Sheet Pan Chow Mein Noodles
Cascading Kitchen Notes
Sheet Pan Chow Mein Noodles
with Stir Fried Veggies and Sauce
First:
- Cook fresh chow mein noodles just short of al dente, rinse and dry (follow the directions on the product you purchase) 1 pkg/4 servings
- Toss w/toasted sesame seed oil
- Spread out on a sheet pan and roast for 6 min. 425 degrees. Use a convection fan if you have one.
- Toss and check…you want some crispiness.
- Continue cooking until you have a good balance of soft noodles and crispy noodles.
- Once cooked, hold on top of the stove to keep warm and cover w/foil.
Assemble the sauce in a bowl so it’s ready to dump in the wok.
- 4Tbs fish sauce (Red Boat fish sauce works well for most palates. Sp?)The more traditional are quite strong.
- 4 Tbs oyster sauce* (also a nice condiment to have on hand when your gravy needs a bit of punching up)
- 2 Tbs sugar
- 2 tsp soy sauce or tamari (you can add more once you’ve finished stir frying the veg.)
- 2 Tbs Asian red chili sauce (consider only 1 Tb for young palates. If you scale up this recipe, don't scale the chili sauce proportionately.)
- 4 Tbs mirin
- 2 Tbs fresh grated ginger
- Mince 4 cloves of garlic but hold it off to the side until later.
*Use high quality oyster sauce from an Asian grocery store, rather than the stuff found in most grocery stores which is mostly sugar and food coloring.
If you have a very large wok and lots of veggies consider doubling the sauce, though not the Asian red chili sauce.
Next, Cut up all the veggies before turning on the wok.
Keep them separate so you can toss them into the wok according to required cooking time. Work with one type of veggie at a time so you don’t risk overcooking any ingredient.
Use high temperature oil like grapeseed or peanut oil:
Start with 4 Tbs of oil.
Don’t add the veggies until the wok and oil are HOT
Quickly Stir fry the veggies one at a time since they each take various amounts of time. (Be sure not to overcook them. They will cook an additional three minutes at the end.)(onions, cabbage, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, celery, pok choy and mushrooms….)
You’ll have to add more oil as you go. Sometimes I”ll add sesame seed oil as I go along to build flavor.
I keep a large bowl nearby to quickly and easily remove each vegetable as they finish.
After the individual veggie cooking, put everything back in the wok and add the 4 cloves of minced garlic at this time. Reheat the veggies and cook the garlic for about 30 seconds.
Pour in the sauce, reheat quickly and cook for about 2 min. The fish sauce will be stinky when you first toss it in the wok but it dissipates quickly. The resulting flavor will make it taste like the real thing.
Pour the wok out over the sheet pan of cooked noodles.
Serve w/ tongs.
