Chinese Fish Noodles

After eating Indian for couple of days I was in mood to cook Chinese and as main course noodles seemed best to me, as Im a huge fan of sea food I decided to cook them with fish instead of chicken or veggies. Now one thing I would like to say about cooking, you don't have to cook all the way copy-paste styled, just follow the basics and experiment/discover new stuff, how do you think people years/decades/centuries back invented great recipes :) ??

Now while cooking Chinese noodles, try not to use spaghetti/fetuccini pasta, always buy these noodles from Chinese/South Asian grocery stores as they have the authentic effect/flavor. Those that I have used I bought them from Mcleodganj (hub of His Holiness Dalai Lama and his Tibetan followers) as Tibetan stuff is not much different from Chinese.

So here goes the recipe..

Ingredients

1/2 kg sole cut into little bigger than bite size pieces

For Merinade:

1 egg

2 tbsp corn starch

1-2 tsp soy sauce

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp black pepper

1-2 tbsp oil to make the mixture thin

For Noodles:

1/2 noodles

100 gm carrots

100 gm capsicum

10-15 gm thin sliced ginger

Salt, to taste

1/2 tsp white pepper

1/4 tsp ajinomoto

few drips of vinegar and soy sauce

Method:

1. Mix all the ingredients for marinade, use little bit of more oil to make it thinner.

2. Add fish pieces and mix slowly. Here one think I don't like about fish is its quite fragile. Cover it and set aside for 15-20 minutes.

3. Meanwhile boil the noodles. Now anyone can give you the definition of boiling but its good to use the correct procedure. Always cover the pot while water is set to boil, add a spoonful of salt to quicken the boiling (only when you boil chicken/fish/rice/noodles/veggies), add stuff-to-be-boiled only when water is at full boiling temp, do not cover the pot after putting noodles in. See, even I didn't cover while the noodles were being boiled.

4. After the noodles are approximately 90-95% done, take them off the burner and put them in colander or strainer to drain all the water. Wash them with cold water immediately, this stops the noodles from sticking with each other. Set them aside while we get to the fish.

5. Heat some oil in a frying pan and add fish pieces, do not crowd the pieces in pan, it gives every piece enough space to cook evenly. Turn them upside down after 1-2 minutes, this timing depends upon the size/thickness of pieces. Keep the flame on medium to prevent the pieces from burning.

6. Meanwhile cut the carrots and capsicum.

7. Now heat some oil in a wok/kadhai, add ginger pieces and cook them for a minute.

Well many people may find using ginger quite odd in a Chinese dish, even I have never tasted ginger in the noodles our local restaurants serve, but in authentic Chinese cooking they usually put crushed garlic and ginger slices.. don't believe me??? Check 'My China' or 'Cooking with Heart and Soul' by Kylie Kwong.

8. Add rest of the veggies and cook for 2-3 minutes.

9. Add salt, white pepper, vinegar, ajinomoto and soy sauce. Stir well.

10. Turn the flame slow and add noodles. Its better to divide them in 3-4 batches and mix them with veggies one by one. This way we have better result and noodles are mixed evenly. Add fish pieces and mix very gently. Turn off the burner and cover it for a while for flavors to mix.