An Easy Student Meal - Quick Stir-Fried Noodles

I recently wrote this recipe as a paper for class at my MBA program.

As I have learned over the past few months, time is of the essence as a First Year Student. We spend most of our time in class, preparing cases, attending briefings, getting ready for interviews, meeting with professors, participating in various clubs, and attending the occasional social event. For many of us, we struggle to find the few minutes where we can relax, turn on the TV, call friends and family, exercise, run errands and very importantly, eat.

While I realize that some first years do not cook, do not like to cook, and do not want to learn how to cook, I think there are a fair number of students who would enjoy learning a few easy meals to make. Though eating out is probably in many cases the fastest, it is often not as tasty, satisfying or healthy as making a meal at home, and besides, eating all meals out can get very repetitive, and the cost of eating out is usually more expensive too. There are only so many places to grab a quick bite on a school night.

As I was inventing this recipe, I was really trying to take the student lifestyle into account. Given our time constraints, I know we cannot be running to the grocery store very frequently, or be spending time searching around for an extensive and difficult to find set of ingredients. So, the list of ingredients needed to be short and simple. I also tried to take into account that the meal needed to be reasonably well -rounded in terms of the different food groups to give the student energy and nutrition. I tried to think about the shelf life and costs of the ingredients so that the student could have the ingredients around for a while should cooking plans not work out due to other unforeseen activities, and even then would not have to worry about the costs too much should there be spoilage. Finally, I made this a meal for one, knowing that many students live on their own. I hope you will find the following recipe user friendly and helpful.



Quick and Easy Stir-Fried Noodles – A Meal For One

Ingredients



1 packet of your favorite ramen type noodles (I used Sapporo Ichiban Chowmein Japanese Style Noodles)
4 ounces of chicken breast, or other type of meat (I usually keep a few frozen chicken breasts in the freezer at all times, and use one at a time at my convenience)
5 leaves of green or savoy cabbage
1 carrot
1 heaping teaspoon of cornflour or potato starch
2 tablespoons of reduced sodium soy sauce
1 tablespoon canola or vegetable oil
1 teaspoon of chopped garlic (fresh or jarred is fine)

Method – Approximately 15 minutes of preparation time, and 10 minutes of cooking time



1. Remove one chicken breast from the freezer. Slice immediately. It is easier to slice meat from frozen.



2. Chop the garlic finely.



3. Combine the chicken, cornstarch, garlic and one tablespoon of the soy sauce. Stir together well and allow to sit and marinate while preparing other ingredients. Cornstarch helps to seal in the moisture of the chicken.





4. Peel the carrot. This can either be done with a vegetable peeler, or by using a sharp knife to scrape away the outside layer of skin on the carrot. Using a grater, grate the entire carrot. Set aside in bowl.



5. Chiffonade the cabbage leaves. To do this, take one or two cabbage leaves, and roll them up. Then from one end, start running the knife through the leaves, cutting very close together. The end result will be very thinly sliced strips, and this is known as a chiffonade. Repeat until all the cabbage is in a chiffonade.

6. Now that the ingredients are prepped, it’s time to start cooking. Place half of the canola oil into a wok, or other large pan, and allow it to heat up until very hot.







7. Put the chicken into the wok, stir frequently until all of the pink is gone and the chicken has turned a whitish color, and remove to a bowl. This should take approximately two minutes.

8. In the same wok, put in the remaining canola oil. Heat thoroughly.



9. Add the cabbage and the carrot to the pan, as well as the remaining soy sauce. Make sure to add the vegetables before the soy sauce, or the soy sauce will splatter in the hot oil.

10. Stir occasionally until the vegetables become slightly tender. This should take approximately two to three minutes. If the vegetables start to stick or are getting browned, add a little bit of water to the pan.



11. As you are cooking the vegetables, simultaneously cook the ramen noodles in a separate pan, according to directions. If there is liquid left, drain the noodles so that they are completely dry, and then add the seasoning packet that came with the noodles.







12. Once the vegetables and noodles are cooked, add the noodles and chicken to the wok with the vegetables, and gently stir until well-combined.



