It was a few years ago that my wife realised that one of her favourite dishes was Chinese noodles. Since then I have made it my mission to improve my cooking in Chinese noodles. I know that my mission is not complete but this is a recipe that I discovered through messing with flavourings a while ago. It is versatile and loved by all members of the family.
Even though it seems to take more time, I always chop all of my vegetables before even heating up my pan. This saves time in the long run I assure you.
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| From this |
I love seeing all of the colours and textures as I cut them. My mom always said that your dish required at least three different bright colours. This dish definitely does that.
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| To this |
The sauces needed for this seem complicated (and my bottles are large) but they are needed. I have made this without the two types of soy sauce, oyster sauce but I find that they all have their place in this recipe. My one change this time was that I only discovered I was missing Hoisin sauce after starting. I altered the recipe by using Teriyaki instead with a little extra soy sauce. It was not the same, but it did the job in adding the sweetness that this dish requires.
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| All important sauces. Hoisin is better than Teriyaki though |
I make sure that the pan is hot (not smoking hot, but medium high) before I add the oil. Then I coat the pan before adding the veg. If they start to stick add a dash of water but not too much otherwise they will stew rather than fry.
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| All the veggies in one pan |
Even though you put a panful in, once cooked they reduce in volume so don't worry about it.
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| The veg shouldn't be fully cooked at this point |
Once the sauce and noodles are added you can reduce the temperature because all you want to do is to heat the sauce and coat the noodles and vegetables with it. It is now that you can tweak the flavours.
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| The sauce has been added and is ready to be served |
Adding some spring onions and sesame seeds at the end just adds a lovely bit of texture and taste for the eating.
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| Ready to be devoured |
Non-negotiable
- Vegetables - It does not matter what vegetables there are, just make sure there are a large amount of them. They need to massively outweigh the amount of any protein you decide to add
- Protein - I haven't really added any meat, but you can add some if you want. Precook it then add it with the sauce.
- Sauce - although pretty much every ingredient in the sauce can be altered, the balance of salty, sweet, sour and umami does need to be balanced. These can be changed the quantity of soy and oyster sauce (umami and salty), sugar and Hoisin sauce (sweet), onion (sour). If you do like an extra bit of sour (which I sometimes do depending on the veg I use) you can also add some Tamarind paste. Don't go too heavy too early.
Variation
This recipe is infinitely changeable. I literally use any veg that I have in the fridge at the time. Here are some that we like: carrots, onions, sugar snap peas, water chestnuts, cabbage, broccoli, spring onions, peppers, baby sweetcorn, bamboo shoots, radishes.
As mentioned above, the sauce can be altered too. I sometimes put brown sugar in for sweetness, but other times I stick to Hoisin sauce or Teriyaki, they all accomplish the same goal. The dark soy sauce adds a bit of depth of flavour and not just the salty, umami flavour. I tend to add a small amount of light soy sauce and add more at the end if I feel the need. I have never liked adding lemon juice for the sour taste, but Tamarind works really well if you add a lot of sweet vegetables.
Cooking tips
Despite what every website I have seen says, I have found that doing so actually isn't right. The sizes of the veg should be based on their density. The carrots are largest so should be the thinnest, the peppers, mushrooms and cabbage can all be the same size. I prefer the onions to be really small because otherwise they are too strong of a taste.
The heat of the pan is really important; too hot and the veggies burn rather than fry, too low and they stew. You can adjust the heat as you go, start off hot then reduce it if you need to. I usually flick some water into the pan and if it immediately evaporates then the pan will definitely be hot enough. If you discover the pan is too hot, add a dash of water to cool it (and the vegetables) down.
Lo Mein
Serves - 5
Time - 30 minutes
Ingredients
Main stuff
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
3 carrots
1 onion
1 head of cabbage
2 peppers
6 mushrooms
4 spring onions
400g noodles (can be Chinese or spaghetti)
3 garlic cloves (minced)
1 inch garlic (grated)
1 can water chestnuts
Sauce
1 1/2 Tbsp oyster sauce
2 tsp hoisin sauce
2 Tbsp dark soy sauce
1 Tbsp light soy sauce
1 Tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp sesame oil
some cracks of black pepper
Method
- Slice and dice all of the vegetables and put aside (see cooking tips for sizing advice)
- Heat the pan then add the oil, swirl then add the vegetables stirring constantly.
- Meanwhile bring a pan of what to the boil then add the noodles and parcook them.
- When the veg are partially cooked (still crisp) then add the sauce and noodles.
- Stir until the sauce coats all of the veg then stir in the spring onions.
- Serve topped with sesame seeds.
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