Cold Sesame Noodles with Leftover Duck

You know, I've never stopped to think about it before, but pasta is pretty much a seasonless dish. You can eat it with smothered with a meat sauce in the dead of winter or a cool pasta salad in the hot, dog days of summer. Pasta will do whatever you want it to do, it can be Asian, Greek, Indian, whatever. It's like a best friend that is always open to suggestions. As a matter of fact, I am officially declaring pasta my best friend, sorry Susee Shaikewitz, you've been replaced by pasta. Actually, Susee was my elementary through high school, and sort of into adult life best friend, I haven't technically talked to her in a few years. So, she is probably not too broken up about the whole pasta deal.

I was paging through Nigella's Forever Summer (Style Network's) (Style Network's), when I came upon her Soba Noodles with Sesame Seeds. I've made cold sesame noodles before, but always with peanut butter. This recipe didn't include the peanut butter and sounded less fussy, and just what I was in the mood to make. I was making a duck (which in the messed up way I'm posting, you haven't actually seen yet), and it was a five-hour-duck (which I kept singing to the tune of the Gilligan's Island song, you know the three-hour-tour part). So, I wasn't in the mood for anything too fussy or figidity (when I read Nigella, I start talking like her too). I changed it up a bit, because I didn't have any scallions, so I substituted some garlic chives, which I have in abundance. Also the picture you are looking at is the next day, when I shredded some of the five-hour-duck into it, any kind of leftover poultry would do, you don't have to make a five-hour-duck. Look at how many times I remind you that I made a five-hour-duck, imagine how many times I will say it when I actually post about the five-hour-duck.

Cold Soba Noodles with Sesame Seeds (and Five-Hour-Duck)
adapted from Nigella Lawson

1/3 cup of sesame seeds
kosher salt
8 oz soba noodles
2 teaspoons rice vinegar
5 teaspoons soy sauce
2 teaspoons honey
2 teaspoons sesame oil
handful of garlic chives
2 cups shredded cooked duck, or chicken

Toast the sesame seeds in a dry skillet over high heat until the start to look golden. Remove and put in a bowl.

Cook soba noodles in boiling, salted water as per directions on your package of noodles. When finished, plunge them in ice water to stop cooking, or do what I did and just rinse them quickly in a colander under cool water.

In a bowl that you are serving them in, mix vinegar, soy sauce, honey and oil. Slice the garlic chives and add them and the noodles and stir together thoroughly. Add the sesame seeds and toss again.

If you can, let the noodles sit for about 30 minutes for the flavors to blend. If you are using leftovers, add the shredded duck or chicken and serve.

This will be my entry for this weeks Presto Pasta Nights hosted this week by Hillary at Chew on That.