13. Serve in a shallow bowl immediately!

A Traditional (and easy!) Singaporean Noodle Dish: Kway Teow

I asked my Singaporean friend at Le Cordon Bleu, Christine, to teach me a typical Singaporean noodle dish. The next Monday at school, she brought in homemade kway teow and let me have a taste, and I told her I wanted to learn it!



The next Sunday she came over. We went to an Asian grocer, picked out all of the ingredients with her expert guidance, and came home and cooked a delicious, and surprisingly simple dish.



Kway Teow
Makes two servings

Ingredients
400g fresh ho fun (or 200g dry)
3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
100g of bean sprouts
20g (5-6 stalks) of Chinese chives, cut into two inch pieces
100g fish cake or shrimp/chicken/beef/tofu/pork
2 tbsp vegetable oil or canola oil
2 eggs
1 ½ tbsp dark soy sauce
1 ½ tbsp sweet soy sauce
1 tbsp sweetish chili sauce (not too sweet!)
1 tbsp regular soy sauce (or more to taste)

First, lets take a look at some of the ingredients... I certainly wasn't familiar with all of them!



Three types of sauce... to the left, the chili sauce, in the middle, the sweet soy sauce, and on the right, dark soy sauce.



Chinese chives aka garlic chives... they are beautiful and mild tasting, and have a hint of garlic taste.



Dry ho fun. Needs to be cooked like pasta until al dente (probably about 5 minutes depending on what variety you get).



Fresh ho fun. Separate them in warm water.



Fish cake. A commonly used ingredient in Asian cooking. Any sort of protein can be used though.





Prepped fish cake, chives and garlic.

Now for the method. Heat the oil until it's extremely hot, even smoking. Add the garlic, and stir in the pan until fragrant (about 30 seconds). Do not let the garlic burn!





Crack the eggs and add them to the pan. Don't stir until they start to look brown around the edge. Then, break the egg up and stir until cooked through.



Add the fish cake, or whatever protein you are using, and cook accordingly.



The next step is to add the noodles. Be gentle stirring so that the noodles do not break. Heat through.



Next, add the dark soy sauce, sweet soy sauce, chili sauce and regular soy sauce. Stir thoroughly. Taste a noodle to check the seasoning, and look at the color. For more color, add more dark soy sauce. For more heat, add more chili sauce. For more sweet/smokey flavor, add more sweet soy sauce. And for more saltiness, add regular soy sauce.



Add the bean sprouts and stir through. Cook them for about one minute. They add crunch and texture to the dish, so don't cook them too much or they will become soft. Finally, add the chives. Turn off the heat, and stir the chives until distributed evenly. Serve piping hot.

Beef Fried Rice

I found this recipe in a Chinese cookbook. I changed the recipe a little because I did not use minced beef, instead, I thinly sliced it against the grain into thin strips.

The recipe is lovely; it's very mild with many subtle flavors coming through. My parents particularly like the ginger flavor that they could taste in the dish.

Serve this recipe with a simple stir fried green vegetable and I think you'd have a very tasty meal.

Beef Fried Rice
Serves 2 for lunch, or 3 with an additional dish

Ingredients
8 ounces of beef, (I used sirloin) finely sliced into 1/8-1/4 inch width strips against the grain
3 cups boiled rice, cooked in advance and fluffed with a fork to separate the grains
1 egg, beaten lightly
4 cloves garlic, minced finely
1/4 inch fresh ginger, peeled and minced finely
4 scallions, cut into small rounds and whites separated from greens
4 leaves of iceberg lettuce, thinly shredded
4 tbsp canola oil
1/2 tsp sugar
2 tsp thin soy sauce
2 tsp thick soy sauce
3 tsp Shaohsing wine or medium-dry sherry
1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper
1/2 tsp cornstarch or potato flour

Prep all of the ingredients and the rice. Add the sugar, soy sauces, 1 tsp of the wine or sherry, the pepper and the cornstarch or potato flour to the beef. Stir vigorously and marinade for 30 minutes. Blend 1 tbsp of the oil into the beef.



