Chinese Noodles

Our best effort at "better than takeout!"

I know as much about Chinese cooking as you do, so not very much. But I like Chinese food, and there’s not a lot of choice where I live, not to mention that going out to eat has become very expensive. So I, or we really, decided to learn a few dishes to emulate what we like about Chinese food. Here’s one that’s now a once a month dinner.

I should also mention that I learned a lot about cooking Chinese food from Youtube. In particular, there’s a young Chinese woman who has a really good channel, SoupedUpRecipes, about Chinese cooking and very easy to follow recipes. Here’s the link for her noodles recipes: https://www.youtube.com/@SoupedUpRecipes/search?query=noodles. The rest of her recipes are also worth watching. She’ll also help you stock your kitchen with the right ingredients

Here’s our recipe for Chinese noodles.

Ingredients:

3 TBSP of vegetable oil

1 large garlic clove

1 thick inch of ginger

I jalapeno

1 medium onion

2 large handfuls of spinach

1 12 oz bag of cole slaw mix (just sliced cabbage and carrots)

1 large handful of peapods

4 to 6 scallions

8 oz ground pork or beef, mixed with 1 TBSP of sesame oil, salt and pepper

Note on the ingredients: We work from what’s available. If I had half a large white onion, that would be in the dish. We are NOT sticklers about ingredients, Use what you have. There’s only two of us so buying a whole head of cabbage doesn’t work out. The slaw mix is a quick and easy substitute, but if you want the more authentic dish then buy a napa cabbage. Peapods and spinach came from the garden.

Sauce, Mix together:

2 TBSP of soy sauce

1 TBSP of dark soy sauce

1 TBSP of oyster sauce

1 TBSP of cider vinegar

1/4 cup of water

1 TBSP of corn starch (remember to mix it again before adding it to the wok, cornstarch will drop out of the mixture)

For the Noodles we like to use the Chinese wheat noodles:

Start a pot of water to boil with some salt. The package above holds 2 sleeves of noodles, and 1 is enough for both of us, but it will need a 4 to 6 quart pot to fit

Our Ingredients

Smack the garlic and remove the jacket. Scrape the peel from the ginger. Then smack both hard to flatten and chop them together. Mince the Jalapeno and add to the garlic and ginger.

Chop the onion and the peapods

Finely slice the scallions

Add the oil to the wok and get it smoking a bit

Add garlic, ginger and jalapeno, give it one stir and 10 seconds, and then add the meat and stir to break it up as finely as possible as it cooks

When the meat is cooked, add the onions and peapods

Add the cabbage and the white part of the scallions

Keep stirring!

The water should be at the boil. Add one sleeve of the noodles.

When the vegetable have softened slightly, remix the sauce and add, bring to the boil

As soon as the noodle come back to the boil, they’re ready. Drain and add to the wok.

Toss together until the noodles are well coated.

Finished noodles