By Request

Betty Shimabukuro

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Noodle dish brings
woman home, in a way

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Chef Peter Merriman sees his Black Bean Cake Noodle dish as a vegetarian dish with spunk. "Vegetables can be boring," he says. "This is anything but boring."

The bold flavor comes from a mix of black beans with a good dose of garlic and ginger.

Teresa Favilla remembers the dish from Merriman's Bamboo Bistro on Maui. Now that she's moved away, she wants to recreate the dish and her sense of home. "They don't have cake noodle over here in the Washington, D.C., area," she writes.

Merriman suggests using fresh yakisoba noodles. If they come with a seasoning packet, save it for another day.

You can use any vegetables; these are his suggestions.

Asian Cake Noodle with Black Bean Sauce

1-1/2 tablespoons vegetable or peanut oil
1 package yakisoba noodles
1 teaspoon garlic, chopped
1/2 cup EACH broccoli florets , julienned onion and bell pepper, quartered button mushrooms and snow peas
1-1/2 tablespoons sherry
1/2 teaspoon Thai chile sauce
1/4 cup black bean sauce (recipe follows)
2 teaspoons butter
1/2 cup bean sprouts
1 tablespoon chopped cilantro

Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil over high heat in a sauté pan or wok. Brown noodles on both sides until crispy on the outside but still soft inside. Remove from pan; keep warm.

Reheat pan with remaining oil. Stir-fry garlic, then add vegetables in the order listed, from hardest to softest. Stir in sherry, chile sauce, black bean sauce and butter.

Place half the noodles on each side of a plate, with vegetables in the center. Garnish with sprouts and cilantro. Serves 1.

Approximate nutritional analysis, per serving: 670 calories, 31 g total fat, 9 g saturated fat, 20 mg cholesterol, greater than 4,000 mg sodium, 75 g carbohydrate, 28 g protein.

Black Bean Sauce

8 ounces fermented black beans
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup mirin
2 tablespoons garlic, chopped
1 tablespoon ginger, chopped
3 tablespoons cornstarch

Rinse black beans thoroughly and drain. Place beans and all remaining ingredients except cornstarch in a stainless steel pot and add water to cover by 1/2 inch. Simmer, then thicken lightly with cornstarch.

Send queries along with name and phone number to:
"By Request," Honolulu Star-Bulletin,
500 Ala Moana, No. 7-210, Honolulu 96813.
Or send e-mail to bshimabukuro@starbulletin.com

Asterisk (*) after nutritional analyses in the Body & Soul section indicates calculations by Joannie Dobbs of Exploring New Concepts, a nutritional consulting firm.