.

I had the idea of soaking some rice noodles in very hot tap water for a few minutes till soft then rinsing in cold water and draining before using in a quick saute with the herbs. But I decided to be more substantive.

I took a medium-large organic baking potato (unpeeled) and cut it into approximately 1" by 1/4" by 1/4" sticks and started the potato sauteeing over medium heat. After perhaps 6 minutes or so, I added most of a medium sweet onion sliced into half moons as well as most of a package of seitan. I had first prepared the seitan by cutting it into thin strips comparable to the potato and marinating for about ten minutes with some Baja Lime marinade and a few drops of Mongolian Fire Oil. After about 5 more minutes as the seitan was starting to brown, I added some chopped ginger and maybe a third of a bell pepper cut coarsely, as well as the drained rice noodles. I stirred for a minute or so then served. We loved the noodles!

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Today, I received a review copy of a medical thriller, Capitol Reflections, that may be interesting especially to those who love good quality organic food. The author of the book, Jonathan Javitt, is a doctor and scientist who has been a senior White House health advisor for the last three U.S. Presidents. His story is of "Dr. Gwen Maulder, an FDA scientist hot on the trail of a conspiracy involving genetically engineered food that ends in death for too many innocent victims", as per the blurb.