OK, so no pictures, but my latest cooking experiment, a quick way of jazzing up Asian egg noodles when the cupboard is (nearly) bare. This goes well with strong-tasting dishes (I wouldn’t advise serving it with something bland, as it’s somewhat bland itself).

Quick perfumed egg noodles
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Prep time: 10 mins
Cook time: 10 mins
Total time: 20 mins
A quick way to jazz up egg noodles.
Ingredients
  • 2 nests (half a packet) egg noodles
  • 1 teaspoon ground ginger
  • 1 tablespoon chili-garlic sauce
  • 1 tablespoon fish sauce, OR a solid pinch of salt, OR 1 tablespoon oyster sauce (slightly different effects depending on what you use for salt content).
  • 1 tablespoon sesame oil
  • 1 garlic clove, chopped (or to taste)
  • handful of spring onions, green and white part separately, chopped into little pieces
Instructions
  1. Cook the noodles in boiling water. There’s a trick to that if you don’t want an unholy tangled mess, which, first, take the nests from the wrapper and comb through them to untangle (do NOT dump into the boiling water tangled, or it will only get worse). Second, after you dump the noodles into boiling water, stir regularly, until the boiling starts again. Should be 2 minutes. Don’t leave more than that, or they get over-soggy. Then rinse the noodles under running water until most of the starch has gone away (it’s hard to describe; but mostly the noodles don’t feel quite so sticky). Keep untangling as you can. Personally, I’ve never quite managed to keep them separate, but that probably reflects more on my general cooking skills than anything else. If you’re not going to use the noodles straight away, leave them in cold water until needed.
  2. Put a wok/frying pan with oil on high heat. Add the chopped garlic, the white part of the green onions, and fry for about 30s, until fragrant.
  3. Drain the noodles, and put them in the wok. Swirl and keep untangling. Work in the chili-garlic sauce, the fish sauce/salt, and the ground ginger, making sure to mix well so all noodles get equal amounts of spices. Do this until the moisture is all but gone and the noodles are starting to brown. Then add in the spring onions, work in the sesame oil, and take off the heat.
  4. Serve with a dish with a strong taste, as they’re still somewhat bland (it’s a bit my equivalent of white rice for egg noodles).

 

Also, having been hit by real life (again), this blog is going to remain in sort of in zombie mode for one further week. I could say I’m getting lots of fascinating ideas for blog posts, but mostly all I want now is some chocolate, a hot tea and a silly movie.

PS: btw, how many readers of this blog would be interested in a post on basic rice handling and cooking? I’ve never done it because it seems so obvious and I’ve been doing this my entire life, but it seems wrong to post so many Asian recipes and never tackle this at all… (hint: it is NOT about boiling a lot of water with a pinch of salt, flinging the rice in it, and cooking until the grains are perfectly separate).

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