This is a complementing dish, usually used with saucy dishes—here we might use it in an unorthodox way with Ginger Beef, or Shrimp with Lobster Sauce, the latter almost always served with rice.
Jerry Weinberg
This is tricky. Don’t try it till you’ve familiarized yourself with complex dishes. Fry this noodle cake—in some ways similar to noodle kugel—keep warm in moderate oven, then turn an impressive dish like Shrimp with Lobster Sauce into a legend.
Ingredients
- ½ pound Chinese noodles (fresh)
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- ½ cup basil (shredded)
- ½ cup scallions (shredded greens)
- 1 Tablespoon fish sauce (or soy)
- 1 cup oil (not olive)
Instructions
- Drop noodles into two or more quarts boiling water and cook 3 1/2 to 4 1/2 minutes—just till tender, al dente. Drain, rinse under cold water, moving noodles around with your hands or wooden spoons to make sure they’re all cool.
- Mix remaining ingredients to incorporate. Place noodles in an approximately 5” bowl and round the top evenly with your hands. Chill well for hours—cake should be pretty solid and firm.
- Heat oil (not olive here) in wok over medium high flame, till hot. Heat is necessary for noodles not to stick. Carefully slide noodles into oil. Let cook without disturbing about 15 minutes, watching that edges aren’t burning. With strainer—preferably Chinese—lift cake to see if it’s nicely browned. Using strainer and wooden spoon, turn cake and fry the other side. Carefully remove this very hot cake to drain on paper towels. When done, place on large serving platter and keep warm in low oven.
- hen serving for example, Shrimps with Lobster Sauce, spread uniformly over noodles, serve immediately (to keep crustiness) and let people break off pieces of noodle cake and serve shrimps on top.