Conference turris::cooks

  If they look like clear spaghetti (which it sounds like they do, from
  your description), then it's probably the stuff we used to eat as kids
  (I grew up part-time in Hawaii). I'm not sure, but I think they're
  somehow made from rice flour, or maybe seaweed, and you cook them just
  like you would cook a wheat-flour noodle (i.e., boil them), only I'm
  not sure how long it takes - maybe longer. The trick isn't so much
  cooking them, it's *eating* them - which you'll find out soon enough
  :-). As to what dishes you could put them in, we used to have them in
  broths, or in noodle dishes similar to Pad Thai.

    
    Rep .0
    
      Yes you can deep fry them. I would suggest you break/tear the
    package in half before you deep fry them. The reason being that
    the center of package never seems to fry properly if you don't.
    <at least for me anyways and the uncooked noodles are AWFUL.>
    Also remember to use a pan large enough to hold the finished noodles
    since they seem to swell up about 10 times the "raw" size. I usually
    fry them in my wok with about 3" of oil at 350F. The fried noodles
    make a great side dish for stirfrys. 
    
    -mike
    

    Thanks!  I will give frying a try.  Re .1 - they say they're made
    from mung beans - I checked the package.   My one attempt to cook
    them in broth produced a sodden mass of rather gelatinous noodles,
    all stuck together.  Not bad tasting, but not really good, and
    certainly not a good texture!  I'm not sure how to soft-cook
    them without them sticking together.  Any ideas?
    
    --Louise

    I usually watch the Yan Can Cook show on Sat and one time I saw
    him cook these noodles....he put about an inch of oil in the wok
    and when it was hot, put the package of noodles in....in one
    second they seemed to quadruple in size.....then five seconds
    later he took them out.....
    
    Personally, Ive never tried them
    
    Rick

    
    They can be stir fried: get the oil *very* hot - hot enough that
    when a chop stick is put in the oil bubbles form around it vigorously.
    Drop in the noodles, and immediately remove them.
    
    They can be boiled - however they go soggy...
    
    In Thailand you'll find a soup called 'gwaitiou' sold by street
    hawkers: they give you a bowl, you ladle in some hot (boiling) soup 
    stock, add raw veggies to taste, a little cooked chicken or pork,
    and then as much of the raw noodles as you want. Then eat. If you
    like you can garnish with fresh mint leaves, add a little chopped
    green chillis and ground red chilli powder, and a little of the
    deep fried noodles for texture.
    
    Though it sounds bizarre this is enough 'boiling' for the noodles
    - any more and they collapse into a gooey mess.
                                   
    /. Ann .\

    Louise,
    	You may find that the top center doesn't cook when fried, so
    I always flip it over for a second just to be sure.  They make a
    beautiful bed for stir-fried veggies, both for taste and presentation!
    But heed the warnings...they puff up in about 2 seconds and will
    fill your wok to the top. Use a good sized pan if you do not have
    a wok.
    
    Sarah
    

    If you want the bean thread noodles to be soft, rather than deep fried,
    you don't have to even boil them, which will make them sticky - just
    pour hot water over them for ten minutes or so, then drain them.  After
    that you can soft fry them, or use them as a base for a sauce (we often
    have a quick-to-make dish that translates into "ants climb a tree",
    whcih is these noodles as the "tree bark" and a sauce made of ground meat
    and spices as the "ants").  If you are going to put the noodles in
    soup, soak them first, drain and drop into the soup just before serving
    - if you put them in the soup while the other ingredients are cooking
    the noodles will overcook and turn into a sticky mass.

    I've heard of that dish before - could you put the recipe in?  I
    can imagine Jim's face when he asks what's for dinner, and I reply,
    "Ants climbing a tree."  ;-)
    
    --Louise

    How do these noodles compare calorie-wise with Italian pasta?
    

    I'll dig up a recipe for "ants climb a tree" tonight - I use several
    different ones, but all of them are easy to make (assuming you have a
    stockpile of oriental ingredients like chili paste with garlic, Sichuan
    peppercorns, and so on - which you can probably get where you got the
    noodles in the first place).  Just be sure and break the noodles into
    manageable lengths before you soak them; otherwise they are pretty hard
    to eat with chopsticks since they are kind of slippery.   You might
    want to rename the concoction something more innocuous, like "Chinese
    spaghetti" - probably it is pretty close to what Marco Polo discovered
    anyhow!
    
