Sunday, March 15, 2009

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.

20 comments:

Gita Jaishankar said...

Both the noodles and the fired rice look delicious! I should try these soon :)

Varsha Vipins said...

I would love to dig into that Fried rice..Never a noodles lover..:P
Actually I guess like almost any Indian,me too dont like much of authentic Chinese food..as u said quite bland..!!
But Indian Chinese is better..Still fried rice is the only thing I have once in a while..:)
Hey,shifted home n all?Cool dear..hope you are liking the new home..I thought you are on vacation or something..:)

Deepthi Shankar said...

I love chinese food but I love the indo-chiese fusion. lovely fried rice & noodles too .. what are some of the other authentic chinese dishes out there?

notyet100 said...

even i love indo chinese fusion,...:-)noodles look yum,..

Usha said...

Both of these look yum !

FH said...

I bet authentic Chinese food is very different from what we eat here, lucky you get to taste the real one. Noodles look great, yummy! :)

Finla said...

I love noodles like these , ito always indinze my chineese cooking

Ashwini said...

Love fried rice..Bith look so yummy..

Cham said...

I love the noddle the most! Delicous Chinese food!

saffronapron.blogspot.com said...

Love indo-chinese fusion food. I have a fork in my hand now and ready to devour the noodles and the fried rice.Looks Mmmmmm!

Manju said...

i love sichuanese cuisine for its similarity to indo-chinese cuisine in it spice level. The noodles looks very delicious!!

AnuSriram said...

Wow.. both the dishes looks lovely! Nice entry!

Valarmathi Sanjeev said...

Both looks fantastic and delicious.

Namrata Kini said...

Noodles and Fried Rice look lovely Ujwal. I love Indo-Chinese food and have tasted authentic Chinese just a couple of times.

Unknown said...

I adore chinese food esp Noodles. Thanks for sending it to Think Pepper event!

Red Chillies said...

Missed this post, Uj. Looks delicious. Happy Ugadi wishes to you all.

Sia said...

our indian palate is known for turning all other cuisines to suit our taste:) that's why even i found the real chinese food quite bland after eating indo-chinese food in india.
that is one delicious plate of noodles.
wishing u and urs a very happy udagi :)

A_and_N said...

Indo Chinese is a Big fav here :) Love Hakka noodles, although szechuan is my fav :) Happy Ugadi!

Anonymous said...

Its interesting to hear of your experiences with Chinese foods. Nice simple recipe; with M&m in mumbai, will try this;

btw, why did you not want to use ajinamoto in your foods?

Best Wishes
Arun

Vishali said...

wow...lovley dish Indo Chinese noodles....i am ready to have it even uninvited :D....gorgeous snap!