Mee Goreng

When I lived in Laos I almost lived on noodle dishes, at least for dinner.  But I wasn’t very adventurous and mainly ate drunken noodles from my favourite restaurant which happened to be next door to where I lived.

Since coming home I have expanded my noodle wings and made a few different noodle dishes and I am a big fan of pretty much all noodles.  This recipe from Helen at Scrummy Lane for Mee Goreng is a new favourite and it is easy, made in one pot and so quick to make – like most noodle dishes.  And it scales down easily for those of us cooking mainly for one.  Which is a must for me as I am not that keen on reheated stir-fry type dishes.  I love stir-fries but when reheated the meat tends to get quite tough because it is sliced thin.  They are a dish you want to eat fresh.

What I particularly like about this recipe is that as long as you can get the ingredients for the sauce you are pretty much good to go with any type of protein and I used a different noodle as I couldn’t find the egg noodles at my main supermarket.  I can get egg noodles at the local Asian supermarket but I was in a rush so ended up with fresh Singapore noodles. The sauce is just divine.  You know I love peanuts in a sauce but the soy sauce cut through to make sure it isn’t too heavy on the peanuts and it does have the added surprise of tomato sauce (or ketchup if you are in pretty much any part of the world except Australia, New Zealand and maybe South Africa?).

In my attempt to keep the calories down I also skipped the egg and to be honest I have never been that fussed about egg in my Asian dishes.  I haven’t been doing so well on eating the right food recently but am getting back on track.  It has been a bit stressful and I know when I am stressed I tend to gravitate to lovely sweet treats.  But did you see the post I shared on facebook about adult colouring in books and how they help combat stress?  I am thinking I should try this out.

Before you read on for the ingredients have you thought about submitting to Our Growing Edge link up which I am hosting this month?  Our Growing Edge is open to anyone. It is not a competition and there are no prizes or winners, it is just a way  to share new experiences. You do not have to commit every month, just when you have something to share. To enter, you must blog about achieving a food related challenge that you have meaning to do (or redo). It could be easy, like tasting a new food or difficult, like cooking a life long nemesis recipe. It could be building or growing something an edible garden, or successfully preserving food. As long as it is food related and new to you, you can share your newly learned knowledge with the group. To add a link just head over here for the instructions and the link to submit your food adventure.  The theme this month is treat yourself and  I have been trying out a couple of recipes but have had some cooking disasters so I am still working on my contribution.

To make this recipe for one I used the following ingredients:

To make the sauce

• ½ tbs peanut butter
• ½ tbs kecap manis
• ½ tbs soy sauce
• 1 and 1/2 tsps chili sauce (like Helen I used Sriracha as I had that in the fridge from other recipes I have made)
• ½ tbs tomato ketchup
• 1 tbs oyster sauce
• 1 and ½ tbs water

For the noodles

• ½ tbs sesame oil
• 1 tsp of minced  garlic (equivalent to 1 clove)
• 1 tsp of minced ginger
• 130g of chicken breast, thinly sliced
• about 80 grams baby pak choi, chopped and washed
• 175 grams Singapore noodles
• ¼ cup of beansprouts
• 3 cherry tomatoes, roughly diced
• Fried spring onions for garnish
• Half a lime to squeeze over noodles when done

Preparation time is about 10 minutes and cook time if you skip the egg and slice your chicken thin is only 12 minutes.  Such a great fast dinner all done in one wok.  I followed the original recipe instructions except I skipped the egg bit (which also meant I needed less oil) and I cooked my chicken for a few minutes longer – about 4-5 minutes.  Calorie wise it is about 550 calories which for a complete meal with protein, carbs and veggies is not too bad.