Chinese Stir-Fried Noodles

Fried Noodles (for 6 to 8 people)

Meats
Use about 1 pound of cooked, diced chicken, pork or beef strips or seafood. If you use chicken or pork, lightly salt meat (little less than 1/2 teaspoon /lb) and apply about 2 tablespoons water to meat. Than slowly sprinkle equal amount of cornstarch and slowly massage mixture into meat. For pork, unless it is a very tender cut of meat, you'll probably want to add about 1 tablespoon oil. Follow same steps for beef. For seafood, like shrimp, use same salt ratio, but cut the cornstarch and water by about 75%.

Vegetables
I like to use carrots, thinly sliced mushrooms, green onions, bean sprouts (small qty.) Chinese or American celery. As a rule of thumb, I use about a 1.5: 1 veggies and meat ratio. However, much of this depends on individual tastes. The locals here often use at least twice as much veggies as meat. For 6-8 person recipe, I'd probably use about 3 cups of veggies.

Wine
This is a KEY ingredient. Drizzle about 1 to 2 tablespoons on meat halfway through cooking cycle.

Soy Sauce
I like to use this, but you can use salt instead. The color of the noodles will, of course, be lighter.

Chinese BBQ Sauce (pronounced shah chah jiang)
This is also KEY and adds a very unique touch to fried noodles. Your original recipe did not use this and the addition of this ingredient makes a huge difference. I know many of the older Taiwanese that I know around here like to add this ingredient. You can buy this at most Chinese/oriental grocery stores.

Oyster Sauce
This KEY ingredient is slightly sweet and is an awesome combination with Chinese BBQ sauce. I use equal amounts of both in my fried noodles.

Garlic
I use lots of this - about 1 tablespoon for stir-frying the veggies in this recipe.

Sesame Oil
This adds a unique flair to this recipe. Drizzle on 1 to 2 teaspoons (try 1 teaspoon first) of this on fried noodles after you finish cooking them. Simply toss and serve.

Note: I don't use black or white pepper in my fried noodles. If I want extra zip, I add 1 fresh, chopped Chinese red chile pepper (heat averse types can remove seeds before stir-frying). Stir fry with garlic before adding veggies.

Salt and marinate your meat for several hours as per above directions. For best results, do this the day before. I usually do so and the meat is ALWAYS super tender. Boil noodles (not sure on cooked quantity - 8 cups?) until al dente. Drain, rinse and set aside. Next, while noodles are boiling, dice or thinly slice your veggies. The green onions can be finely chopped or cut in one inch strips which is much faster. Once veggies are chopped and your wok has started to lightly smoke, add about 2 tablespoons oil. Be careful not to add too much or your veggies will be oily (Note: If you use carrots or American celery, you may want to par-boil (couple of minutes) them before stir-frying since they take longer to stir-fry than the other veggies (I usually do that); the color will also be better. Once oil is hot, add garlic and fry for about 10 to 15 seconds or just until you smell a very strong aroma, but garlic has not browned. Next add veggies and stir-fry about 3 minutes before removing from wok. If you choose not to use soy sauce, add salt just before you are finished cooking veggies.

The next step is to add more oil to your wok and stir-fry meat. You can stir-fry meat with one whole, bruised, peeled garlic clove (remove after cooking unless you like to eat whole garlic cloves like my wife). About halfway through cooking cycle, add dry white wine, sherry or rice wine (I use rice wine because it's very cheap). After meat has finished cooking, remove from wok. After wok has cooled for minute or so, wipe dry or if very dirty, rinse clean with warm water. Add about 3 tablespoons soy sauce, 1 tablespoon oyster sauce and 1 tablespoon Chinese BBQ sauce. Heat this mixture very briefly before adding veggies, meat and noodles. Toss well to coat and turn off fire. Add sesame oil and toss again. Taste noodles and add more oyster sauce and Chinese BBQ sauce. Do not add more than 1 tablespoon of each every time you add these as the noodles will become noticeably saltier VERY quickly. You can also add more soy sauce, but I usually try not to because it is very salty.