itsdelicious2

Craving for certain foods leads to experimentation if you are denying yourself the good things in life, like noodles. Could I use my low carb spaghetti as a viable substitute for noodles in Chow Mein? Why not give it a go? So, I boiled some spaghetti and fried it in peanut oil for 2 minutes. (Of course, you can use ordinary egg noodles).

The sauce for this adventure utilised some of the leftover chicken from the broth making in a previous post.

Recipe : Chicken chow mein

1/4 cup leftover cooked chicken

1/4 cup cabbage, finely sliced

2 garlic cloves. minced

1 inch piece of ginger, peeled and minced

2 spring onions, sliced thinly

3 Swiss chard leaves, finely shredded

1 tbsp dried prawns, soaked for 20 minutes in a little boiling water

handful bean sprouts

1 tbsp soy sauce

1 tbsp Chinese wine

1 tsp sesame oil

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp sugar

1/4 tsp hot sauce

1/2 tbsp shredded bamboo shoot in chili oil

1 tbsp peanut oil

• Heat the peanut oil in a wok or frying pan until hot and stir-fry the garlic, ginger and spring onions for 1 minute.

• Add the prawns, cabbage, Swiss chard and chicken and fry together until cabbage and chard are wilted.

• Add the soy sauce, wine, sesame oil, sugar and salt and stir together until coated and syrupy.

• Add the beansprouts, hot sauce and bamboo shoots and serve over warmed fried 'noodles'

Result: the flavour was not exactly authentic, lacking some taste element that egg noodles generally have, but the mouth-feel just wasn't right, the 'meatiness' of Chinese or Japanese noodles that is so satisfying once fried was missing so that this really just felt like spaghetti with Asian flavours instead of being incorporated as a complete meal. Still, better than noodles made from sliced crepes and I got to use up the chicken from the broth.