Last-Minute Rice Noodles

Rice stick noodles are starchy and thirsty: left to sit in hot broth they swell, gum together and turn to a pasty mass, yet their cores stay chalky if they were never properly hydrated first. The fix is to cook them in plenty of boiling water until tender all the way through with no firm centre, then shock them in iced water to stop the cooking and rinse away surface starch. Toss with a little oil and hold them loose, uniting them with the broth only seconds before serving. That single change resolves both an undercooked, chewy bite and a clumped, solid tangle at once.