Cooking Efficiency: Coffee Maker Peanut Noodles

My go to quick food is a dish my friend Caroline refers to as “Peanut Noodles.”  Usually when I make it, it involves sautéing vegetables in ginger, marinating chicken, and making a big bowl of noodles smothered in peanut butter and soy sauce. It looks fancy enough that I have made it for small dinner parties, but is so easy I can leave off the chicken and make a single serving in under 15 minutes.  The most memorable prep was a batch I made for my friends as a late night drunk food to help balance a night of too much whiskey. 

I often bragged that I could make it entirely using nothing but a coffee maker.  That way, if I was staying in a hotel and wanted a home cooked meal, if there was at least a four-cup coffee maker I could make a gourmet meal. 

My boyfriend, who was a traveling actor and to whom I pitched this idea, didn’t believe me.  Till now, I’ve never had to try and so have never proven my claim.  Because I live in an efficiency without a kitchen, I figured now was a good time to test my hypothesis.  

When I make this as a meal, there are ingredient add-ons like grated ginger, garlic salt, red pepper flakes, rice wine vinegar, etc.  However, for this demonstration, I went with things that are easily procured and so could be made in a hotel room with a coffee pot:

• Vegetables = Grocery Store salad bar
• Soy Sauce Packets = from a dining hall, leftover Chinese food order, or snagged while walking through a food court
• Package of Ramen
• Lime juice = you could just buy one lime or a squeeze bottle, but you may be able to just pick up lemon juice packets that are in fast-food restaurants
• Peanut Butter which you could get from those single-serving containers used for putting in kids lunches

This would work much easier with a larger coffee maker, but still works in a small one.  Plus, while the water is running through the coffee maker, you can do prep work for other steps. 

Making Peanut Noodles in the Coffee Maker

Place vegetables in the coffee maker basket.  I put the vegetables that need more cook time (like broccoli and cauliflower) in the bottom and the ones that need less time (red peppers) on the top.  Put basket in coffee maker and then run four cups water through the coffee maker.  Once the water goes through, the vegetables will be steamed. Set aside.  

While the vegetables are “cooking,” mix 2 parts peanut butter to one part soy sauce in a bowl.  Add lime juice in a 1/2 portion.  In other words, the ratio is 2:1:½ of peanut butter, soy sauce, and acid.  Mix everything together with a fork, but sauce will be lumpy.  This will be smoothed out by adding the hot noodle water that comes out of the coffee pot after cooking the noodles.   

Put a new coffee filter in the basket and then empty the water that gathered in the coffee pot.  Rinse pot and fill with clean water.  In the coffee maker basket, add the ramen.  Again, if the basket is big, you will probably be able to place the ramen in whole.  If not, then break it up into smaller chunks.  Place basket in coffee maker.  You need to ultimately pass 6 cups of water over the noodles.  Since I have a 4 cup, I ran one batch of water through, got 2 cups clean water, and then ran that.  If you have to do two passes of water, then stir the ramen noodles in the coffee basket so the ones on the bottom that are more cooked can be at the top and the less cooked ones can be moved to the bottom.  

When the water is passed through the noodles, take a small splash of the hot noodle liquid and add a little to the peanut butter sauce.  The heat of the water will melt the peanut butter and help turn the mixture into a smoother sauce.  Add the vegetables and noodles, toss and enjoy. 

Your gourmet coffee maker isn’t just for gourmet coffee anymore.  Who knew.

Cooking Efficiency: Spaghetti Squash Two Ways

Since spaghetti squash was on sale, I picked one up for dinner.  Even though I got a smaller one, I cut it aside and designated it for dinner on two different nights. 

Spaghetti Squash Mediterranean Style

Spaghetti squash is easy to fix in the microwave.  Place cut side down in a microwaveable container with a little water, cover with saran wrap, and cook for 8-9 minutes.  Let it cool, then just take a fork and pull the squash into long, spaghetti strands.  Then, drain it on a paper towel.

The rest of the dish came from the salad bar and seafood department.  The grocery store steams shrimp at the store, so I got about a ½ pound on sale (it was steamed the day before and so needed to be sold soon).  I took off the shell and tails, then cut them in half.  Then, I took the feta, olives, parmesan cheese, and arugula I got from the salad bar and combined it with the shrimp and spaghetti squash.  Finished it with butter, olive oil, salt and pepper.    

Spaghetti Squash and Cheese Sauce

The problem of having to cook with a microwave instead of having a stove or burners is that it is hard to get that sense of gradual building of flavors.  To make up with that, I decided to make use of my coffee maker.

Because I just make tea in my coffee maker and clean it regularly, it doesn’t have that worrisome coffee build-up that could affect fixing other things in it.  Since I wanted to do a cheese sauce for my second spaghetti squash and so needed a gradual thickening action, I made the sauce in my coffee maker.    

To do that, turn on the coffee maker, put equal parts butter and flour in the coffee pot, place it on the burner.  Every couple minutes, stir the melted butter and flour.  Once you have a roux, add milk and a sprig of thyme.  Let the milk, thyme, and roux hangout on the coffee pot burner for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.  After 10 minutes, add about a cup of cheddar cheese and return to the burner for 5 more minutes, stirring occasionally.  

During that time, microwave some additional vegetables, add those to the spaghetti squash, and season with thyme, salt, and pepper.  Finally, pour the sauce over the squash and vegetables.  Popped it all in the microwave for a minute to come together, and voila!  

Cooking Efficiency

I love cooking shows, but when I watch them I am reminded how much easier it is too be a foodie in the cooking show world: people to help with clean-up, large budgets, and all the best equipment. For instance, I love Barefood Contessa, but watching that show usually makes me feel that being foodie is incompatible with cooking on a budget or in a less than fantastic kitchen. 

So, how do be a foodie when fancy equipment, a carefree grocery budget, and full kitchen go away?   Can you still be a foodie without a stainless steel stove, a pantry full of exciting ingredients, or the latest Le Creuset and Cuisinart? 

I sure hope so.  

Just for the semester, I am renting a backside extension of a house.  When the main part of the house was empty, I had access to the kitchen.  But, on Nov. 1^st, the main house took on new tenants and so I now find myself kitchenless.  For the next month or so, this is my kitchen and pantry . . . . 

 my prep space . . . 

 my storage space . . . 

 and coffee area. 

If this has happened in September, I would have bought a two-burner hot plate and lived a fairly easy cooking life.   Since I only have to make it until Dec. 15^th when I move out, spending thirty bucks on something I won’t need in the future seems a little gratuitous.   Also, since money is tight, eating out regularly or relying to heavily on TV dinners isn’t really feasible either. 

So, I’ve got to learn the fine art of cooking efficiency.  Over the next month, recipes started with "Cooking Efficiency" will be about fixing dinner with the aid of microwave, slow cooker, and coffee maker.  Any suggestions?