Home-style Fried Hokkien Noodles

My kiddo seems to have a preference of noodles over rice. At home, he takes very little rice with much coercion coaxing, probably coz the rice I cook is a mixture of brown, red and jasmine rice which he doesn't like. But when we dine at Japanese restaurants, he would eat a lot of the Japanese rice. Duh -_-. Anyways back to noodles, he loves soba and udon but dislike beehoon. Decided to try hokkien noodles so that I can have more variety of food to cook, that is IF he likes it.

This is a home-style fried hokkien noodles, not the Hae Mee (hokkien prawn noodles) that most people are familiar with. Every Chinese New Year, my 五婶 (my dad's younger brother's wife) who is a very good cook would fry this style of noodles when we visit. But her version is slightly different without adding dark soy sauce and the broth she used is chicken stock plus brine from canned abalone. The noodles turned out springy and rich in flavour.

My version, I added a little bit of dark soy sauce for colour, with chicken stock, oyster sauce, light soy sauce and a little salt. In Malaysia, I think the hawkers add a lot of dark soy sauce and the noodles are those black black type.

 Ingredients are simple and it's really quick to put together. I bought the hokken noodles from the supermarket, this brand called KangKang, they have several types of noodles. Each packet is 420g which serves 3-4 pax, just nice for a small family. Other ingredients include choy sum (caixin), mushroom, fish cake and pork. I used pork belly here, actually any type of pork is fine like lean pork or pork shoulder. For the chicken stock, I ran out of homemade chicken stock and used store-bought, one 250ml packet was just nice for this recipe. More ingredients like prawns or even clams could be added, according to your preference.

Home-style Fried Hokkien Noodles
(serves 3-4 pax)

Ingredients

• 420g Hokkien noodles (I use 1 pack KangKang brand)
• 100g Pork belly (or lean pork, pork fillet, shoulder butt)
• 80g Fish cake (1 rectangle pc)
• 5pc white mushroom
• 5 stalks Choy sum
• 2 cloves garlic, minced

Pork marinate

• 1/2 tsp light soy sauce
• 1/2 tsp oyster sauce
• 1/2 tsp corn starch
• 1/2 tsp rice wine
• 1/4 tsp sesame oil
• dash of pepper

Noodle sauce

• 250ml chicken stock (I use store-bought, 1 packet)
• 1 tbsp light soy sauce
• 1/2 tbsp oyster sauce
• 1 tsp dark soy sauce
• 1/4 tsp salt, or to taste (optional)

Steps

1. Cut the pork into thin strips, marinate with the marinate ingredients for at least 30 mins.
2. Cut fish cake into strips, set aside. Slice mushrooms, set aside. Cut choy sum into small sections, set aside.
3. Blanch the noodles in boiling water for 1 min, drain and set aside.
4. In a wok, heat some oil over medium heat and saute minced garlic till fragrant, add marinated pork and stir fry till opaque. Add mushroom and fishcake and continue stir-frying till pork is cooked. Dish up and set aside.
5. In the same wok, add some oil and stir fry the choy sum till leaves are slightly wilted. Dish up and set aside.
6. In the same wok, add some oil and the blanched noodles. Stir fry till noodles are loosened, then add the noodle sauce, except salt. Cover and let the noodles simmer till sauce is fully absorbed by the noodles.
7. Add the ingredients from (4) and the choy sum into the noodles. Mix well and add salt to taste.
8. Best serve warm.

The noodles tasted quite yummy, having absorbed the chicken broth sauce. The kiddo was delighted to see noodles served for dinner (instead of rice which he would usually show on his face) and happily declared noodles is his favourite. Hubby also gave thumbs-up. We finished 3 portions for dinner and I packed the remaining portion for hubby's bento lunch to office the next day.