I have tried on two previous occasions to make this dish with little success, but I am here to tell you that persistence has rewarded me with a delicious noodle dish I can share with you! The two previous times I included lots of fresh veggies which made the dish colorful, but also watered down the sauce and diluted the flavor. This time I cut back on the veggies and kept it simple to try something new, what a difference! Now, when I say simple, I don’t really mean simple, because the recipe calls for some things that you won’t find at your local CUB or Whole Foods. My solution was to take a trip to the Asian market a few cities over and OH MAN! If you’ve never set foot in an Asian market before I implore you to do so, I love Asian food of all types, but the selection there made me feel like I hadn’t even scratched the surface of possibilities. I’m used to getting most of my ingredients at CUB and I always felt limited by their 2-4 options for shrimp… This place had an ENTIRE ISLE of shrimp! Not to mention the copious selection of soy sauces, tons of fresh and frozen fish, and produce I had never heard of. Seriously guys, it’s worth the trip.
While you are there, pick up a wok if you don’t have one, or use this link
The recipe also calls for fresh egg noodles, which you can get at the Asian market, but we had like 3 packages of the dried ones at home that we needed to use up (they turned out great). One other substitution I made was the special shao hsing wine that this recipe called for was not at the market I went to so I just used some mirin that I had at home and I still think it worked great.
Ingredients
- 2 cups fresh Chinese egg noodles
- 2 Tbsp chili sauce (Sriracha), or more to taste
- 1 tsp dark soy sauce
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 3 Tbsp oyster sauce
- 3 Tbsp ketchup
- 2 Tbsp vegetable or canola oil
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp minced garlic
- 1 cup mung bean sprouts, rinsed
- 1/2 cup shredded cabbage
- 1 lb shrimp, peeled and deveined
- 2 Tbsp shao hsing wine (I used mirin instead)
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
- 2 Tbsp scallions, sliced
- 2 Tbsp fried shallots (available packaged at Asian markets)
Instructions
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Cook the noodles for about half the time indicated on the directions on pack, drain, and rinse with cold water, set aside.
- In a small bowl, combine chili sauce, dark soy sauce, sugar, 1/4 tsp salt, oyster sauce and ketchup. Stir to combine, set aside.
- In a large wok preheated over high heat, add the oil. Crack the eggs into the wok, stir vigorously until the eggs are lightly scrambled and just set, then add the garlic, noodles, bean sprouts, cabbage, shrimp, and 3/4 cup water. Stir-fry continuously until noodles are cooked, 3-5 minutes (depending on the heat of your wok), making sure to also cook the shrimp. Add chili sauce mixture, and keep stirring until well combined. The noodles should begin to get a bit drier (no liquid left in the bottom of the wok). Add shao hsing wine (or mirin) and white pepper, stir to combine, and remove from heat. Garnish with scallions and fried shallots.