Fried Sauce Noodle 炸醬麵 (Zha Jiang Mian)

Dear Whimsical Readers,

Hello! Thank you for dropping by to read on our homemade recipes website of ours. I would like to share something special today, and this dish is one of my favorites ~ "炸醬麵"! It's originality is from my hometown, TAIWAN! My mom is a Taiwanese, thus she always cooks the best taiwanese food for my family back home in Malaysia. Although, she said the noddle and the flavor of the pork does play a big role in her cooking. The ingredients we purchase from the local market stores, will at least I can say deliver a decent taste for this dish. Without further ado, here are the fabulous ingridients for the dish! It's simple:

Serves 4

500 grms of minced pork (season with salt and pepper)
50 grms of Mushroom (soak them in a bowl of water for 10mins at least)
1 spoon of Hoisin Sauce
1 spoon of Black Bean Sauce
1 packet of tofu/fried tofu (chopped)
3 cloves of Garlic (diced)
3 Tbs of Vegetable Oil
4 Sticks of Chinese Noodle (preferably oil)
1 Carrot (Slice them thinly, and leave it in the refrigerator)
1 Cucumber/Zuchinni (Slice them thinly, and leave it in the refrigerator)
Sesame oil and White Vinegar to Serve.
Salt and Pepper

Directions:

1. Heat oil in a flat pan while you heat up another bowl of water till boil and chuck the noodle in for about 5-10 minutes.
2. Saute the garlic till fragrant and fry the mushroom till it turns soft and tender.
3. Chuck the meat in, the sauces then the tofu. Stir fry them in medium heat, add salt and pepper to your likings.
4. Serve in a warm bowl/plate, first the noodle, the meat, and finally top them up with cucumber and carrots. To my taste, I would prefer to add a little of sesame oil and vinegar to my noodle. It's just like adding a little bit of magic in the dish.

There you go, simple and easy isn't it? Enjoy!

Yours Sincerely,
the Whimsical Buddies

Spicy Fried Noodles

Spicy Fried Noodles

Hello Whimsical Readers,

F~ I hope you liked last week's Potato Salad, I know I can't wait for my next session of Potato Fun with my bestie. In the meantime, let me show you another type of "starch" from the Asian region. It's not really from anywhere because I sorta created it with a good friend of mine while she was crashing at my place. The thing about fried noodles is you can more or less put whatever you want in it, as long as they go well with each other, the rule goes more or less the same way for fried rice. It's just sometimes you find similar ingredients inside because #1 it's cheaper, #2 easily available throughout the year, #3 it's kinda what people already expect. But that does not mean you can't break free from the norm and experiment yourself. That's what we did and it turned out great so here it is!

Ingredients: Serves 4
300 grams Bee Hoon Noodles (soak according to instructions)
180 grams grams Long Bean (2 inch long) or Chinese Cabbage (thinly chopped)
12-16 Prawns
8 pieces Crab Stick (sliced 1cm)
1 medium Onion (thinly chopped)
2-4 Tbsp Laoganma Chilli Bean Sauce (see Mapo Tofu recipe for reference* 12/9/10)
2 Tbsp Cooking Oil
1 Tbsp Sesame Oil
Salt & Pepper (to taste)

Method:
1. As usual in a heated Pan/ Wok of Cooking Oil, lightly stir-fry the Onions for a few minutes.
2. Followed by the Prawns (be careful not to over cook them) for a couple minutes before adding in the Long Beans or Chinese Cabbage. Adjusting the flame to a medium-high, close the lid for 5 minutes.
3. To maintain the bright colours of the vegetables and prawns, what you can do is either dish it out and keep it aside or if using a flat pan, you can move the ingredients around the pan so you can cook you Bee Hoon Noodles simultaneously.
4. Adding in the Been Hoon Noodles and fry them for 5 minutes, adding some Cooking or Sesame Oil if needed to avoid them sticking to the Pan/ Wok.
5. Add in the Laoganma Chilli Bean Sauce, according to your spice tolerance level and mix it well. (if you dished out the other ingredients earlier, you might want to add 1/2-1 Tbsp more of the Laoganma Chilli Bean Sauce so there is sufficient flavour to mix around.
6. Mixing in all the ingredients well for another 2 minutes and serve hot.

Enjoy!
Yours Truly,
The Whimsical Buddies