Shrimp Chow Mein
from http://omnivorescookbook.com/, Maggie Zhu

“Dishes like shrimp chow mein are designed to cook quickly. Just like fried rice, fried noodles creates a fast one-pot meal that uses any leftovers from your fridge.”

This only requires minimum prep: cook the noodles, mix the sauce, and chop a few aromatics and veggies. To save time, you can start boiling the water and cooking the noodles while prepping other ingredients. Once the noodles are done, you should be ready for the stir fry.

The vegetables in shrimp chow mein can be flexible, depending on what you’ve got in your fridge.

I used carrots, bean sprouts, and spinach in this recipe. Other vegetables such as bok choy, Chinese broccoli, cabbage, bell pepper, snow peas, and napa cabbage work well too. Note, you need to consider the time needed to cook each vegetable and add them in order. Your goal will be to cook everything until just done at the end.

If you want to add broccoli or cauliflower into your noodles, blanch them by using the boiling water after cooking the noodles. It only takes an extra minute or so to get them ready for the stir fry.”

FMM: This was pretty good. We used some thin noodles which we had on hand. Noodles about the thickness of spaghetti would be better. We used canned bean sprouts but fresh would also be better. I like of idea of using snow peas instead of spinach in this. The vegetable combination I would like is snow peas, green onion, bean sprouts, and carrots. I might add bamboo shoots to this.

8 ounces dried Chinese egg noodles (or spaghetti)

Sauce [make 1.5 recipe]
1/4 cup chicken stock (or water) [Brian made shrimp broth from the shrimp shells]
2 tablespoons oyster sauce
2 tablespoons unsalted Shaoxing wine (or dry sherry)
2 teaspoons light soy sauce (or soy sauce)
2 teaspoons dark soy sauce (or soy sauce)
2 teaspoons sesame oil
1/4 teaspoon white pepper powder (or black pepper powder)

Stir fry
2 tablespoons peanut oil (or vegetable oil)
1 tablespoons minced ginger
2 carrots, julienned
16 to 20 medium size shrimps, peeled and deveined
2 cups bean sprouts
6 green onion, chopped
2 cups baby spinach [we use pea pods instead]

Boil noodles according to package instructions. Rinse with tap water, drain, and set aside.

Whisk all the ingredients for the sauce in a bowl.

Chop aromatics and vegetables.

Heat a wok (or large skillet) over medium high heat until hot. Add oil and swirl to coat the bottom of the wok. It’s ready when the oil just starts to smoke.

Add ginger and carrot [and pea pods if using instead of spinach]. Cook and stir until the carrot starts to turn soft, 40 seconds to 1 minute. Add shrimp. Cook and stir until the surface turns white, but the inside remains transparent. Swirl in the sauce along the edge of the wok. Stir a few times to quickly heat up the sauce. Add noodles. Stir to mix well. You can chop the noodles into shorter strands with a spatula to make the noodles easier to mix with other ingredients. Cook until the sauce is fully absorbed [chow mein is a dryer dish than lo mein]. Add bean sprouts and green onion. Cook and stir until the vegetables are just cooked, 1 to 2 minutes. Add spinach and give it a final stir.

Transfer to a plate and serve immediately.

Serves: 3 to 4