I love eating Chinese Chow Fun and Thai Pad See Ew because of the use of wide flat rice noodle. When it is done right the noodles will be soft yet chewy. I'm definitely not a fan of overcooked mushy noodles. I used to buy the fresh rice noodles from the Asian market to make stir fry. It sadden me that 75% of time it ended up in the garbage because I just could not find the time to use them before it went bad. I finally found the perfect substitute that has a much longer shelf life!
I came across these one day, had very low expectations since it is not fresh. Once I finally tried it out, I was in love! These rectangular shape noodles are great to use after a good soaking in water. I use them anytime I want to fix something up really fast. I had 2 hour before work so I decide to make some Beef Chow Fun for lunch. I had already thawed out some slice beef the night before and just used whatever I had laying around in the fridge.
Ingredients:sliced beef
green onions (cut into 1/2 in)
yellow onions (thinly sliced)
Chinese kale choy sum (cut in half)
rice noodle
minced garlic
fish sauce
oyster sauce
soy sauce
sugar
cooking oil
1. Soak noodles in warm water.
2. Marinade sliced beef with soy sauce,minced garlic, and sugar.
3. Clean and cut all your vegetables.
4. Drain noodles and let it dry for a bit. The noodles has soften but not enough to eat.
5. Heat up some cooking oil in a pan.
6. Add the beef and stir fry until brown, remove and put aside.
7. Repeat #5, flash fry the choy sum. Remove and put aside.
8. Repeat #5 enough to cover the surface of the pan, add minced garlic and then rice noodles. Add two tablespoon of oyster sauce, 1/2 cup of water, a little bit of sugar. Cover the pan and let the liquid soak into the noodles.
9. Uncover the pan and you shouldn't have very much liquid left and the noodles should be softer. Add the yellow onion, green onion, a dash of fish sauce, a dash of soy sauce and continue to stir all the ingredients together.
10. Re-add the beef and choy sum. Stir everything together.
11. If you prefer the noodles to be extra soft, just add more water and cover the pan.
Enjoy!
Cool. My kids love chow fun. A variation w/a little thai flavor is to start the heated wok w/onions, basil, and garlic. then when you start pan-frying the noodles, add the sauce (oyster, dark soy, light soy, fish sauce, sriracha) but have the sauces premixed together in a bowl first. i was really surprised at what a difference that made.
ReplyDeleteAmy,
ReplyDeleteI will have to try that variation the next time I'm in the mood for some stir fry, thanks :)
Thank you so much for this recipe. I had never seen these noodles at the market before I saw your post. I poked around a bit more today. I was able to replicate one of my favorite tofu dishes tonight following your process but make a few substitutions and additions. Yum! Thanks!
ReplyDeleteKristi,
ReplyDeleteI am a huge fan of tofu in stir fries, i'm glad it turned out good! Thanks for the comment :)