Chow Mein

Chow mein

Chow mein refers to stir-fried noodles with little  soup that are characterized by a salty taste. The name is from the Taishan Chinese dialect (a kind of Cantonese). Taishan is a county of Guangdong province. There are many varieties of chow mien all over the world. It is a famous Chinese cuisine.

The different kinds of noodles used in chow mein include rice noodles, flat noodles, fine noodles, sliced noodles, filleted noodles, silk noodles, and more., Chow mein is usually stir fried with brown and glossy soy sauce.

Varieties of Chow Mein

There are many kinds of chow mein including shredded meat (pork, beef, mutton, or  chicken) chow mein, egg chow mein, seafoodchow mein, and plain chow mein.

The following is an introduction of cooking methods for various kinds of chow mein.

Beef Chow Mein

Beef chow mein is a main course with noodles and beef being its main ingredient . It is very delicious, and  nutritious.

Ingredients and Condiments

200 g salted beef, one section of fried noodle, and an appropriate amount of scallions, ginger slices, oil，amylum, and oyster sauce

Cooking Method  

1. Cut the fried noodle into several pieces.

2. Add oil into the wok and heat it up to thirty-five percent hot. Place the noodles into the wok and fry them crisp, then put them into a bowl touse later.

3. Drizzle with a dash of oil again, and stir-fry with beef until well-done. Pour them out and filter out the oil.

4. Add scallions, ginger slices and beef into the wok, then add some cooking wine.

5.Mix soup andamylum together evenly with oyster sauce, and stir them into a starchy sauce.

6. Spare the sauce evenly on the noodles, pile them onto a plate and it is done.

The cooking methods of pork, mutton, and chicken chow mein are the same as beef chow mein. The only difference is the meat.

Egg Chow Mein

Ingredients and Condiments

Noodles (200g), eggs (100g), vegetables (100g), scallions(10g), salt (3g), soy sauce (25g), peanut oil (50g).

Cooking Method

1. Break the eggs and put them into a bowl. Beat the eggs with chopsticks until thoroughly mixed . Add a little refined salt  and set them aside to  use later.

2. Wash vegetables and cut them into small pieces. Clean the scallions and dice them finely. Set them by to use later.

3. Cook the noodles until they are well-done. Rinse them with cool water. Dish them out of the wok and leave them to cool.

4. Add an appropriate amount of peanut oil into the wok. Heat up the wok until it is seventy percent hot. Add the egg mixture into the wok and stir the eggs around until they are scattered and broken. Place them in a bowl when done.

5. Get another wok and heat it up with the rest of the peanut oil to seventy percent hot. Then add the scallion pieces into the wok. When the scallions spread their fragrance, drop rape pieces, soy sauce, and refined salt into the wok. Cook them until welldone.  

6. Nextdish them out and leave the juice in the wok. Bring  the juice to a boil then put the noodles into the wok and stir for about 3 minutes. When the juice has cooked out and the noodles are well-done, add the eggs and vegetable pieces. Mix them evenly then  serve.

Seafood Chow Mein

Ingredients and Condiments

Hand-pulled noodles (boil to well-done), fresh oysters (soak in ice water after being boiled to well-done, then drain), fresh shrimp (boil the shrimp to well-done), short necked clams ( the remaining  meat after being boiled to well-done), mushrooms, peppers, gingers, and scallion pieces.

Condiments: a large tablespoon of garlic lobster sauce and oyster sauce eachcooking wine, soup stock (soup which is used to boil short necked clams), half a bowl of rice, and a little salt.

Cooking Method

Heat up the wok with two lager tablespoons of oil. Add peppers, gingers and scallion pieces. Fry them until the fragrance bursts out. Drop oysters, shrimps, clams, and mushrooms into the wok. Stir-fry them immediately for a fewminutes , and then remove from dish.

Boil half a bowl of soup stock with some salt. Put the well-done noodles into the wok and stir-fry them until the soup cooks out. Add the seafood back, fry evenly, then the dish is finished.

Plain Chow Mein (素炒面)

Plain chow mein is a kind of noodles stir-fried with vegetables.  This colorful dish is very appetizing.

Ingredients and Condiments

Noodles (500g), dried beancurd sticks (40g), fresh mushrooms (60g), winter bamboo shoots (60g), flowering cabbage (100g), scallions (10g), gingers (5g), salt (6g), monosodium glutamate (3g), soy sauce (4g), cooking wine (5g), sesame oil (10g), peanut oil (35g).

Cooking Method

1. Cut the mushrooms into slices, flowering cabbage into sections, and bamboo shoots into pieces. Soak the dried beancurd sticks with warm water, wash them, then chop into pieces. Slice scallions and gingers into filiform pieces after removing their peels. Set them aside for later use.

2. Cook the noodles until they are well-done. Put them out and leave them to cool.

3. Heat up the wok with peanut oil. Then add the noodles and stir-fry until they take on a golden color. Dish up and remove the oil.

4. Get another wok. Spread a little peanut oil, and heat the wok to seventy to eighty percent hot.

5. Drop the filiform scallions and gingers to stir into the wok.

6. Then add mushrooms, dried beancurd sticks, fresh bamboo shoots, and flowering cabbage and fry themthoroughly.

7.Add the cooking wine, soy sauce, refined salt, and light soup and bring to a  boil.

8. Then mix the fried noodles in and stir-fry together. Turn down the heat and braise with a cover for a while.

9.Put in the monosodium glutamate and drop the sesame oil, and then the dish is done.