Rice noodles much?

You know when you hear a song and it sticks with you all day. Annoying, right? Food does it to me too. It's not so much an annoyance as an obsession and until I get my fix, everything else just tends to taste so blah. After watching the season finale of Top Chef, I couldn’t get stir-fried rice noodles out of my mind. I suppose I could have just picked up some takeout, but where's the fun in that?



I would say seventy-five percent of the questions I get are about stir-frying noodles. You wouldn't think it, but noodles can be tricky to work with and there's no real "right" way to do it. It takes practice so you can get to know your wok. For example, my wok tends to get hotter towards the front due to my heat source. I’ve learned that’s where I should drizzle in sauces to get good caramelization.

Stir-frying noodles also takes patience. You may follow a method to the T, but the results aren’t what you expected. Take heart! The outcome is so dependent on the kind of wok you have, the heat source you have available and the ingredients you use. Another example: I have a cast iron wok and it takes a good amount of time to heat up. I start by pre-heating it as soon as I start preparations for my stir-fries, which means it sits on high heat (on gas) for at least 10 minutes. It retains the heat very well, sometimes too well. When I make noodles, I often have to turn down the heat at some point to prevent the noodles from burning to the bottom. Your wok might not need much time to heat up, but maybe loses the heat faster. In that case you'd have to adjust your cooking method accordingly. (One suggestion is to have a pot of boiling water to quickly blanch your veggies and then transferring them straight to your wok. The hot veggies will prevent the temperature in the wok from dropping too much.)

The point is, it's great to get tips and ideas from other people, but most likely you'll go through some trial and error to find a method that works for you. Don't get discouraged if things don't work out perfectly the first time. Or the second. Or the third. Just keep at it, and eventually you'll get a result you're happy with.

That's it for my pep talk. Now you can practice with the recipe below. Enjoy!


Stir-fried Rice Noodles
Feeds 4

• 12 oz dried rice noodles, soaked until pliable
• About 2 links Chinese sausage, casing removed (or Chinese BBQ pork), sliced
• 1/4 cup good quality dried shrimp
• 1 pack deep fried tofu squares, sliced (or about 1 cup sliced chicken or pork)
• 2 eggs, lightly scrambled (optional)
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• fresh green chiles, chopped, to taste (optional)
• 4 green onions (whites only), sliced
• 2 tbs kecap manis, (or more to taste)
• fish sauce, to taste
• fresh bean sprouts, to taste
• Chinese chives (or green onion tops), cut into 2-inch segments
• lime segments for serving

Get your wok nice and hot over high heat. Add some oil and quickly stir-fry the Chinese sausage, dried shrimp and tofu squares. The sausage is fatty and you’re trying to release some of the flavor in that fat. If you’re using fresh meat, cook until the meat is almost done. If you’re using eggs, add them and cook until just set. This step shouldn’t take more than 2 to 3 minutes. Transfer everything to a plate and set aside.

Add more oil to your wok if necessary then add the whites of the green onions, garlic and chiles. Stir-fry for about 30 seconds to release the aromas. Add the drained noodles and stir-fry until the noodles start to soften. Add the kecap manis and some fish sauce and the pre-cooked proteins. Keep the ingredients moving to prevent burning, adjusting the heat if necessary. Add a little more liquid (kecap manis, fish sauce or water depending on what you think is missing) if the noodles seem too dry. Stir-fry until the noodles are tender. Add the chives and bean sprouts, give a couple more tosses and you're done!

Serve immediately with lime wedges and more fish sauce on the side.

Indonesian-style Egg Noodles

A group of us at work have started an unofficial food club. The idea is to take turns “teaching” the others about any food-related topics in which we have experience. The topics can range from stir-frying, making cheese, canning, baking, using a pressure cooker—basically anything to do with food. It’s really fun because we get hands-on “demonstrations”, but it’s still very informal and social.



I volunteered to host the first meeting and the topic was stir-frying, of course! My goal was to cover technique as well as introduce some common Asian ingredients. I provided noodles, rice, tofu and all the sauces we were going to use. The attendees brought the other ingredients and their woks, if they had one. Bringing the woks worked out perfectly because we discussed the different materials and their advantages or disadvantages. I laid out a sample of all the sauces and special ingredients and allowed everyone to taste them. The only thing that scared the group a little was the fermented shrimp paste. Most of them passed on the taste test; the smell was quite enough!

