Spicy Rice Noodles with Crispy Pork

I’ve been out of town for quite some time (hence the lack ofposts recently) and so my home cooking opportunities have been few and farbetween. But I have been able to come home every other weekend and usually tryto make something that will yield some leftovers for my poor husband to eatwhile I’m gone. I thought this spicy Thai dish would be a good one. And itturned out to not only be good the day we made it, but the reports from myhusband were that it was also good a few days later. The original recipe, whichI found on The Kitchn, called for glass noodles but we were unable to find themand substituted rice noodles, which turned out quite tasty!

1 pound ground pork
1 package rice noodles
3 green onions, sliced into thin rounds
Handful roughly chopped cilantro
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes (or to taste)
3 tablespoon soy sauce
3 tablespoons fish sauce
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons lime juice (from 1 lime)
Optional (we omitted since Steve doesn’t like peanuts)
2 tablespoons peanuts, roughly chopped
Extra chopped peanuts for garnishing
Heat a teaspoon of canola or vegetable oil in a skillet overmedium high heat, and then add the pork. Cook for 5 minutes and try to break upthe pork as much as you can to get tiny crumbles. Ours was still probably a bittoo big. Then cook for another 3-5 minutes while stirring infrequently to get anice golden crispy crust on the pork. Set aside on a paper towel.
While you’re cooking the pork, put the rice noodles in a bowlof hot water to soften up. Read the instructions on the box and follow them butthis should take just 5-10 minutes. Then you’ll want to use kitchen shears tocut them into smaller more manageable noodles. Bring water to boil and finishcooking (according to package instructions) before draining and pouring theminto a large bowl.
Stir together the pork and noodles plus greenonions, cilantro, red pepper flakes and the optional peanuts. In a smaller dishcombine the soy sauce, fish sauce, sugar and lime juice. The original recipecalled for more lime juice, but I ran out and was actually ok with the finalmix. But taste it and adjust if you want. Pour the sauce into the bowl witheverything else and gently toss to combine. The noodles are subject to packmentality and want to stay together and reject everything else, but try yourbest to combine them. Refrigerate for 15 minutes or so and then retoss andserve! It is a nice summery dish, light and cool but with a good Thai heat.