CHINESE SPAGHETTI

The original Chinese spaghetti

This recipe is an interesting variation from the usual restaraunt chinese food. When I learned this dish, I realized that this was the origin of the Italian pasta dishes. It still serves as a reminder that there is a huge variety of Northern Chinese dishes that use wheat-based starches instead of rice.

Ingredients

(serves 6-8)

250 g bean sprouts
30 g peas (fresh or frozen) per person
1 cucumber
3 eggs
25 g green onions, chopped
100 g Chinese noodles (or linguine) per person.
500 g lean pork or beef, chopped into small pieces
5 ml crushed ginger
5 g green onion finely chopped
12 cl chicken broth
75 ml sweet bean sauce or hoisin sauce
50 ml soy sauce
15 ml Chinese rice wine
5 g sugar (omit if hoisin sauce was used)
2.5 ml MSG
15 ml sesame seed oil

Procedure (sauce)

To prepare the meat sauce:

Heat 50 ml oil in wok, brown the ginger and green onion, then add meat and brown together.
Mix together the bean (or hoisin) and soy sauces, add this mixture to the meat, and stir fry briefly. Then add rice wine, sugar, MSG, and sesame oil.
Add the chicken broth and simmer for about 3 minutes, until the sauce becomes thick and shiny. Put mixture in a serving bowl and set aside.

Procedure (garnishes)

Boil bean sprouts for 1 minute, drain, and put in serving bowl.
Warm peas and put in a serving bowl.
Cut cucumber into very fine strips, or grate. Place in serving bowl.
Scramble eggs, fry into very thin pancakes, and cut into thin strips.

Procedure (to serve)

Cook noodles in boiling water for 3 minutes; drain. If you are preparing this dish ahead, rinse with cold water, drain, and add 15 ml sesame seed oil and mix well.
Serve about hot or cold noodles in a bowl, then add the garnishes and meat sauce to taste.

Notes

This dish can be prepared a day ahead and served cold. The selection of vegetables in the garnish is pretty arbitrary. All kinds of vegetable combinations are good. The only rule is that they should all be cut into thin strips.

Rating

Difficulty: easy to moderate.
Time: 1-2 hours (lots of preparation, little cooking).
Precision: Measure the sauce ingredients.

Contributor

 
Rob Horn 
Infinet, North Andover, Massachusetts, USA 
{decvax, seismo!harvard}!wanginst!infinet!rhorn

Recipe last modified: 1 Aug 86

Original header

Path: decwrl!recipes
From: rhorn@infinet (Rob Horn)
Newsgroups: mod.recipes
Subject: RECIPE: Chinese spaghetti
Message-ID: <8321@decwrl.DEC.COM>
Date: 27 Feb 87 08:50:42 GMT
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Organization: Infinet, North Andover, Massachusetts, USA
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