    I don't know about caloric content - I don't worry much about that
    (probably not as much as I ought to...).  There isn't much to them but
    mung beans (the kind that are sprouted for bean sprouts) and water, so
    I don't expect that they are terribly fattening, and they probably
    supply a good deal of protein.  They aren't very interesting by
    themselves since they don't have much flavor (same problem as plain
    tofu by itself - though I know a DECcie who eats a big cube of the
    Japanese kind, plain, for lunch every day!), but they are great for
    sopping up the flavor of the sauce you put on them.
           

    This is about the simplest variation of this recipe, and serves about 4
    people:
    
    2 oz bean threads (one small package)
    2 T oil
    1/2 lb ground pork (or beef)
    2 T dark soy sauce
    1 t chili paste with garlic
    1/2 c chicken broth
    
    Soak noodles in boiling water to cover.  Let stand 20 minutes, then
    drain.
    
    Heat oil in wok.  Stir-fry meat to separate grains, about 1 minute.
    
    Add noodles and blend well.  Then add soy sauce, chili paste, and
    broth, and cook on high heat 2-3 minutes, stirring constanly.
    
    Other variations have ground Sichuan peppercorns (I have two pepper
    grinders and keep Sichuan pepper in one of them, so that is pretty
    easy), ground ginger and/or garlic, etc.  Anyhow, it is extremely
    simple, which is the right idea on a busy day.
    
    PS - For whoever was asking in the 10-flavor chicken note (where's that
    note?  I want that recipe, too!), bean thread noodles are almost
    transparent.  They *are* transparent after they have been soaked.  If
    you deep-fry them, they puff up and turn white and crispy. 

    
    For two more variations on what to do with bean thread noodles,
    read on.
    
    My earlier note 1158 contains another Thai recipe - for a soup called
    Yum woon sen, which has several variations.
    
    The following is a Korean recipe from Maddhur Jaffrey's Far Eastern
    Cookery, reproduced without permission...
    
    Chapchae							Korea
                 Cellophane Noodles with Beef and Vegetables
    
    Also called transparent bean thread noodles, pea starch noodles
    and bean sticks, cellophane noodles are made from mung beans. They
    can be put into soups and combined with almost any meat and vegetable.
    Here is a Korean way of preparing them.
    
                                 Ingredients
    
    2 oz cellophane noodles
    4 spring onions [aka scallions in USA]
    4 cloves garlic
    5 oz tender beef steak
    4 teaspoons plus 1 tablespoon soy sauce (preferably the Japanese
    						sort called shoyu)
    4 teaspoons sugar
    freshly ground black pepper
    1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon sesame oil
    5 dried Chinese mushrooms
    1 medium carrot
    1 small courgette
    5 oz fresh spinach
    5 tablespoons vegetable oil
    salt
    1 tablespoon roasted sesame seeds
    
                                    method
    
    Put the cellophane noodles into a bowl. Pour warm water over them
    and leave them to soak for 30 minutes - 1 hour, or until they are
    soft. Drain them and cut them into 3" lengths. Cut the spring onions
    into 3" lengths. cut each piece lengthwise into 2-3 strips. Peel
    the garlic and chop it finely.
    
    Cut the beef against the grain into very thin slices. Cut these slices,
    also against the grain, into thin julienne strips, each around 3"
    long. In a small bowl combine the beef with 4 teaspoons of soy sauce,
    2 teaspoons of sugar, 1 tablespoon of the spring onions, 1 teaspoon
    of garlic, some black pepper, and 1 tablespoon of the sesame oil.
    Toss to mix.
    
    Soak the dried mushrooms in enough hot water to cover them for 30
    minutes or until they are soft. Lift them out of the water and cut
    off the hard stems. Slice the caps into 1/8 inch strips. Peel the
    carrot and cut it into 3" lengths, and then into fine julienne strips.
    Trim the courgette and cut it lengthwise into quarters. Cut away
    the seeded sections and then cut the lengths into 3" segments. Cut
    each segment into long julienne strips. Wash the spinach thoroughly
    and discard any tough stems. Drop the spinach into a pan of boiling
    water. Boil for 1 minute or until the spinach has wilted. Drain
    and rinse in cold water. Squeeze out as much water as possible and
    then separate the leaves. Combine the carrot, courgette, spinach
    and remaining spring onions in a bowl.
    
