On this post, I'll go over how Chow Mein noodles are made, the basics of it, and the different styles of cooking Chow Mein. On a past post, I did a Chow Mein article that piqued the interest of one of my followers. Though not a total expert on this, let's go over how it is made, focusing on the basics.
To make a simple Chow Mein Noodle, all you need is some wheat flour (ap) will work, eggs, salt, and water. Some people will add a food coloring (yellow) to give it that yellowish appeal, some may add turmeric, or annatto water.
The flour, salt, eggs, and water is blended to perfection and rolled out, and cut into thin noodles like spaghetti or even as thin as Angle hair, similar to Italian noodles? Yes, to the fucking max!
The noodles are shaped, and then it is either dried, and packaged, the consumer takes it home, boils it just right, cools it, and is ready to be cooked again, in a hot wok.
Or, the noodles are shipped refrigerated, fresh so they call it, with a shelf life, and then the noodles once purchased by the cook, will need to be boiled, just like the dried ones. Cooked until pliable and cooled, and ready for the hot wok.
No matter if it is dried, or fresh, unless the package says the noodles are precooked, unlikely, you need to cook them.
Okay, here's a simple recipe, and if you are a well rounded cook you'll take this and say, "Fuck this Ron, I can do better than this shit!" If that's the case, I love you to the max, that means less email for me, ha ha,
SIMPLE CHOW MEIN
10 oz Chow Mein noodles, pre-cooked and set aside
1/2 tsp. minced ginger
1/2 tsp. minced garlic
6 oz. of sliced pork (Marinate, recipe on bottom for about 20 minutes)
1 cup of thinly sliced onion
1 cup of thinly sliced carrots
1/2 cup of thinly sliced celery
Salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup thinly sliced green onions for garnish
1 tbsp. sesame seeds for garnish
Marinade
3/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup water
2 tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. oyster sauce
1 tsp. sesame oil
1 tbsp. cornstarch
1. Heat up a medium size wok over medium high heat, add in a tbsp. of vegetable oil, then the ginger and garlic cook for about 20 seconds.
2. Add in the marinated sliced pork, hold the marinade in the bowl, it will go into the wok. Cook the pork for about 2 minutes, add in the marinade, cook until just turning thick.
3. Add in the thinly sliced onion, carrots, and celery, toss until coated, cook for about 1 minute. Salt and pepper to taste.
4. Add in the Chow Mein noodles, toss around to coat, plate it, and garnish with green onions and sesame seeds.
This is just a general simple recipe for Chow Mein, you can get pretty creative with cooking this dish, you just gotta remember that the sauce and proteins you stir fry is the root of the dish, the noodles will be flavored by what you stir fry. And for vegetables, you can use any ones you desire, I keep stressing that cooking is like art, learn the basics and take this basic Chow Mein idea and rock and roll it!
* Note: Make sure all of your meat and vegetables are sliced very thin, I like to not pre-cook the vegetables especially, because I like the freshness of the vegetables, a stir fry should be cooked rather quickly.
