#WeekendCooking - Home-cooked Noodles to Welcome the New Year

new year noodles.jpg
All photos featured are from my collection. New Year noodles.

I shared a photo via APPICS last week. I'm sharing the recipe and procedures this week. I was supposed to share this last night (Saturday), but I had a tooth extraction and felt that I needed the extra rest. But here it is before the weekend is over once again.

Ingredients

Noodles are associated with long life. Filipino-Chinese folks learned this tradition as well from our ancestors. We usually have birthday noodles during the occasion. I suppose that is also one of the reasons why I thought of making homemade noodles to welcome the Chinese New Year.

I suppose we could have ordered noodles from nearby Chinese restaurants, but I figured they would be busy with orders too. Besides, it would be quite fun to prepare a homecooked meal for such a special occasion. Plus, I like using ingredients that we have on hand. One of the main reasons is that would prevent food spoilage.

Procedures

My stainless wok is big enough for preparing this dish, so I used it. First, I sauteed the garlic and onions. Mmmm just love the smell right there.

The holiday season was just over, so we had some ham left over from the holidays. I thought I would use some for added flavor for my noodles.

Lately, we have been trying to go for less meat in our meals. However, we still have some hotdogs left in the freezer. I thought I might as well cook some with my noodles.

And yes, we wanted to have veggies too. Mom buys Taiwan pechay from time to time. I'm glad we had some on hand to add to my dish. Noodles are more delicious with meat and veggies added.

I removed the cooked ingredients to make way for cooking the noodles. These were set aside to be added back later.

I used the same wok and added some water and the chicken cubes for flavoring. The water is needed to boil and cook the noodles.

The egg noodles are ready to be cooked. They just look a lot, but they're smaller in person than in the photo.

I decided to cover the wok so the noodles would cook faster. Continuous stirring is advisable too, so the noodles wouldn't stick to the pan. I let that boil for around two minutes.

It was time to add the soy sauce. I think next time around, I will revise the recipe and use less soy sauce. We're also trying to go for less salt in our meals.

With the soy sauce added, it was time to keep stirring.

I realized the soy sauce also gives the noodles the nice brown color. At least it doesn't look as pale anymore as when I started cooking the noodles.

Now it was time to add the rest of the ingredients that was previously set aside. Just mix them thoroughly and the homecooked noodles are ready for serving.

I was so happy to have welcomed the CNY with something different. I really enjoyed preparing this dish. I know that the gesture alone will bring a lot of good vibes for this year.