Noodle in Chinese Pickled Cabbage Broth
酸菜面
Pickled cabbage is a very common ingredient in Chinese cuisine. It plays supporting role in many popular dishes. When being cooked with meat, it can help to reduce the greasiness, such as to braised with goose, a Cantonese countryside dish that my aunt is good at; when with fish, it can cover a bit of fishy smell, such as the spicy fish in picked cabbage broth, a popular Sichuan dish. This noon, I made a noodle broth with it.
Serve 2
Ingredients –
Chinese pickled cabbage, 200g, cut into bite size;
Pork, 250g, thinly sliced;
Tomato, 1, peeled, sliced, I like it peeled;
Onion, 1 quarter, sliced;
Ginger, 10g, thinly sliced;
Garlic, 3 cloves, thinly sliced;
Dry red chili, 6, optional;
Noodle, any types you like. You may have noticed I use spaghetti! Ha, don’t know why but I have quite a lot spaghetti home and really want to finish some!
Shaoxing rice wine, light soysauce, powdered white pepper, sugar, salt, starch.
How to do –
1. Marinade the pork slices with 2tbsp of light soysauce, 1tsp sugar, 1tbsp of Shaoxing rice wine, 1tbsp of starch and a pinch of white pepper;
2. Oil in hot pan and fry the pork first. Set aside;
3. Add 2tbsp of oil in a deep hot pan, add garlic and ginger in, fry until fragrant. Lower the heat and add dry red chili in and keep frying. Dry chili would be easily burnt and turn bitter when in high heat;
4. Add onion and tomato in the same pan and keep frying till onion turns a little translucent;
5. Now pickles in. Add 2tbsp of Shaoxing rice wine, 2tbsp of light soysauce, and 1tsp of sugar in the pan and keep frying till the pickle absorbing all flavour;
6. Add 3 cups of water in the pan and bring to boil, let it simmer for 10 minutes. Have a taste and season with salt or sugar according to your preference;
7. Meanwhile, poach the noodle but not totally cooked through, take one strand and have a try, if it’s soft outside and hard inside, turn off the heat and drain;
8. Add the noodle into the broth and keep simmering for another 5 minutes. The noodle would absorb the broth gradually and be cooked thoroughly;
9. Turn off the heat and add the pork in, stir well and serve.
Replace pork with mushroom or firm tofu if you are vegetarian.
