I have been on such a kick to try and cook traditional dishes lately that it has been a while since I’ve made an Asian inspired recipe of my own creation. I had forgotten how yummy these spicy green curry noodles were! I use onions, red bell pepper and shiitake mushrooms with a sauce of green curry paste and coconut milk. Served with fresh flat wheat noodles and basil, they are very complex!

The first time I ever cooked for my husband Tejas, I made these noodles. I was on a rampage trying to figure out how to make them vegetarian/without fish sauce and I ended up using a little of what I call “Mean Lady Sauce”. The sauce is really spicy, but also has a umani-ish fermented flavor. Using both the green curry paste and “Mean Lady Sauce”, it ended up so spicy that Tejas could barely eat it!

I had no idea what “Mean Lady Sauce” was actually called, just that there was this picture of a lady on the bottle that looks so bored or mean, so just now I tried to find it and came across this chowhound post. I have determined that the sauce is either Lao Gan Ma Chili Crisp Sauce or Lao Gan Ma Black Bean Chilli Sauce, but I’m not sure which, and the funniest thing is the author of the chowhound post calls the sauce “Mean Woman Sauce”!

Anyways, because it was too spicy, I have since found another substitute for fish sauce: Healthy Boy Brand Soybean Paste. The fermented beans give it that something something.

The flat noodles in the recipe are fresh white flat wheat noodles from 99 Ranch. There is Vietnamese writing on the package, but I threw away the package before I thought to take a picture of it! They are in the fresh noodle section in a styrofoam and plastic wrap package. They are like fairly wide fettuccine. They are also flatter so they become more tender. I really like how the flat noodles work with this dish; the sauce really coats them nicely.

1 tablespoon oil
1 red bell pepper sliced
1 onion sliced
2-3 tablespoons green curry paste
10 shiitake mushrooms sliced in half
1 can coconut milk
2 tablespoons palm sugar (you can substitute regular sugar)
2 tablespoons yellow soy bean paste (I used Healthy Boy brand soy bean paste)
Fresh wide flat wheat noodles (I think you could substitute fresh fettuccine in a pinch-I’m sure you could also use another kind of wheat noodle, but I’m so used to this with flat noodles, that I feel like they are the perfect fit)
1 cup basil
Juice from 1/2 lime

1. Heat oil on high in a wok and throw in your bell pepper. After a couple of minutes add your onions, then a couple of minutes later, the green curry paste. Next add the mushrooms.
2. Once the mushrooms are tender, throw in the coconut milk, sugar and yellow soy bean paste, and cook for a few minutes to let the flavors meld.
3. Meanwhile, boil some water and add the fresh noodles until just cooked (only takes a minute or so). Drain.
4. Add the basil and lime to the curry, then add the noodles and stir so that the curry coats all the noodles.