Crispy Noodles

What's for dinner tonight? Crispy Noodles! I can hear cheers and claps from my boys.

Gosh, had it been a year since I last served this dish for dinner? No wonder my elder boy kept asking "What are we having for dinner?". He just wanted to make sure he heard it correctly ... ok, he's been starved badly by Mom =p

The great thing about this dish is that you can use any ingredient available in your fridge. No chicken? Use fish. No prawns? Skip it. Replace broccoli with BakChoy. Anything goes! And yes, you can prepare the ingredients in advance, like frying the chicken and the prawns, blanching the broccoli and BakChoy. When ready to eat, fry the noodles and prepare the sauce. Pour the sauce over the pan-fried noodles and serve!

So for tonight's sauce, we have chicken, prawns, fishballs, broccoli, canned mushrooms, and chinese mushrooms.

Vegetables

1 head Broccoli, cut into florets and blanched

5 pcs Chinese or Shitake Dried Mushrooms, reconstitute in water, sliced

1 can Mushrooms (Small Can)

5 cloves Garlic, Peeled and chopped

I blanched the broccoli, cooked the fishballs, reconstituted and sliced the mushrooms and chopped the garlic in the afternoon. Set them aside for use later, and I went on to marinate the chicken and prawns.

Marinade for Chicken:

3 pcs Chicken Thigh Fillets, bone and skin removed, cubed

1 tsp Soy Sauce (I used low sodium Soy Sauce)

1 tsp Oyster Sauce (I used vegetarian sauce, which is less salty)

1 tsp Sesame Oil

1 tsp Cornstarch

Dash of black pepper.

Dash of shaoxing wine during cooking.

Marinade for prawns:

15 pcs Large Shrimp/Prawns, peeled and deveined

1 tsp Sesame Oil

Dash of salt and black pepper.

Dash of shaoxing wine during cooking.

• Marinate chicken pieces for about 30 minutes.
• Adjust the amount of sauces according, depending on how much chicken you have, and how salty your sauces are. The amount above is just a guide.

Here's the star of the dish .... Noodles!

These are fresh noodles and they are already cooked. The bag of noodles is to be kept in the fridge till you are ready to use them. When ready to use, take it out from the fridge and remove the amount you want from the bag. Place the noodles in a big mixing bowl, and rinse the noodles with cold water. You will see that the water clouds up. Give it a rinse a couple of times till the water is not cloudy.

• Drain the noodles and set aside.
• Heat up a wok and add two tablespoons of oil.
• When the oil is hot, add a handful of noodles into the wok.
• Spread the noodles out evenly.

You can replace these noodles with angel's hair. But you will need to cook the angel's hair in a big pot of salted water, rinsed and drained before pan frying them.

I pan fried about four batches of noodles. After pan frying each batch, I placed the fried noodles on a paper kitchen towel to soak up the oil. Then I placed individual portions on the serving plates.

Now for the meat .... Using the same wok as frying the noodles, wipe off the remaining little pieces of noodles in the wok using a paper kitchen towel.

Cooking the prawns:

• Heat up the wok. Add a tablespoon of oil.
• When the oil is hot, add chopped garlic.
• Fry garlic till fragrant, taking care not to brown them.
• Add prawns.
• When the prawns are almost cooked, add a dash of shaoxing wine.
• Remove and set aside.

Cooking the chicken:

• Wipe the wok with a paper kitchen towel if necessary.
• Heat the wok and add a tablespoon of oil.
• Add chopped garlic and fry til fragrant.
• Add chicken pieces. Fry till browned.
• Add a dash of shaoxing wine when almost cooked.
• When cooked, remove and set aside.

Cooking the sauce:

• Wipe the wok with a paper kitchen towel.
• Heat the work and add a tablespoon of oil.
• Add chopped garlic and fry till fragrant.
• Add canned mushrooms and sliced chinese mushrooms.
• Add 1 tsp osyter sauce, 1 tsp sugar, 1 tsp soy sauce to the wok.
• Mix well and fry for a minute.

• Add broccoli and fishballs into the wok.
• Add cooked chicken and prawns.
• Add broth, approximately 1 litre or enough for the amount of noodles you have prepared.
• Mix well and cook till the liquid starts to bubble.
• Add 2 tbsp cornstarch mixed with 4 tbsp of water or water from soaking mushrooms.
• Add salt to taste if necessary. I did not add any salt as I find the flavor just right for us. If the sauce is too salty, you can add a little water.

The noodles are plain on its own, but when paired with the sauce, it is heavenly! The boys had an extra big serving each and asked more after they finished. Now that I have written down the recipe, and with my new big wok, I will definitely be serving this for dinner more often! Claps and hurrays from the boys ... the boys are stuffed and not starved tonight =)