How to Make Mouth Watering Singaporean Fried Noodle

A favorite of the Southeast Asian diet, the Singaporean fried noodle, as it name implies had its origin in the island nation-state of Singapore. It is made from thin rice noodles fried in a tasty savory mix of sliced chicken (or pork), scallions, bean sprouts, Chinese greens, chopped shallots, minced garlic, eggs and lots of Indian curry powder. It is not difficult to make such a hearty dish. The recipe below calls for basic ingredients that one can get easily with a trip to your city supermarket or Asian grocery stores. Trust me, the final result gets better each time. No MSG or salt is needed here. Nearly all ready-made Asian cooking sauces contain too much salt as it is and, therefore, I tend to scale down the portions of those ingredients whenever I can.

Ingredients:

1 pack of dried Chinese Rice noodles (this is not the same as clear glass or cellophane noodle). Soak the rice noodles in large bowl of cold water for 15 minutes or until a touch soft, just soft enough but not to the point where they break easily. Drain off water immediately. Do not leave soft rice noodles in the water longer than necessary

1 bag of green scallions, cut 2/3 into 2 inch pieces, and the remaining 1/3 (the leafy portion into 1 inch to be used as garnish) Put the 2 inch pieces aside with the rest of the ingredients to be fried. For the 1 inch pieces, use a small knife, make 4-5 equal small slits on both ends leaving a tiny joint section in the middle, the green scallions will spring open like a floret. Put them aside for use as garnish

A bag of fresh bean sprouts, wash well

1 bag of fresh Chinese greens (choy sum, also called yew choi or you can use Chinese broccoli), wash well

5 cloves of garlic, chop fine

5 shallots (can be substituted with 1 red onion), chop fine

2 small fresh ginger, remove skin, cut lengthwise into very thin (1 inch) fine slices

1 green lime, cut into small wedges (to be used as garnish)

1 long Chinese red chili, de-seed, cut into small slices (this is optional for those with extra spicy taste)

1 teaspoon red curry paste

2 tablespoons yellow curry powder (Indian curry powder)

2 tablespoons soy sauce

1/2 tablespoon of oyster sauce

1 tablespoon sweet sauce

1/2 teaspoon of sugar

2 eggs

Vegetable cooking oil

2 medium size chicken breast fillet or pork fillet, cut into 1/3 inch x 1 inch strips.

Omit the meat if you are making a vegetarian meal. This can be a very tasty noodle dish even without the meat.

Cooking Instructions:

Heat 2 tablespoons of cooking oil in a large wok or 14 inch round frying pan (2 inch deep). Stir in red curry paste and oyster sauce, cook at high heat.

Add crushed garlic, shallots and ginger to the pan, cook until everything is lightly brown

Reduce heat to medium high. To the mix, add chicken/pork strips, stir well and cook until meat is done

Add Chinese greens and green scallions, continue to stir and mix the ingredients for 2 minutes.

Cover and let cook for 3 minutes. The meat and chinese greens should be cooked and well and coated with the sauce at this stage.

Add soft rice noodles, use extra large pair of chopsticks (or wooden fork ladle) for the mixing and stirring as it will be easier to break up the stringly rice noodles and roll in the ingredients evenly. Cook for 2 minutes.

Clear a small section at the center of the wok, add 1 teaspoon of cooking oil, crack two eggs, fry the eggs lightly (1 minute), immeditely roll the rice noodles into the eggs. Continue to mix and stir the noodles and the ingredients well until noodles look coated with fried eggs.

Add soy sauce, mix well

Add sweet sauce, mix well

Reduce the heat to medium, sprinkle curry powder evenly to the rice noodle, stir well.

Stir in bean sprouts and mix well. Do not overcook the bean sprout. Bean sprouts should remain a little crunchy and the reason why it is added last.

Add a sprinkling of sugar to taste if the noodle is too spicy

Garnish with floret scallions and lime wedges on the side. Add Chinese red chili slices (or red japapeno) for those who like their noodles extra spicy

Serve hot.

Bon Appetit