Rice Vermicelli Stir-Fry, Cantonese style
家常廣式炒米粉
Summer in Hong Kong is long and steamingly hot, even after sunset. Sometimes when I have no appetite or am too tired to prepare a proper rice dinner, I would make soup noodles or stir-fried noodles. Recently I have rice noodles more often than usual wheat flour noodles for they are lower GI. And I would add a big bunch of vegetable and protein.
Rice vermicelli
Rice noodles/mi-fen are common food in Chinese cuisine and other Asian cuisines. They are in different shapes and different textures. Beside rice flour, sometimes other flour or starch would be added in making rice noodles, thus their texture would be different. Rice vermicelli is a thin type of rice noodle. As a Cantonese, I particularly like to use ‘Kong-moon/Jiang-men’ dried rice vermicelli. It’s suitable for stir-frying, won’t be soggy and easily break apart after cooking. Furthermore, I find it one of the usually seen dried rice vermicelli in Asian grocery stores worldwide.
Dried rice vermicelli needs to be reconstructed before cooking. Some would suggest soak in hot water while others might poach it in boiling water. I have tried different ways and the reconstruction differs depending on different types or brands of rice vermicelli. I personally prefer soak them in water in room temperature till soft, and for Kong-moon rice vermicelli, it only takes about 15 minutes. In this way, the noodles keep its chewiness and won’t be too soft and soggy. However, some types of dried rice vermicelli need to be blanched in boiling water to soften. I also recommend to reconstruct according to the packet instruction.
You may know rice vermicelli is different from cellophane noodles / fensi, which are made from mung bean.
How to stir-fry noodles
‘Stir-fry’ / ‘chao’, is the most common and basic technique in Chinese cooking. Generally speaking, ingredients are cooked and stirred in hot oil over high heat till they are fully cooked. But there is a misunderstanding that you need to keep stir the ingredients with frying spoon continuously. The fact is that, no matter pan-fry or stir-fry, you need to let the ingredients stay in hot pan or wok for a while till the bottom side turns golden, then you flip to the other side, again and again, till ingredients mix well and turn lightly golden. When stir-frying noodles, you need a pair of long chopsticks or thong and wok spatula for help so that ingredients could be mixed together evenly.
Check my other stir-fried noodles recipes –
Cantonese style Mung Bean Vermicelli Pot
Stir-fried Curry Mung Bean Vermicelli
Stir-fried Linguine with Garlic Chives and Sardines
Stir-fried Ricecake (Nian-gao) with XO Sauce
Cantonese style
If you have read my previous posts, you might aware there are some particular ingredients I use often as a Cantonese.
Cantonese style ingredients –
- Cantonese sausage
- Dried mini shrimp
- Dried shiitake mushroom
- Chinese chive
- Yellow Chinese chive / chive sprout
- Chinese celery
- Oyster sauce
- Soy sauce
Other ingredients can be used in stir-fried noodles –
- Shredded beef
- Shredded pork
- Ham
- sausage
- Shrimp
- Cabbage
- Green leafy vegetable, such as bak-choy
- Onion
- Carrot
- Chili pepper
- Mushroom
- Chili oil
Ingredients – for 2 to 3 serving
- Dried rice vermicelli, about 250g, Kong-moon dried rice vermicelli is recommended in this recipe
- Cantonese/Chinese sausage, 2, any type
- Egg, 2
- Dried mini shrimp, 1tbsp
- Garlic, 2 cloves
- Red chili, 2
- Green onion, a bunch
- Chive sprout / yellow Chinese chive, a bunch
- Oyster sauce, 2tbsp
- Light soy sauce, 1tbsp
- Toasted sesame seeds, a nip
How to do –
- Prepare the ingredients – soak dried vermicelli in plenty of water in room temperature till soft, for about 15 minutes (or under packet instruction); eggs bitten; chives and green onion washed in running water and chop to matchsticks; Cantonese sausage thinly sliced; dried shrimp washed in running water; garlic and chili thinly sliced;
- Cooking – heat a little oil in hot wok then scramble egg, remove it from the wok; add more oil, in medium high heat, stir-fry sausage, dried shrimp, garlic and chili till fragrant, push aside; put in rice vermicelli, spread evenly in the wok and let it stay for a few seconds till it’s golden at the bottom, then stir-fry with wok spatula and long chopsticks (or thong) for a minute till lightly golden evenly; add in scrambled egg, chive and green onion, toss and stir-fry, mix them well; season with 2tbsp of oyster sauce and 1tbsp of light soy sauce, keep tossing and stir-frying till all ingredients mix well; sprinkle a nip of toasted sesame and serve hot right away.
用料
- 江门排粉 约250克（2-3人份）
- 广式腊肠 2根
- 鸡蛋 2个
- 虾米 1汤匙
- 葱 一把
- 韭黄 一把
- 蒜 2瓣
- 红辣椒 2颗
- 蚝油 2汤匙
- 生抽 1汤匙
做法
- 我的处理米粉的方式是用常温水泡软，这样泡出来的米粉比煮过或热水泡的米粉干爽不软塌，一般泡15分钟就可以了；
- 备其他料 – 蛋打散；韭黄和葱切段；腊肠切片；虾米冲洗；蒜和辣椒切片；
- 炒米粉的过程很快。热一点油，把蛋炒熟盛起；
- 镬内放稍微多一点油，开中大火，把腊肠、虾米、蒜和辣椒炒香，推到一边；
- 放入米粉，拨开，先别急着翻动，等底部的米粉煎香，再用筷子和镬铲一起翻炒；
- 放入韭黄、葱、炒蛋，大火翻炒；
- 放蚝油和生抽调味，翻炒均匀即可；
- 最后撒点熟芝麻。有些朋友喜欢吃湿炒的最后会勾一个芡，我比较喜欢吃根根分明的干爽的口感。
Dry sausage is pretty greasy. Any suggestion on substitute please?
Hi, I think you could check your local Asian grocery store, some Chinese/Cantonese sausages are made of lean pork, such as Wing Wah, they have very lean Cantonese sausage. If they are not available in your local Chinese grocery store, you may use Chinese ham / Jinhua ham. Hope this would help.