In this post, I’ll be your host for a foodie trip to China. The trip will begin with time travel, to discover some facts about the origin of this dish. Then I’ll share my detailed recipe alongside some useful tips.
This particular dish is my favourite combination of some Chinese stir-fried noodles recipes that I’ve made before. It's quick, healthy, alterable to vegetarian or low carb diets, quite flavourful and catchy if you're into Asian cuisine's dominant flavours.
A glimpse of noodles Origin
Have you ever wondered about the origin of these appetizing threads of carbohydrates? Whether you have or just got curious about it, we’re here to find that out.
Truth is, I hadn’t considered it before writing this post. However, as it came to guessing, my imaginations couldn’t go beyond some two thousand years. But in reality, the earliest evidence of its existence goes back to 4 thousand years ago, China, near the yellow river (the earliest known noodles that were discovered there during archaeological findings).
The first written records of it, however, belong to Han Dynasty (25-200 AD).
The early noodles were made of wheat. Through some centuries other variations were created (made of egg, rice, starches, and …). The diversity expanded further as China’s influence broaden all over Asia. So far that nowadays, there are thousands and hundreds of unique noodle dishes; each created and characterized by the country/city of its origin.
Han dynasty [picture reference: Photo12/Universal Images Group/Getty Images - reference link ]
- historical facts references:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352618116300828
http://www.chinesefoodhistory.com/chinese-cuisine-history/chinese-noodles-history/
Ingredients (per two servings)
| Item | Quantity |
|---|---|
| shrimp | 250g |
| noodles | 180g |
| ginger | 1 tbs |
| garlic | 4 cloves |
| onion | ½ cup (thin slice) |
| sesame oil | 7 tbs |
| chilli oil | 2 tbs |
| carrot | ¾ cup (julienne) |
| zucchini | 1/25 cup (julienne) |
| pepper | ¼ cup (slice) |
| red/white cabbage | 1 cup (thin slice) |
| broccoli | 1 cup |
| green onion | ¼ cup |
| rice vinegar | 4 tbs |
| chinese chilli pepper paste | 2 tbs |
| Doubanjiang (Chinese bean paste) | 1 tbs |
| sesame seeds | 2 tbs |
| butter | 2 tbs |
| honey/sugar | 1 tsp |
| salt | ½ tsp |
| powdered chilli pepper | 2 tsp |
Preparation
The preparation process would take about 20 minutes -considering vegetables are pre-washed and the shrimp is deveined and ready to use-.
Shrimps, vegetables, and noodles are prepared separately at first. Then they must be stir-fried together while being mixed with a sauce.
Shrimps (Skip for making a vegetarian dish)
Use fresh, medium to large shrimps preferably. If you didn't have access to them -like us- it's alright if you use frozen ones of any size. It would still taste satisfying if you marinate the shrimp in a one-three ratio of vinegar and water plus some salt for an hour.
Add the butter and two tablespoons of sesame oil to a pan. Let it come to temperature on medium heat.
Chop garlic and ginger finely. Saute them in the hot oil. Add seasonings (salt and chilli pepper) when they've turned golden brown. Saute the seasonings for a minute before you'd add shrimps and fry them.
Set the shrimps aside on a plate while they're slightly undercooked.
Vegetables
Add the rest of the sesame oil to the same pot. Increase the temperature to medium-high. Be ready for stir-frying the vegetables.
The vegetables in this dish are supposed to be half cooked. So we want to cook them until they're flexible on the outside while a bit crunchy on the inside. Hence, the vegetables that cook quicker should be added the last. The order would be as followed: onion, carrot, broccoli, zucchini and pepper, green onion.
- Note: If you're using white cabbage feel free to add it alongside broccoli. But if you're using red cabbage, cook it separately as it'll make every other ingredient purplish otherwise.
- Note: I've done the julienne cuts saving the whole height of each vegetable which gives them noodle-like looks. If you're on a low carb diet, you can increase the ratio of vegetables, reducing the noodles'.
Noodles
Boil the noodles following the package's instructions (you can use homemade, fresh, or instant noodles). Strain them and add them to the vegetable pan.
Finalizing
To make the sauce mix Chinese chilli pepper paste, chilli oil, bean paste, rice vinegar, and honey or sugar. Add hot water, if needed to make the mixture even.
Add shrimps and sauce to the pan and keep stir-frying (only until you'll have an even mixture). Taste and add more seasonings if needed.
Serve and enjoy your taste buds trip into this far eastern adventure!
I'd be beyond happy to receive feedback from you, in case you've tried my recipes at home. Also, always feel free to comment your questions down below. I'll reply as soon as possible.
*few words regarding content originality and policies
I'm new to "C/Foodies Bee
Hive" Community. Which has given me a good excuse to dedicate this title to identify my work and content strategies further.
I've founded tranutriology to create professional food and travel content [if you've read my intro, you'd know me and my partner decided to leave our daily routines behind and begin a new adventure all around the world. So blogging became my main target occupation -I did tailoring and fashion designing (mostly analogue) before which is almost impossible to retain during travels.
Aiming for professionality, I've bound myself to some content creation boundaries and guidelines. (Such as photoshoot format, creative content elements, context requirements, referencing policies, posting frequency and...) Some of these guidelines match this community rules perfectly; such as content originality, personalized descriptions and...
Some others may not be an exact representation of these community rules. However, I believe they're not in absolute denial of them either.
To be more specific, the community seem to recommend unedited photos. While my purpose requires specific white balance, saturation, aesthetics, labelling, and...
Thus, I've decided to follow an in-between strategy. My cover shots are always taken by 
I'd only note further descriptions for the shots that are taken by
Neither I nor aoi are the biggest fans of showing off our visages on social media too often. Let alone showing passive clumsy details of our place.
Still, I've shared enough pictures in this post to let you see the environment I cook in, and where the pictures are taken at. I may not share environment clarifying pictures in every post. However, we'll be living in this place for one year. So in this year, all pictures will be taken in the same kitchen, using the same pots or on the same table, using the same dishes. Which you'll surely recognise in future as you've already seen them in these pictures.
Another notable component in my foodie post -that may or may not be a match to the community preferences- is the single heading dedicated to historical and/or scientific facts about the relevant dish.
This type of content is a characteristic must for maintaining the informative perspective of this page ["ology" in the title of this page stands for this perspective]. Notwithstanding I assume the fact that I follow all referencing rules [the reference of historical/scientific fact is mentioned at the end of the heading. Quotation (copy-paste material) is avoided as much as possible. If used, they're noted by quotation marks (and linked to the source, in case it's a website)] would not put the component in denial of community rules.
I'd appreciate receiving any advice on my posts as a newcomer. Please don't hesitate to let me know what you think.