Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Stir Fried Pork Noodles with a Dash of Chili Oil

This one is going to be a quick post. Quick enough to let you know that I just threw everything in my wok and made dinner out of pork strips, handful of veggies and flavored them with Chili oil, and called it Stir Fried Pork Noodles with a dash of Chili Oil.
IMG_0034

I have thus concluded that the safest way for me to eat “Chinese” now is at home. And read and re-read the labels of all the sauces and ingredients I am using. Till my mind’s eye does a Ctrl F on “Monosodium glutamate” and can find nothing!

I get all spooked out by the thought that a lot of these sauces used in Chinese/Asian cooking have Ajinomoto. From what used to be once-a-week of Chinese, I have punctuated it to no-Chinese-outside for the next few months. The last couple of months that I have eaten Chinese, I have found myself in embarrassing situations where I have gone on egging the restaurant people or my hosts with a nagging, “Does it have MSG in it?”

Each time I see a nodding yes, my heart sinks and I leave the food untouched.

But this quick stir fry was not left untouched. In fact the leftovers were smacked clean too the next day for lunch.

IMG_0022 I marinated these pork strips in some corn starch, black pepper, rice vinegar, and low-sodium soy sauce. They were later stir fried separately in very little canola oil.

Pretty much any greens can be used to stir fry in Chinese cooking.

IMG_0023 I used some red onions, sliced button mushrooms, snap peas, julienned carrots, and green bell pepper.

All the cooking was done with the chili oil, once I started tossing my vegetables in. Oh, and I did add some minced garlic to infuse more flavor to my noodles.
IMG_0024 IMG_0025 IMG_0027 IMG_0029 IMG_0032 You can use regular Egg Noodles for this recipe. Boil, strain and add to the veggies and meat. Stir fry on high heat.

IMG_0033 IMG_0039 Serve hot, straight from the wok! You can add chopped green chilies soaked in vinegar to add more flavor.

5 comments:

theconservativefoodie said...

My wife is going through the same occasional Chinese cravings and I was entrusted to make sure that the Chinese take out is made without MSG ! But like you said, the best way is to make it yourself.

Albeit, my wife is only a chicken, fish and lamb eater ! I personally don't care for pork either. But that can easily be replaced with chicken here !

GB said...

We're having chicken manchurian for dinner today. i make it at home because I don't get the flavor of "indian chinese" out here. everything seems to be cooked in sugar syrup. I would recommend that you continue this habit of cooking msg free food once the baby comes as well...it's not good for their developing brains...

I haven't checked to see whether you've made manchurian...if not, let me know-I'll pass on a good recipe (but you're the queen of sumptuous food....)

Suman Singh said...

WOW..deliciously looking good stir fried Noodles..bookmarking it..going to try this recipe with chicken...thanks for sharing this!

Jayanthy Kumaran said...

oh....wow...my mouth is watering just looking at that...excellent dear.

sra said...

That's a nice pictorial!