i've been lazy. i haven't been taking as many pictures as i should be taking, especially when we're making stuff we haven't made before. ah, get over it.

after eating like a little piggy this weekend and not having a care in the world, i am back on track with the sensible meals. after getting home last night around 5:30, i was trying to find a chicken thigh recipe that didn't require too much prep work. i couldn't find anything to my liking (at least that's how i felt last night - maybe subconsciously i didn't want chicken for dinner), so i decided to regroup and discuss with cavin the foods we had in the house: baby bok choy, snow peas, carrots, eggplant, green peppers, onions, garlic.

i thought about stir fry, but lately i've been eating too much rice. oh! what's this? i forgot that we have fresh noodles in the fridge! let's try to recreate the chinese dish pan fried noodles!

essentially i was thinking about the pan fried noodles we had at sang kee a few weekends ago: crispy noodles that get softer as they sit in a brown sauce poured over it, with a mix of veggies and meat on top. how hard could it be to make? not that hard, apparently. all you really need to do is cook the veggies/meat before hand (i cooked it with the sauce), and then pan fry the noodles (duh) and then top the veggies/meat on top and serve. simple!

because we didn't have any meat in the dish, we cooked these really cute mini-pork dumplings we had in the freezer, which i first boiled for about 5 minutes, and then pan fried to make crispy.

i think it turned out pretty well, despite having to change pans halfway through. (originally i didn't use a nonstick pan for the noodles. even though i added oil and water, the noodles were sticking to the pan and i had to quick bail on the faux wok and grab the nonstick pan.) you can use whatever veggies you have in the house, no need to get the bok choy or snow peas if you don't have them. even just onions and peppers (and chicken, beef, pork, or shrimp) would be fine.

i think you might need to use the oyster sauce to get the proper flavoring, though, if you use only soy sauce, it might still be ok if you thicken the sauce.

our version had many veggies on top of the noodles, more so that at sang kee, but i think i would rather have more veggies than noodles. you can also use less amounts or omit some of the veggies, though i would definitely try to use onion and garlic.

here's our version of pan fried noodles:

vegetable pan friend noodles
1 asian eggplant
handful of snowpeas, ends trimmed
2 carrots
1/4 head green cabbage
half of a large green pepper
3 or 4 baby bok choy, rinsed well
1 small onion
garlic
8 oz. fresh noodles (thin kind)
1-2 tbsp oyster sauce
1-2 tbsp soy sauce
water
oil
cornstarch (optional)

chop the onion, eggplant, carrots, cabbage, and green pepper into uniform size - 1" or so. chop garlic.

heat oil on medium high. add garlic, cook for 1 minute. add the following veggies in 2 minute intervals, constantly stirring: 1)eggplant 2)onion, carrots, peppers, cabbage 3)baby bok choy, snow peas. add soy sauce and oyster sauce and mix together. if you want the sauce to be thicker, mix equal parts cornstarch with cold water (use about 1 tbsp or so) and add to pan and bring to boil. otherwise, just add a little bit of water. cover to help steam the veggies. season with pepper (and salt, but i didn't use any because of the soy). once the veggies are cooked thru, remove from pan.

heat a nonstick skillet on medium, and add 2-3 tbsp oil. add fresh noodles to skillet, trying to separate the strands if possible (you can put the noodles in boiling water for 1-2 minutes to get all the flour off the noodles and separate them, if you wish). cook until the bottom gets crispy and then flip the entire thing over.

when the noodles are cooked to your desired crispiness, remove them from pan and put on a serving dish. pour the veggies and sauce on top of the noodles and serve.

Labels: chicken, cooking, vegetarian