Indo-Chinese Noodles

During our frequent trips outside Shanghai, I was exposed to authentic Chinese food. The first time we had it I was not sure if I iked it. The food was quite bland and had just two flavours that I could recognize one was of garlic and the other salt. There were no other spices. Slowly I started liking it and but with very little knowledge of the names of veggies in Chinese our food was limited to just stir fried beans, Potato, Bok-Choy (Pak-choy) and Eggplant. Noodles that I have tasted here were always in soup. The Sichuanese cuisine is the spiciest among all the Chinese cuisine that we have tried. It comes close to our Indo-Chinese Food with lots of ginger & garlic, onion and thai red chilli's. I have developed a liking for Eggplant based dishes after coming here. 

With so many varieties of noodles available here, I thought I would be able to experiment with a variety of noodles. But was disappointed that the noodles that were eggless were too thin to handle. These were perfect to be boiled with broth and had as a soup. One fo my friend here suggested that I try my hand at a variety of noodle that was coiled and eggless. This tasted almost like Hakka noodles. 

Here is what's needed:

3-4 coils of noodles or 1 packet hakka noodles

2 Capsicum sliced

a small bunch of Spring onion and green Garlic

1 Onion sliced

1 big Carrot Sliced

1/4 cup cabbage shredded

1 tsp Vinegar

1/2 tsp light Soy sauce 

Salt and Pepper powder to taste

Oil

Procedure:

1) Boil noodles as per the instructions on the packet. Add 1/2 of salt and oil each and cook until al dente. Drain completely and let it cool. Add a tsp of oil to prevent them from sticking to each other. Cold water wash is also beneficial.

2) Chop spring onion and garlic bulbs. Reserve few of the greens from spring onion to garnish.

3) In a Wok, Heat oil. Add spring garlic & onion. Reserve few greens from spring onion to garnish. 

4)Sauté for few seconds and add in the onions. Sauté until golden on high flame. Throw in the vegetables and sauté for 2-3 mins. Do not let them turn soft or soggy. 

5) Add in the soy sauce, salt, vinegar and pepper powder. Mix well. Add the noodles and mix well until incorporated. Adjust the seasonings as per taste. If desired a tablespoon of tomato ketchup can be added.

Garnish with spring onion tops and serve hot.

For fried rice I add cooked Long grain rice (again do not boil the rice completely else it will turn mushy) instead of noodles and chop the vegetables fine. I do not add ketchup for fried rice. Leftover rice from previous day or cooked rice refridgerated works best for this. Adding a pinch of Ajinomoto enhances the taste, I am not comfortable in using them in my cooking so leave it out.

This is my entry to Think Spice..Think Pepper event guest hosted by Divya of Dil Se. This event was started by Sunita.