hello hi everyone! Wesley here. Today we’re diving back into our series dedicated to deconstructing foods from Chinese American cuisine with a shot at yet another dish from the PF Chang’s menu, which is their Singapore Street Noodles. For those unfamiliar in this series, we have been taking apart classically americanized dishes from Chinese cuisine to identify their American qualities, and then reassembling them through the lens of more traditional Chinese wok cooking. This is of course easy to do with super Americanized dishes like General Chicken which is essentially purely an American creation.
Singapore noodles, on the other hand, has a very murky and confusing origin. It is composed of a super thin vermicelli rice noodle that has been tossed in curry powder and then sautéed with a variety of veggies and proteins. The origins of the dish however, actually has nothing to do with Singapore at all, but in fact comes from Cantonese style Hong Kong eateries. This is why it looks more similar to a classic Chinese lo mein, rather than the dishes made in the Singapore Hawker center where their legendary Hawker street food is found. So, we’re gonna be running through a few classic Chinese stir fry ingredients largely drawing inspiration from our other chow mein and lo mein recipes, and then pairing it with a classic dry spice combination of curry powder, turmeric, and white pepper. Hope you try it.
Serves 2-3
INGREDIENTS
4 cloves garlic
1 inch (about 1 tbsp) ginger
3 green onions
400g (14oz) vermicelli noodles
2 chicken thighs
6-8 shrimp
1 carrot
1/2 medium white onion
1/2 red bell pepper
1/4 head Taiwanese cabbage
1/4 cup cilantro
2 eggs
1 tbsp shaoxing wine
1/2 tsp corn starch
2 tbsp curry powder
1/2 tbsp turmeric (optional)
peanut oil
INGREDIENTS (marinade)
4 tbsp low sodium soy sauce (or 2 tbsp full sodium soy sauce)
1 tbsp hoisin sauce
1 tbsp sesame oil
1/2 tsp white pepper
1/2 tsp corn starch
INGREDIENTS (sauce)
4 tbsp low sodium soy sauce (or 2 tbsp full sodium soy sauce)
2 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp shaoxing wine
1 tbsp doubanjiang
PREP
CRUSH and mince the garlic, set aside
FINE MINCE the ginger, set aside
SEPARATE the whites and greens of the green onions, then slice the whites thinly, and the greens into planks, set aside
DICE the red bell pepper, set aside
DICE the white onion, set aside
JULIENNE the carrot, set aside
SLICE the cabbage thinly, set aside
DESTEM and chop the cilantro, set aside
SLICE the chicken thinly, then combine with all marinade ingredients and let marinate for 30 minutes or up to one hour
SHELL and devein the shrimp, set aside
WHISK the eggs with 1 tbsp shaoxing wine and 1/2 tsp corn starch, set aside
COMBINE all sauce ingredients, set aside
REHYDRATE the vermicelli in boiling water for 2 minutes until tender, then strain and run under cold water
ON THE STOVE
HEAT a wok as hot as possible, then add 4 tbsp peanut oil to a wok and long yao
ADD the chicken to the wok and sear for 2 1/2 minutes, then toss for an additional 1 minute
ADD the shrimp to the wok and toss for 10 seconds, then remove immediately
DEGLAZE with the sauce mixture plus 1/4 cup water, then remove and set aside
REHEAT the wok as hot as possible, then add 2 tbsp peanut oil to a wok and long yao
ADD the garlic, ginger, and whites of the green onions and toss until fragrant for about 15 seconds
ADD the bell pepper, onion, and carrots and toss for 2 minutes
ADD the cabbage and toss for 1 minute, then remove and set aside
REHEAT the wok as hot as possible, then add 2 tbsp peanut oil to a wok and long yao
ADD the eggs to the wok and toss for 10 seconds until scrambled
ADD 2 tbsp curry powder and 1/2 tbsp turmeric to the wok on the wok surface, then add the vermicelli to the wok and toss to combine
ADD the chicken, shrimp, veggies, and greens of the green onions to the wok, and toss to combine
ADD the sauce 1/4 cup at a time to taste, then remove from heat
FINISH with cilantro garnish