Thai fermented shrimp paste. Some call it stinky. I prefer "odoriferous". It will keep indefinitely in the fridge. You may want to store it in a Ziploc bag for extra protection.LOL It's also used in Thai curry pastes. It's also a good substitute for Indonesian fermented shrimp paste.

The meeting turned out to be a success. Everyone enjoyed tasting the different sauces and how the flavors changed or complimented other ingredients in the final result. One person said she never tasted tofu before the meeting. She’d heard so many people say they didn’t like it, but she loved it. Yay! A convert! I love when that happens.

One of the dishes we prepared was Indonesian-style egg noodles. I chose this recipe because I wanted to demonstrate how to cook noodles in a wok and introduce some common ingredients in Indonesian food, namely kecap manis and fermented shrimp paste. After the taste testing though, I was afraid to use the shrimp paste. The original recipe called for 1 tbs of the stinky stuff, but I brought it down to just ¼ tsp dissolved in water to give a total of 1 tbs. Turns out I shouldn’t have toned it down. Everyone liked the dish very much but agreed it could have used more of the shrimp paste flavor. We ended up sprinkling on fish sauce to make up for the lost umami.

I made the recipe again, this time using more shrimp paste, although not the entire 1 tbs, and it was really delicious. Kecap manis gave it sweetness as well a bit of saltiness. The shrimp paste shined! It came through to give a nice complexity and it was not fishy at all (although it was quite odoriferous when it hit the hot wok ☺). I recommend using it if you can get your hands on it. It’s available from any Asian market that sells SE Asian ingredients. If you can’t or don’t want to find it, fish sauce will compensate for some of the lost complexity, although it’s not quite the same.

Notes: The recipe calls for 1 pound fresh, thick egg noodles. They may be labeled yakisoba-style noodles. I couldn’t find any, so I used 8 oz Filipino dried egg noodles. They simply needed to be boiled for like 2 minutes, drained, rinsed in cold water and tossed with a little bit of oil to keep from sticking.

Hey manggy or Marvin, are the noodles actually called pancit canton? Or are they just trying to show these are the noodles to use for pancit canton? I'm kinda confused.

The original recipe called for topping with a fried egg, but I didn’t have any left after breakfast. How disappointing because the creamy yolk goes so well with the flavors and adds another texture. Otherwise there’s not any real protein in the dish. If you wanted, you could add tofu (which is what we did for the food club version) or chicken or shrimp.

Don’t forget the condiments, especially the fried onions! They add a wonderful textural component. I prefer to use an Asian brand, but Trader Joe’s fried onions are also fine. I don’t like the texture of French’s fried onions. They bread them or something. I also always serve noodles with lime wedges, sambal oelek and of course fish sauce (I can't help it, I'm Thai!) so that people can adjust the taste to their liking.

Indonesian-style Stir-fried Egg Noodles
From The Food and Cooking of Indonesia and the Philippines
Serves 3 or 4

• 1 pound fresh thick egg noodle (or 80z dried noodles; see note above)
  
• 2 shallots, minced
  
• 3 spring onions, minced
  
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 to 2 tsp fermented shrimp paste (called belacan or kappi shrimp paste), dissolved in 1 tbs water
• 1 tbs tomato paste
• 2 tbs kecap manis
• 4 eggs, fried over easy or over medium for serving (optional, but highly recommended)
  
• fried onions for topping
• 1 or 2 scallions, finely sliced for garnish (optional)
  

If using dried noodles, prepare them first because they can be set aside. See note above about preparation.

Combine the mined herbs together in a small bowl. They will go into the wok together.

Dissolve the shrimp paste in water, making sure to break up the clumps. Don't fret about the smell. It will taste good!

Mix the tomato paste and kecap manis together until thoroughly combined. Set aside until needed.

In a wok over medium-high heat, add about 2 tbs oil (grapeseed, peanut or a vegetable oil are best). When hot, but not smoking, add the minced herbs and stir-fry until fragrant and softened, about 20-30 seconds or so. Don't let them burn! Add the shrimp paste and stir to coat the herbs. Fry for about 30 seconds. Add the noodles then the kecap manis sauce. Turn the noodles in the sauce. Make sure they are well-coated. I found that using tongs to turn the noodles works well. Just be careful not to smush the noodles. Adjust flavor with salt or fish sauce, if needed. When the noodles are heated through, they are done! Remove to a plate and keep warm while you fry the eggs (unless you are good enough to fry the eggs while stir-frying the noodles; I am not!).

Serve on individual plates, each portion topped with a fried egg and garnished with fried onions and/or thinly sliced scallions.