Rice Vermicelli Fried Noodle - FUJIAN GAN TSAO MIFEN

If I remembered it correctly, the waitress said it is called FUJIAN GAN TSAO MIFEN - FUJIAN is a province of China.  We never been there, but we came across this interesting very simple and tasty dish at Hong Kong Islander restaurant located in Sacramento.  Office friends were looking for this interesting Dim Sum that he said he really enjoyed - crispy shrimp wrapped in white soft rice.  We all thought is shrimp CHEONG FUN, but he said it is not.  When we described it to the waitress, she was so sure what we are talking about and then, this got delivered.
We all looked at each other for this burnt looking rice vermicelli dish

 We dug in, nevertheless.  Scallop, chicken, asparagus or fennel stems, woodear ... It tasted so good.

 So, I decided to try making it myself at home.  Yes, I know, my kitchen sink is not fixed.  I am improvising one of other sink in the meantime.  (It's a mess in the kitchen because of it.)
After hydrating two packages of rice vermicelli and two Chinese mushroom or SHIITAKE in hot water/after boiling, using Scissors, cut the rice vermicelli at both end. 
The dry vermicelli comes rolled up into rectangular shape. 
When you add it to a bowl of hot water, it hydrates into soft noodle, yet still need more heat to be cooked. 
Before lifting them up with chop sticks or strainer to drain the water off, while it is still in the bowl, scissor them at both end. Slice and chop the hydrated mushroom. 
The mushroom might need hotter water to hydrate than the vermicelli.  You should not see "white" dry stem, but moist mushroom. Otherwise, it will be challenging to slice them and chop.
Add three tablespoon of avocado oil to the frypan.
RESERVE the water that mushroom and vermicelli got hydrated in. 
Strain the vermicelli out of the bowl by lifting them up using chop stick or strainer - Add to the frying pan.
The vermicelli do not need to be totally strained.  It needs some liquid to cook in the fry pan. Let it cook covered at medium heat.  Keep your 'ears' open and listen to the sound while you prepare the meat. What you want to achieve is cooked rice vermicelli with browned on one side.

 Chop up half of chicken breast and thaw shrimp or fish or whatever you got.  I used four shrimps and chopped them up after deveining them.  1/2 Cup chopped green onions, 2 stalks of celery sliced.
Add chicken first into fry pan.  Stir fry for 40 seconds.  Add shrimp.  Stir fry for 30 seconds.  Add celery and green onions.  Stir fry and add mushroom.
Turn to low. 

 Mix 1 TBsp of soy sauce (low sodium) with 1 tsp of Chinese hot chili paste (LA JIAO JAN), 2 tsp of TONKATSU sauce, 1 TBsp of KATAKURIKO - potato starch.  Mix in 1/4 C reserved liquid from hydrating mushroom and vermicelli.  Add more liquid - at least to 1/2 C.  Add to the meat mixture in frypan. 
Turn heat to medium high. 
Quickly add the rest of liquid - 1/3 to 1/2 Cup more and quickly stir before it start to congeal.  As it thickens, cook for 1 minute.  Turn off heat.

 Check on vermicelli often.  When one side is browned, turn off the heat.  Get a serving plate ready.

 Transfer the meat to a dish and flip transfer the vermicelli to the top.  Sprinkle with green onions and serve.   To serve, portion the noodle into section and or break it apart and mix with meat and serve.

It turned out delicious.

Lion Head - Pork Meatballs Stew

It's getting a bit challenging trying to translate or interpret some of our family's favorite dishes.  The LION HEAD is a description of well seared large pork meatballs, then simmered with Chinese Nappa Cabbage - BAI TSAI, dried SHIITAKE - DONG GU, Firm TOFU, Bean thread,... It's our father's favorite dish.

My mother makes it the best.  And here is mine. 

I made enough to serve 4.

Ingredients: 

1 Quart Chicken Stock - home made & pre-frozen

2 C to 4 C water - (2 Cups come from the hydrated dried mushroom below)

3 hydrated SHIITAKE - dried Chinese mushrooms - Microwave it with enough water to cover the mushrooms (leave a small plate on top to keep the mushroom in the liquid.)  Place the bowl over a microwave tray to catch spilling liquid.  Bring the water to boil. Remove from microwave and set aside to hydrate in liquid.  *transfer liquid to the pot when ready to add mushroom into the stew

1-1/4 lb of ground Pork - fatty pork is preferred, but mine is 95% lean.

130 grams - 1 small can - water Chestnut (discard liquid and washed & rinsed well) - chopped

3 grams of minced fresh Ginger (Tip:  cut and prepare fresh ginger into various size and Freeze them in plastic bag.  Use the ones you want.)

1 Large egg

32 grams of chopped green onions - about 3 slender American green onions - Stir Fried in teaspoon of Olive Oil till browned.

Salt to taste - at least 1 to 2 tsp will be used in meat - Tip:  season the liquid as you go.

White ground pepper.

(Click on any of the pictures to view in larger size.)

