Experiments in Food

[akirlu]

Last night's stir fried chicken chow mein not at all bad. Reheated for lunch today it was a good deal better than that. I'm still boggled by how much soy sauce, oyster sauce, and Maggi a stir fry can soak up. Still, for reference:

Chicken Chow Mein

1 Package dry chow mein noodles -- cooked per directions
1 medium onion -- chopped medium
1/2 small head of cabbage -- chopped fine
3 stalks celery -- chopped medium fine
1 cooked chicken breast - cubed small

1 large wodge chopped basil
1/3 bunch chopped cilantro
3-4 green onions, chopped
6 cloves garlic, crushed then chopped

sesame oil
soy sauce
oyster sauce
Maggi sauce
rice vinegar

Big slopping sploosh of sesame oil -- my electric wok seems to take way more than any of my recipes call for -- and set wok to high to heat. Add cabbage, celery, and onion and stir until starting to wilt. Add cooked noodles -- if you let these sit for any amount of time after you drain them before you add them to the stir-fry they'll have turned into a single glutenous wodge of colander-shaped noodle timbale, so it's a good idea to break it up by hand as you add the noodles to the stir fry or you get a big lump of noodles sitting in the middle of a sea of frying vegetables. After the noodles and veg are well mixed, add the chicken, and last the aromatics. When things are looking nearly done, add more than you think remotely plausible of each of your liquids, stir, cover, and take the wok off the heat to percolate for a few minutes.

Next time: no matter how insanely too much it looks before it's fried down, use a whole head of cabbage and another 2-3 stalks of celery. More onion would not have gone amiss either, and bean sprouts if I'm planning ahead.