Curried-Pork Noodles: 2000s Recipes + Menus : gourmet.com

2000s Recipes + Menus

Serves4

Active time:10 min
Start to finish:25 min

May 2008

Fish sauce and curry powder are such assertive ingredients that you’d think they’d overpower one another. Quite the contrary: They form a flawless Southeast Asian duo that boldly punctuates this riff on Singapore-style noodles. View more web-exclusive recipes.

7 to 8 oz dried thin rice noodles (rice vermicelli)
2 tablespoons vegetable oil, divided
1 lb ground pork
3 garlic cloves, smashed
1/2 cup frozen chopped onion
1 1/2 cups frozen bell peppers in strips
2 tablespoons curry powder (preferably Madras)
2 tablespoons Asian fish sauce, or to taste
3/4 cup coarsely chopped cilantro
3/4 cup coarsely chopped basil

Accompaniment:

Sriracha or other Asian hot sauce

Cover noodles with boiling-hot water and soak until tender, about 7 minutes. Reserve 1/2 cup soaking water, then drain noodles and transfer to a large bowl.
Meanwhile, heat 1 tablespoon oil in a 12-inch heavy skillet over medium-high heat until it shimmers, then cook pork with garlic, stirring occasionally and breaking up lumps of meat, just until meat is no longer pink, about 3 minutes. Transfer to a small bowl with a slotted spoon.
Add remaining tablespoon oil to skillet and cook onion and bell peppers over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until just softened, about 3 minutes. Return pork to skillet and add curry powder, then cook, stirring, 1 minute. Stir in 1/4 cup reserved water.
Add pork mixture to noodles along with fish sauce and herbs. Toss to combine, adding more water and fish sauce if desired.

Recipe by Andrea Albin