Spicy garlicky noodles

 Indian Chinese is one the popular cuisines in India. This cuisine is our take on the Chinese cuisine. When we first moved to Shanghai my relatives had so much to question about Chinese food. Manchurian, Manchow soup etc which are easily available here was not available there. They had the notion that for me as a vegetarian eating out was easy like in Indian Chinese joints. Initially, I used to avoid going out for dinner as it was difficult to get some decent vegetarian food. Plus, I was scared of chopsticks. I did not want to use spoon and fork as it would make me the center of attraction.
One day when we had decided to go out for sightseeing on a weekend, hubby decided to teach me how to use chopsticks. Thinking that I would get some noodles I made maggi for dinner and learnt the art of using chopsticks. In my mind I had the visualized that if I order noodles I would be getting non spicy version of dry noodles but when we actually ordered it we got a huge pot of noodles with lot of soup in it. The noodles were so slippery and  the broth was so hot that I did not have the courage to dig in with chopsticks. To my bad luck I had not carried forks from home and all I had was disposable spoons. The hotel too did not have any fork. Finally I manged to drink some soup and fish out some noodles from it. And had some rice too with broccoli. I remember the experience very well as after dinner my table was completely. After some practice sessions with my hubby, now I can comfortably eat rice, vegetables, noodles and even pick groundnuts using chopsticks and also enjoy Chinese cuisine.

Noodles is one of our favorite Indo-Chinese dish. I make a spicy version of it. It can be had on its own or with some hot & sour vegetables.

Here is what's needed:

200 grams chow noodles

2 tbsp oil

3 dry red chillies - torn to bits

2 tsp red chilli powder

8 flakes of garlic finely chopped

2 tsp soya sauce

2 tsp vinegar

1 tsp Tomato ketchup

2 capsicum shredded

2 carrots shredded

1/2 cup shredded cabbage

 2 Onions sliced

small bunch of spring onions chopped (Reserve the greens for garnishing)

2 tsp pepper powder

salt to taste

Procedure:

1) Boil water in big vessel. Add noodles and cook until the noodles are just cooked through. Do not overcook as it can make the noodles mushy. Drain the noodles and rinse it with cold water. Add a tbsp of oil and keep aside to cool.

2) Prepare seasoning by heating oil. Add chopped garlic and red chilles. Cook for 1/2 minute. Add vegetables - Onions, capsicum, carrot and cabbage. Saute on high flame until done yet the vegetables are crispy  Add chilli powder, pepper powder, soya sauce, vinegar, tomato ketchup, salt. Saute for a minute.

3) Add the noodles and mix well until well incorporated and garnish with spring onion greens.

Serve hot. Wanna have some?