Jade Noodles

Photo: flickr user avlxyz

Ingredients

1/2 pound fresh Chinese noodles or vermicelli

boiling water

2 tablespoons sesame seed oil

1/4 cup pine nuts (for garnish)

2 tablespoons veggie oil

2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced

1/4 to 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

1 bag (10 oz) spinach, washed, with water clinging to leav

1/4 cup chicken broth

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon sugar

dash white pepper

2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

12 cherry tomatoes, halved

Preparation

Cook noodles in boiling water until al dente, about 3 minutes. Drain noodles and toss with sesame oil; set aside in heated serving platter or bowl. Toast pine nutsin veggie oil in wok or large skillet; remove nuts and set aside.

Add garlic, red pepper flakes, and spinach to hot oil in same wok or skillet; cook and stir 30 seconds. Stir in chicken broth, salt, sugar, pepper, lemon juice, and wine; heat through, stirring and tossing ingredients all the while.

Stir in tomatoes. Spoon hot spinach over noodles; garnish with pine nuts.

[Spike thinks that a slice of fresh ginger root should be heated to the point of fragrance, along with the garlic, in the wok at the beginning of the cooking.

Discard the ginger root and garlic before adding the food. Further, if the diners prefer fried noodles to the boiled, After the noodles have been drained and tossed with sesame oil, they could be tossed into a hot skillet, which has been prepared with a bit of veggie oil, and the ginger root and garlic routine.

Merelytoss the noodles into the pan and leave them in a tangle to cook for awhile, turn it over with a spatula, and cook the other side of the tangle. It does not take long.

Then, put them onto the serving platter. Of course, if you have a couple extraribs of celery, you can slice them and put them in with the other veggies.]

[If there is a gemologist at your table, he/she may need to be reminded that

"jade" is the name of a color as well as of a semi-precious stone.]