    Put 3 tablespoons of the vegetable oil in a wok over high heat.
    When the oil is hot, put in the remaining garlic. Stir fry for 30
    seconds. Empty the bowl of vegetables into the wok. Stir fry for
    3-4 minutes or until they are tender-crisp. Salt and pepper lightly.
    Toss. Take the vegetables out of the wok and put them back in the
    bowl. Put the remaining 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil in the wok.
    When the oil is hot put in the meat and sliced mushrooms. Stir fry
    for 1-2 minutes or until the meat is just cooked through. Remove
    the meat and mushrooms with a slotted spoon, leaving the juices,
    if any behind.
    
    Turn the heat to low, add 2 fl oz of water to the wok along with
    the remaining 1 tablespoon soy sauce and 2 teaspoons of sugar. Mix,
    then turn the heat to medium. Put in the cellophane noodles. Cook
    for 2 minutes or until the noodles are heated through and tender.
    Empty the noodles and liquid into a serving bowl. Add the meat and
    mushrooms, the vegetables, the remaining 1 teaspoon sesame oil and
    the roasted sesame seeds. Toss and serve.
    
    serves 4

    Calories -- I was looking into calorie count a year or so ago,
    and I noticed a curious thing:  It doesn't much matter what the source
    is, if it's protein, it's approximately 9 calories per gram; same for
    fats, 9 per gram. Carbohydrates are about 6 per gram, I believe. 
    
    Based on that, I'd say the noodles provide the same number of calories
    per unit of weight as pasta.
    
    					andrew

    It turns out that the bean-thread noodles also contain cornstarch (at
    least one kind I buy does; it actually listed the ingredients on it in
    English).
    
    I would expect that once you cook them, they have less calories than
    the same number of servings of wheat-based pasta, since they swell up
    so much so that most of what you are eating is water.  A two-ounce
    package of them will serve the two of us generously, but we eat 9-10
    ounces of wheat noodles with the same quantity of sauce.

    Um, from college and from the Lifesteps course, the calories are
    almost twice as much for fat as for protein and carbohydrates, which
    are equal.  I think it's 9 per gram for fat, and about 6 for protein
    and carbohydrates, but the latter might be a little less.
    
    Anyhow, since there's little fat in either type of noodle, your
    conclusion that cellophane noodles, dry, are about as many calories
    as "regular" noodles still sounds good.  Since the cellophane noodles
    swell up more than pasta does, I would also agree with the next
    reply that suggested that, given equal amounts of cooked noodles,
    the bean threads have fewer calories.  Probably not too much
    difference,  though.
    
    At any rate, all calculations aside, thanks to all for the suggestions.
    I've used the noodles twice more, cooked in broth, with stirfries
    on top.  They're ok as a change from regular noodles, and faster
    than rice.  Since I don't want the extra fat, I haven't tried frying
    them.
    
    --Louise

    In my textbook on Nutrition and Diet Therapy (I used to be a
    registered nurse, in my life before DEC), is the following:
    
    	Protein			4 Calories per Gram
    	Fat			9 Calories per Gram
    	Carbohydrate		4 Calories per Gram
    
    Joanna

    Well, someone let me loose in a kitchen store again (I keep warning
    them...) and my latest acquisition is a sukiyaki pot.  I am lucky
    enough to live near a Japanese grocery store and went running out
    and bought all the vegetables, the meat, even the skiitake mushrooms,
    the problem came with the noodles.  You see, this Japanese store
    is filled with genuine Japanese ingredients - genuine all the way
    down to the Japanese instructions on the package.  The woman who
    works in the store speaks no English and very little French and
    to this point my Japanese is less than proficient (usually
    when I have a question she gets her son to help me out, but he wasn't
    there), we managed to get past the idea of sukiyaki and noodles
    and she handed me a package of these dried noodles but after that
    we were at a loss.  The recipe calls for fresh konnyaku noodles
    and I wound up with dried sei fun noodles, from what I can make
    out they're both made from a Japanese potato but I'm not sure how
    to cook them.  Should they be treated in the same way as the cellophane
    noodles or is there another method?  I tried boiling them in water
    for 5 minutes but they stuck together in a little blob.  Not quite
    as appetizing as in a restaurant.  The rest of it was great, but I 
    love the noodles and I'd like to give it another try.  Any help 
    here would be greatly appreciated.
    
    Thanks!
    Christine
      

RE: calories for fat (in English weights)

One pound of fat (any type) is 3500 calories.

--PSW

    
    Re...  .12   
    
     Ian....what the heck is a courgette, we dont seem to have this in our
    "local" cookbook.....some kind of onion maybe?????
    
     Help us out here.
    
      Thanks
    
    Read only Ed
    
    

    
    Yes I think a courgette is a zucchini ... they look like small [green]
    cucumbers...
    
    /. Ian .\