 Water chestnuts are my father's idea.  He told me that since our ground pork is so lean, add chopped water chestnuts to give the nice fluffiness and at the same time it gives the enjoyable crispness.   Normally you would put the fresh chopped green onions, but I wanted to try with pre-stir fried green onions.

 Mix well by tossing motion.  Do no stir crazy in circling motion with the chop sticks or spoon.  That will make the meatball 'tough', unless your intention is to make the meatballs with gelatinized texture.

 Instead of pan frying the meatballs because I do not have the normal rounded end cone shaped Chinese iron WOK like my mothers, which will keep the rounded shape of the meat as they fry, I decided to test my new tool - meatball baker pan (I got it from the AVON catalog.) 

 If the pork is really fatty, this would really helped in getting rid of the extra fat.  But on the other hand, normally when pan fried in the Wok, some of the fats are left in the Wok to complete the stew, and it gives a lots of flavor.

 Here is the hydrated mushrooms.  I only used three.  Cut them into quarters.  Add to the stew.  Wash and rinse the Chinese Nappa Cabbage well.  Cut the broad leaf into halves - lengthwise.  Then cut into 2 to 3-inch chunks side ways.  Add Nappa Cabbage into stew. 

Open up your Firm or extra Firm TOFU package.  Drain the liquid.  Set the TOFU on a plate with rim or bowl and place a plate on it to extract some more water.  Drain.  Repeat 2 times.

Cut into nice large chunks.... like 1-1/2 inch size.

Add salt and white ground pepper to the soup, as needed.

** Be aware of the "fake" Bean thread vermicelli.  This one I have turned out to be it!  I forgot that the good bean thread vermicelli in this brand is always "individually" wrapped and tied close in red and white ribbon.  This one is in one whole plastic bag.  Also, the good bean thread vermicelli's brand has blue coloring on the plastic wrap at one end.   I totally forgot to be careful when I purchased it.   The whole thing turned into glue like when added to the stew. 

To hydrate bean thread, add the bean thread vermicelli into a bowl of hot boiling water.  In this one, I just took out the mushrooms and quartered it and added to the stew.  Then, I reboiled the liquid in the microwave and added the bean thread vermicelli.  When soft, use scissors and cut the both ends of the vermicelli, so it will not be toooooo loooong.

 Add the bean thread vermicelli at the end  - like three minutes before serving.  Otherwise, you will not find them - all dissolved into the soup.

Serve with soy sauce as dipping sauce.

Making Hwa Juwen with Vermicelli and Pork

This is another one of my adventure last summer.   Time really flies.  I was not able to finish the blog after starting it. Although this did not turn out like the ones I made a few moons ago, it still tasted good.  What is an adventure, if everything turn out perfectly.

I have made this before the Hwa Juwen - the 'flower' roll with vermicelli (reconstituted Chinese bean thread).  It is one of my favorite.  Normally, you would not see this much vermicelli mixed in it.  But since this is mine, I did what I like.

Premix reconstituted bean thread noodle (shred cut with kitchen scissors) with stir fried ground pork and some shredded carrots for color. 

Add some salt and white pepper for taste.

Prepare the BAO dough.

Roll out the dough, fill the dough.  Slice the dough and roll the dough.

The BAO dough called for the milk powder, but it turned out that dry powder milk did not add any value to the final product as far as some people claim that it Whitens the dough and having too much rice vermicelli  as I have done didn't help either.  I should just fill it with just enough for the look and stir fry a side dish to go along with it.  (I think I was being lazy.)

Prepare the basic BAO dough.
Let it rise to double.
Roll out and fill with reconstituted bean thread vermicelli stir fried with ground pork and some shredded carrots.   You could add chopped green onions or chopped curly parsley, etc.

Roll up the dough.

*DO NOT slice through to the bottom - make three or four slice cut but not sliced down at the bottom.

On top of a pot with boiling water, in steamer basket, place the filled Hwa Juwen on top of a cut parchment paper-preferably organic.

 

Steam at high heat for 25 to 30 min.  

*Tester:  Open the steamer's cover slightly and Quickly without burning yourself, remove one of the Hwa 

Juwen to taste.  Quickly return the steamer's cover.

If the dough does not feel sticky and the texture well formed and the pork is cooked.  Power off.  Remove the lid. Remove the steamer baskets off the steamer pot onto a drying rack

Vietnamese Cold Noodle Salad

Another one of my favorite Vietnamese dish is the rice vermicelli salad.  Like Japanese cold noodle salad, it is garnished with fresh vegetables.  The testing is on the dry rice vermicelli I purchased. 

   

 Would this rice vermicelli really work?  that is the question.

 Cook shreddred chicken in your favorite chili flavored sauce.  Set aside.

In the same pot,  Add lots of green onions and chili and garlic.  Stir fry to bring out the flavor and aroma.  Mix in the chicken.  Combine.  Turn off the heat and set aside.

 Steam the hydrated rice vermicelli in the Steamer basket.

 Cool with luke warm water.  Strain.  Serve.
I found out that as soon as the rice touched the cold water, it turned plastic like texture.  Unpleasant.

