Beef Noodle Stir Fry

If we were marooned on a desert island with only one carb choice, we'd be sitting under a palm tree eating rice for the rest of eternity. Not to say that we don't love noodles (and I have much love for some quality pad see ew), but the only time we eat noodles in a dinner we make at home is probably for wonton noodle soup, or the occasional spaghetti and meatballs. We've tried stir frying noodles before, and we ended up with a gummy ball of noodles that had congealed together and were not easy at all to cook. So as a general rule, we try to leave the whole noodle thing to the pros, and stick with our trusty and reliable rice cooker. However, we saw this recipe posted on the Steamy Kitchen blog, and decided to give stir fried noodles another go.

With our last noodle dish (read: the godzilla sized ball of cemented together noodles with some meat and veggies stuck on the outside), we used dried rice noodles- vermicelli- and had boiled them briefly, then stuck them in the wok to finish cooking. To minimize the chances of this happening again, we used frozen cooked egg noodles this time, which we could just thaw and dump into the wok.

There are a few things we will do differently next time. First, the recipe does not have you chop up the gai lan (chinese broccoli), but rather has you cook it whole. I would prefer to chop up my gai lan into 3" segments (like we do with yu choy), which are easier to pick up, a lot easier and less messy to eat, and also make the dish seem to have more veggie in it. While we did put a full pound of gai lan in this dish, it is only 10 or so stalks, so it is impossible to get portions of veggie in every bite. And each stalk is on the large size, so it is kind of like eating a never ending spaghetti noodle, except 10 times as big and dripping with sauce. Also, it takes longer to have the intact gai lan steam in the wok due to the size of the stalks. All these issues would be eliminated by chopping up the veggie. Second, the sauce did not have much flavor to it- it fell flat. We punched it up by adding some chilli garlic sauce, and that gave it some kick. Third, we felt that this stir fry would benefit from some other additions, like scramble egg, or mushrooms. Perhaps it was from the fact that the gai lan wasn't chopped up, but there were a lot of bites of just noodle, where you wished there was something else in there.

This recipe makes enough for two generous dinner servings. We had enough for a dinner for two, plus a small amount left over for a lunch for one the next day. Overall, we thought this dish was pretty tasty.

Beef Noodle Stir Fry
(adapted from: http://steamykitchen.com/4997-broccoli-beef-noodle-stir-fry.html)



3 tablespoons soy sauce
3 tablespoons oyster sauce
3 tablespoons Shaoxing wine
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 teaspoon dark sesame oil
1/2 pound beef sirloin, thinly sliced
1 pound fresh noodles
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
3 large garlic cloves finely chopped
1 1/4 cups chicken or vegetable stock
1 pound gai lan
Ground black pepper
Chilli Garlic sauce (we used Lee Kum Kee brand) to taste (a few tsp)

In a medium bowl, whisk together 1 tablespoon each soy sauce, oyster sauce and rice wine. Add the sugar and continue to whisk until completely dissolved. Stir in the corn starch and continue stirring until smooth. Add the sesame oil and beef, and mix well. Marinate for 20 minutes. Drain and discard the excess marinade.

Heat 1 tablespoon of the vegetable oil in a skillet or wok over high heat and stir-fry the garlic until fragrant, about 1o seconds. Add the beef and stir-fry until tender, 1 to 2 minutes. Transfer to a plate. Add the remaining tablespoon of oil and when hot, add the Chinese broccoli, stir frying so that the oil coats the Chinese broccoli. Pour in the 1/4 cup of the stock, turn the heat to medium-low and cover with a tight fitting lid. Cook the Chinese broccoli until tender, 3 to 5 minutes. Transfer the Chinese broccoli to the same plate.



Add the remaining cup of stock and the remaining 2 tablespoons each of soy sauce, oyster sauce, and rice wine to the same skillet and bring to a boil overhigh heat.

Add the noodles and cook until the liquid has almost completely evaporated, leaving the noodles lightly moistened,2 to 3 minutes. Return the beef and broccoli to the skillet and toss to mix the ingredients thoroughly. Season with pepper to taste and serve.