This has meat in it. But it could be made without. That’s rice noodles amongst, Shitake mushrooms, sliced celery, fried onions, sliced cabbage.
Yes it’s something Chinese but I don’t know what they call it. Not important to me, anyway. For those who need to find a name, full marks to you for finding it on Google.
To cook this do the following, which should feed two average hungry adults at one sitting.
Ooops – legal disclaimer required! Use your bloody common sense. Don’t be a robot and put ingredients in here that you might be allergic to. Chyrsst! Moving swiftly on.
Ok how much is two hands together full of the following: Slice onions x 2 in to large chunks. Slice a few stalks of celery – whatever size chunks you like. Slice a cabbage to get a few big chunks. Slice up Shitake mushrooms or your fav type.
Get Rice noodles – or similar noodles made soft – ready. I like rice noodles cuz they distribute the flavour very nicely compared to thicker noodles.
Use a good non-stick wok.
Throw the sliced onions into the heated wok coated with a drizzle of regular cooking oil and some sesame seed oil. Add a pinch or two of freshly ground black pepper. Pop in one or two chillies if you like.
Whilst that’s cooking for about 3 min on high heat, slice up 2 chicken breasts into fairly big chunks. Coat them with a tablespoon of soy sauce and a pinch or two of Chinese five spice powder. Sprinkle a bit of MSG and massage that gently into the chicken breast slices. Don’t forget to turn those onions in the wok. Chrysst! I gotta say the obvious here. [Prawn, pork or whatever meat you like can be used – or no meat at all].
Right – chuck in the sliced chicken and turn that around for a min or two. Then pop in the sliced vegetables above. Oh – you could add young-corn cobs or mange-tout if you like – but don’t complicate this too much with too many veg flavours, else it will taste ‘confused’. Then throw in a heaped teaspoon of Chinese black bean and garlic sauce. Stir all that in the wok well for about 3 min.
The rice noodles go in last after most of the other stuff is looking like it’s cooked. Then you turn all that around to spread flavours onto the noodles. That’s it – you should be ready to eat in 15 min cooking time.
No – I don’t measure what I’m throwing in there. So tough. Cooking is an art. It’s like (by analogy) painting on a canvas – you don’t quantify in volume or weight the amount of paint put on each brushstroke.
