This Noodle Strainer Brings Order to My Chaotic Kitchen
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One of my long-standing dreams is to apprentice at a Chinese restaurant. I have visions of myself expertly tossing a fierywokwith one hand and throwing in diced vegetables, protein, and ladles of sauces with the other in a precisely timed manner, all while keeping my cool. But in my home kitchen, I am a chaotic cook. My husband often asks me why I do things the way I do (being frazzled, making a mess). That’s just how I operate. Whoever said to “clean as you go” must have had a sous-chef tidying up behind them, because my brain doesn’t work that way.
Despite all that, I like to think that I’m a decent cook. I’m very good at making something taste exactly the way I want it to. That said, multitasking on multiple dishes is not my strength. We often only have one dish for dinner — no sides, no vegetables. I simply run out of time or forget that my family should probably eat something green every once in a while. I do rely on a couple of tools to make cooking a little more efficient, though.This air fryerhelps me get vegetables on the table quicker (if I remember to make them), and I live and die by my garlic press. My most recent acquisition is a basket strainer for noodles from Helen’s Asian Kitchen, and it’s already simplified how I approach dinnertime.
One of our mealtime mainstays is noodle soup. My kids love udon, ramen, a Korean chicken soup I serve withsomyeon(thin wheat noodles), really anything soupy that involves slurping up chewy strands of flour. Theudon noodles I prefercome frozen in individual-sized bricks, as do our favoritefrozen ramen noodles. When I’m making udon, I’ll have apotgoing for my broth (which I make from scratch using gooddashiand kombu, sometimes with fish cakes but not always) plus a smaller pot for noodles.
Putting together four bowls of udon takes some coordination. I could cook all four noodle portions at the same time, but the pot often overflows. The noodles cook in only a couple of minutes anyway, so it’s fast. I used to juggle getting the timing right by cooking one serving, then dumping out the contents of the pot into acollanderin my sink — but then I would have to wait for a new pot of water to boil. I also tried taking the cooked noodles out of the still-boiling water using tongs or a spaghetti server, but that was cumbersome, too.
Then, over Christmas, I watched my brother’s fiancée put a handful of fresh pho noodles into a basket strainer, gingerly place the basket into a pot of gently boiling water for about a minute, then lift it out when they were done, shaking off the excess water. The perfectly al dente rice noodles were then plopped into a bowl, ready to be dressed. She continued the conveyor belt of pho production without breaking a sweat until all the guests were served. The whole process was streamlined and elegant. I wanted that for myself.
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I’m still a tornado in the kitchen, but since I’ve started using this noodle strainer, I feel a bit more in control, and I’ve found it pretty sturdy and easy to handle. On udon nights (which is more or less once a week), I get a pot of boiling water going, then slip a noodle brick into the basket, lower it into the pot, break up the noodles using extra long cooking chopsticks, then take the basket out a minute later. I dump the noodles in a bowl, then repeat. A hook on the side of the basket lets you attach it to the pot so it doesn’t fall over in the water, but I haven’t had a problem with that. It has a highly specific use-case scenario — cooking small amounts of noodles (or any food) that have a short cooking time — but now I can’t imagine cooking without it. While I may never be adept enough to work in a professional kitchen, this basket lets me live out my fantasy at home.
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