Heat the wok until it is very hot and add 2 tbsp of oil. Add the garlic, ginger and white part of the scallions and stir until fragrant, approximately 30 seconds.

Next add the beef. Stir continuously for about 30 seconds, and splash in the remaining 2 tsp of wine or sherry.



Finally pour in the egg and rice, and continue to stir for about 2 more minutes until everything is blended and heated through. It is important to stir gently so that the rice does not get broken up.

Remove the wok from the heat, and add the lettuce and green scallions, incorporating them carefully. Serve hot!

Pot Stickers

My family really likes dumplings, pot stickers, gyoza... anything of that sort. So when we had some leftover meat after making wonton soup, my Mom suggested that we try making pot stickers.

I was a little nervous about trying to make pot stickers with the wonton skins because they are so thin, but it worked beautifully. Follow my Wonton Soup recipe up until the step where you fold the wonton wrappers in half to form a triangle, and then follow the easy instructions below. Keep in mind that for pot stickers, no stock is necessary!

Pot Stickers
Makes 80-90 pot stickers

Ingredients
1 Wonton Soup recipe up until the point when you fold the wontons in half to a triangle shape
3/4 cup water (per batch of pot stickers that will fit into the pan)
1 tbsp of canola oil
1 large heavy bottomed pan, at least 2 inches deep and with a lid

This is very simple to do. First, heat the oil in the pan. Place the pot stickers into the pan. They can be very close together. Brown for 3-4 minutes.



Next, add the water into the pan. Bring to a boil, cover with the lid, and simmer for 5-7 minutes. This steams the pot stickers and ensures that the meat inside is cooked.

Uncover the lid and let the water evaporate. Continue to brown until golden and crunchy on the underside. Remove the pot stickers from the pan carefully so as not to break them apart. Serve immediately. I used Kikkoman Ponzu sauce as the dipping sauce.

Wonton Soup

This recipe is amazing! It's the best wonton soup I've ever eaten - better than even the best Chinese restaurant. The greatest part is, it's even easier to make than I would have imagined.



Wonton Soup
Makes approximately 80-90 wontons

Ingredients
12 ounces of ground pork
4 ounces raw shelled shrimp, chopped into small pieces
2-3 ounces bamboo shoots chopped very small
6 scallions, chopped into thin rounds
1 egg yolk
1 egg white, lightly beaten
6-8 leaves lettuce or blanched chinese cabbage
1 1/2 quarts of chicken stock
1/2 tsp sugar
1 tsp thin soy sauce
1 tsp thick soy sauce
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 1/2 tsp Shaohsing wine or medium-dry sherry
1 tsp cornstarch
3 tbsp water
2 teaspoons sesame oil

In a large bowl, mix the shrimp and pork with the cornstarch, sugar, soy sauces, pepper and wine. Then stir in the water one tablespoon at a time. Next it's time to take out some aggression. Take the entire meat mixture, pick it up, and throw it back into the bowl. Repeat this about 100 times.

Next, add the bamboo shoots and the white parts of the scallions to the meat mixture and marinate for about 30 minutes. Then blend in the sesame oil. Right before wrapping the mixture in the wontons, add the egg yolk to the mixture.



Now comes the fun part! I used Nasoya wonton wrappers and they worked well. It would have better if they were cut into perfect squares, but they were certainly sufficient for the task.



Its really easy to fold a wonton! First, put about a tsp of the mixture onto the middle of the square.



Second, use a brush and paint two edges of the wrapper and fold the noodle in half to form a triangle. Press the edges gently together.



Finally, put a little egg white on one tip, and fold the two tips together, joining them with the egg white you put on.



Here are a bunch of beautiful wontons, all waiting to be cooked! In one pan, gently heat the stock, and in another pan, heat water to a boil. When the water comes to a boil, place about 20 wontons in the pan. It will only take about 3 minutes to cook the wontons. When they are done, they float. Remove them carefully and place them in the stock. Repeat until all of the wontons are cooked.

Serve by garnishing with some finely shredded lettuce and scallions on top.