 Serve with Nouc Cham and drizzle with some plum sauce.

Result:  I do not like this brand of rice vermicelli.  Keep on looking.   I've seen some in the frozen section.  Maybe those will work out better?

Pan Fried Rice Vermicelli with Shrimps and Chicken

I posted it once in December 2018, but here it is again because it is so simple to make.
https://rockdavinci.blogspot.com/search?q=vermicelli
 Stir fry shrimp and chicken pieces with garlic, salt and pepper with some vinegar.  Set it aside.

 

Stir fry chopped celery, sliced reconstituted shiitake, green onions, some cilantro.

 

Add Shrimp and chicken.

 

Rehydrate dry rice vermicelli with hot water.  When soft, drain.  Add 2 TBsp oil to saute pan.  Add strained rice vermicelli.  At low heat cook covered until crispy on one side.

 

Transfer vegetable mix with shrimp and chicken on top and Serve.

Stir Crazy Winter Stir Fried Home Cooking

Winter came and gone and it's spring of 2021.  It feels like a 'Ground Hog' Day or the Repeat movie.  Are we back to do what we can without the fear of catching COVID-19?  I think cooking at home is a "normal" thing to do that we all have ... kind of found an excuse not to out of one reason or the other before COVID-19.  And before COVID-19, we were day dreaming 'how nice it will be to cook or bake this and that.'  Now that we have to do it regularly for economic or for safety reason, I find myself... I wonder to think that how lazy we were before COVID-19.  I replaced my spare time maybe to eat out just that I can get to the next appointment or activities.  Thinking back when my mother used to cook 3 meals a day - that must have been a "endless" nightmare de la femme.

So, I learned to crop my garden vegetables with scissors before any bugs get to them, and cook them, and let it grow again.  I have gardenful of celery, three kinds of Kale that my friend gave me.  If you have a bottle of organic ketchup and Soy sauce, frozen wild caught seafood, you can make a nice decent quick dishes.  Stir fried veges of all sorts.

Stir fried Celery, Asparagus, and Scallop over stir fried Kale Basmati Rice

I learned that cooked basmati rice result better when stir fried a bit and cooked in covered large pan.  When cooked in the electric rice cooker, I did not really like the fully cooked soft texture all these years.  So, I wash, rinse, basmatic extra long grain rice and soak them for 30 to whenever I remember that it is waiting for me to cook.

I chop up some onions, garlic, heat up large fry pan with oil.  Add onions and garlic, add handful of chopped Kale (I often freeze my garden Kale if I can't cook all of them.).  Add soaked Basmati rice.  Stir fry for about a minute.  Add enough water to cover the rice.  Cover.  Cook over Medium heat till all the water is evaporated and rice has doubled/puff up inside the pan.  *NEVER open the lid of uncooked rice while cooking.  Well, it is up to you, but it is important that you don't let the steam escape and change the temperature of the rice.  Once visually you have confirmed that the rice is cooked - the top most rice sitting looks dry, prepare a cup of warm water, open the lid, quickly stir all rice bottom to top and side to center, add the cup of warm water.  Cover, and cook till the water is gone.  Done.

Defrost frozen wild scallop in some salted water.   Drain and chop up scallops to your desired sizes.  I like them small.  Wash, rinse, devein celery stalks and chop.  Wash, rinse Asparagus, then, snap off the bottom stem.  Cut into bite size.  Peel 1 clove of large garlic, cut in halves.   

Heat a fry pan with some avocado oil over medium high.  Add garlic.  Add Scallops, Stir fry till scallops turn white.  Add celery, asparagus, and stir fry . 2 min.   Add 2 Tbsp of ketchup, 1 tsp of soy sauce (to taste), toss and stir fry.   Add 2 Tbsp of water if needed to steam cook the veges.  Server over rice.

Stir fried Kale with sweat peppers and carrots

Stir fried Kale Rice, Tofu, and CHING TSAI (Bok Choi), Tofu, Chicken, and rice vermicelli Stew

Cook Basmati rice as mentioned in previous section with Kale.

Clean and chop up CHING TSAI - not sure why it is called Bok Choi at the grocery store but the large stalk of vegetable with green leafy tops with white stems - I 've always been calling it the CHING TSAI - the "green vegetables", but regardless, chop it up, chop 2 cloves of garlic.  Stir fry them.  Then, set aside.  Stir fry chopped chicken tenders.  Add cooking wine or white vermouth.  Reconstitute rice vermicelli with hot water in a large bowl.  When softened, scissor the into 4 to 6 inch strands. * just make a cut at the top and bottom of the rolled up rice vermicelli.   Cut medium firm Tofu into pieces - square or rectangle.

Combine all in a large pot.  Add 4 cups of water.  Season with salt and white pepper.  Bring to boil and cook for 2 minutes.  Serve

What else did I cook.... I have to upload the photos.  Till next time... have a good cooking days.  

Be Safe.  Be Kind and Wear that Mask in the Public.