Chow Mein / Chinese Stir Fry Noodles 炒面

I thought Chow Mein / Chinese Stir Fry Noodles 炒面 is a common household dish and did not expect any requests for recipe. Hence, I did not prepare the work-in-progress photos for this dish. Nevertheless, the fun part was not only in the cooking process, but also on the making of the egg noodles from my recently acquired kitchen toy - a pasta maker. Honestly, I did not have high expectations on my homemade noodles and you could imagine how surprised I was when the texture of the noodles turned out to be almost perfect for my Chow Mein! 

Ingredients (enough for 4 to 5 pax ) :

• 500 gm fresh egg noodles 
• 5 cloves garlic (sliced or finely chopped)
• 1 large onion (finely chopped)
• 1 pc Chinese sausage (thinly sliced)
• 12 pcs fresh shrimps (deveined and deshelled)
• 2 pieces fried fish cakes (thinly sliced)
• a handful of green vegetables (washed and drained) 
• a handful of bean sprouts (roots & ends plucked, soaked and drained)
• 1/2 pc green chili (thinly sliced)(optional)
• 1/2 pc red chili (thinly sliced)(optional)
• 2 tbsp dark soy sauce (or to taste)
• 2 tbsp light say sauce (or to taste)
• 3 tbsp fish sauce (or to taste)
• 1 tbsp sugar (or to taste)
• 1 tbsp sesame oil (or to taste)
• a pot of water (to blanch noodles)
• cooking oil

(tsp = teaspoon; tbsp = tablespoon) 

Method :

1. Blanch fresh egg noodles in hot boiling water for 1 to 2 minutes. Keep stirring with chopsticks so that the noodles would not stick together.
2. Remove noodles from saucepan upon al dente. Rinse in cold or tap water and drain. Set aside.
3. Heat 3 tbsp cooking oil in a wok/pan at medium heat.
4. Toss in chopped garlic and onions to lightly stir fry till aromatic.
5. Toss in Chinese sausage slices and stir fry. 
6. Fold in shrimps and stir fry till 70% cooked. 
7. Turn to high heat and fold in fishcake slices and noodles.
8. Add all seasonings and stir fry till noodles are evenly coated with sauce and seasonings. Spoon in a little water if the noodles tend to stick together. 
9. Toss in green vegetables and stir fry with all ingredients till fully cooked.
10. Toss in bean sprouts just before turning off heat. Use residual heat to stir fry all ingredients one last round.
11. Garnish with cut-chilies and serve hot.

*To home make fresh egg noodles with a pasta maker, I used 1 large egg + water (to make up 95 ml) for every 250 gm plain flour. This would yield about 300 gm fresh egg noodles from the pasta maker. In this instance, I did 2 rounds to achieve 600 gm. I did not use all up as I knew they could not be finished by 4 persons at home.

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