Fried noodles with Chinese Chilli Stir Fry Veggies & Chicken

You befriend a girl and you find out she also likes food just like you do. So you give yourself an excuse to cook for her, well....just to impress! Fortunately it worked, cause the moment you are told (not once but twice by two different people) your food is better than that of the most popular and good restaurants in town then you know you did a good job.


This was the first 'exotic' dish I prepared in school (I preferred doing them at home during vacation) and by far the simplest and BEST dish I ever made according to my roomie. Let me not waist time talking and get cooking.

Ingredients

2 Tbsp. Oil
1" piece ginger
6 cloves Garlic
1 large Onion
Salt
Black pepper
2 tsp Sugar
½ kg Chicken, deboned and cut into bite sizes (you can add more)
1 tbsp. Cornflour
1 large Carrot
Green Beans
¼ of one large Cabbage
8 - 10 Red Chilli pepper roughly blended
Soy sauce
Chicken Bullion
Butter
Herbs of your choice
Noodles/Pasta (amount you prefer)

Preparation

Wash, wipe and cut meat into 2" x 1/2" strips and marinate in a shallow bowl in a mixture of 4 cloves crushed garlic, ginger, black pepper, salt, sugar and 4 teaspoons full soya sauce for an hour.

Cut your vegetables and heat up the oil in a large skillet. Add the remaining 2 cloves of garlic (crushed or minced), sauté for couple of minutes put in the onions mix and sauté with the garlic and oil until golden in colour. Add the chicken pieces and cook until tender. Now add cornflour to slightly thicken sauce. Stir in carrots and leave for few minutes. Add the green beans, stir and cover the pot and let cook for few more minutes lastly add the cut cabbage, stir and leave to cook for a few minutes covered.

At this point we can stir in the chilli pepper and leave to cook for a minute or two. Add ¼ to ½ cup Soy sauce to the vegetables and chicken. Pour about ¾ cup water and cover and let cook for a couple more minutes. Taste and season as preferred. NB: Soy sauce is salty. Remove the stir fried chicken and vegetables reserving most of the liquid in the pot. Dish out veggies.

Add chicken bullion to the reserved liquid in the pot and dissolve. Add some water bring to boil and add the noodles/pasta don't let it cook completely it should be al dente (al dente can be found here first paragraph of 'Directions'). The reason is, we don't want noodles/pasta to end being too soft after frying it in butter and herbs (not what you thinking). So once noodles/pasta is cooked pour it into a sieve to drain all water and allow to cool and become dry a bit (this is a precaution just in case it cooked a little too much and became soft).

Now we going fry noodles/pasta in say two batches so they don't break too much when frying. Melt some butter in a deep pan, don't allow butter to brown. Add the noodles/pasta and stir add your favourite herb (parsley, oregano, mixed herbs, basil or thyme your choice). Stir until herbs is mixed in completely. This should only take about 3-5min on high heat.

Serve hot and enjoy!

I topped my pasta with some Mozzarella cheese. I love cheese and for me it always has to be part of any pasta dish.... ;-). Your comments are always welcome and let us know if you tried this very simple dish. Enjoy!