Lunch Decisions - Egg & Chicken Hakka Noodles

-
Every day, I struggle to bring variety to lunch. I have practiced and perfected certain recipes like moong dal khichdi, chicken masala, gizzards curry, etc. But repetition is never good. So every three days or so, I try to whip up something different - I don't mean a new recipe invention here, just some recipe which is not my regular go-to. Of course, I have to take a look at what ingredients I have on hand. Sometimes, you have a great idea but not enough of the ingredients needed. Lately, I have managed to stock up on most dry ingredients whereas, for vegetables and perishables, I prefer to buy them in small quantities so that they don't go bad by the time I circle around to them. 

I have been a picky eater for as long as I can remember. So my usual selection of vegetables are carrots, beans, peas, bitter-gourd (something I developed a taste for, a little late in life), and the occasional cauliflower and cabbage. Most of the days, I mix it up with eggs or chicken. My staple grain of choice is rice and I mostly prefer moong dal or masoor dal on most days. Apart from these, I buy a ton of ready mixes, gourmet spices, and powders. I bought a bunch of noodles a while ago to make chowmein and stuff - but I was still cooking on an induction cooktop at that point and that wasn't conducive for Chinese dishes. So I gave up on those noodle packets and they have been lying in storage ever since.

So circling back to today morning - I woke up a little late and while I brushed my teeth, I kept thinking of what I should make for lunch. A part of me just wanted to make instant noodles and be done with it - but I feel guilty having so much refined flour in my diet. Then I noticed all the noodle packets and I wondered if I had enough veggies to make decent Hakka noodles. These are the vegetables I had in my fridge - carrots, french beans, cauliflower, sweet corn, chillies. I didn't have capsicum, cabbage, or spring onions which are recommended for the dish but I guessed I could make do. Soya sauce, chilli sauce and MSG were also available - so the decision was made.

EGG & CHICKEN HAKKA NOODLES (Today's Variant)

List of Ingredients - 

Carrots - 1 Cup (Rough Julienne)
Beans - 1/2 Cup (Tiny slices)
Onions - 3 Medium (Thin SLices)
Noodles - 150 gm (Chings Egg Noodles)
Eggs - 3 Nos (Scrambled)
Chicken - 1 Breast (Boiled and Shredded)
Garlic - 4 Cloves (Slices)
Ginger - 1 Inch (Chopped)
Chillies - 2 Nos (Chopped)
Oil - 5 Tbsp (Sunflower)
MSG - 1/2 tsp
Salt & Pepper - To taste
Soya Sauce - 2 Tbsp
Chilli Sauce - 1 Tbsp

Process -

1. I started by cutting all my veggies and keeping them aside. I am a bit of a showman in this part because I like to neatly set my cut veggies in separate bowls.
2. I put the noodles to boil - 2 to 3 minutes and then drain it in a colander and run cold running water through it. Then I spread it in a plate, poured half a spoon of oil and tossed the noodles so that they don't get sticky.
3. Next I put my chicken breast to thaw in the water I had drained out from the noodles.
4. I broke 3 eggs to a pan with some hot oil and scrambled them with a fork till them were soft and fluffly. I set them aside.
5. In the same oil, I tossed around the beans and carrots for a few minutes and kept them aside. 
6. I boiled the chicken in salted water and then roughly chopped it into small pieces. Then I tossed the shredded chicken in the oil and kept it aside.
7. I then peeled and chopped ginger, garlic and chillies as I had forgotten to do the same.
8. I poured oil into a kadhai & heated it for a bit.
9. I tossed in the chopped ginger, garlic and chillies and they simmered. To this, I added the sliced onions and tossed them till the onions turned translucent. (Had this been an Indian dish, I would have let the onions brown, but for this dish, I needed them to retain their crunch.)
10. I then added the partially fried carrots & beans and tossed them around a little.
11. I then added the egg and chicken and sprinkled some salt, pepper powder and MSG. And tossed the whole thing some more.
12. I then added the noodles and poured in some soya sauce and chilli sauce over the noodles.
13. Then I tossed all ingredients till the colour evened out and turned the heat off.

Being someone who likes his food spicy and flavoured, I tend to overdo salt and spices on most days, but today was different. I managed to put everything in moderation and it turned out well. After the dish was done, I washed all the dishes and took a shower - I get drenched in sweat when I cook (the reason why this is a blog and not a YouTube video). The noodles had cooled down a bit and then I poured them onto a plate and dug in. 

The trick in Chinese cooking is the use of a hot pan. All of the cooking has to be done in high heat, so a few things have to be kept in mind - all ingredients have to be kept ready and handy before the final cooking starts. This is why I pre-fried my veggies and chicken too, as the final noodles would have to be executed quickly and I couldn't wait for my veggies to cook in the wok. To be honest, the final product turned out oilier than I wanted it to be but that's something I will improve the next time. I have posted the picture of the noodles for your reference.

Hopefully, this recipe would help all the amateur cooks and foodies out there. Stay tuned to this space - I intend to post more recipes to the "Lunch Decisions" series.

Comments

  1. Instant Noodles ManufacturerJanuary 12, 2022 at 3:25 AM

    It is what I was searching for is really informative.Penang Laksa Instant Ramen It is a significant and useful article for us. Thankful to you for sharing an article like this.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

If you love this blog, let us know!!!

Popular posts from this blog

Why Fighting Propaganda is an Uphill Battle

-
Image
I am an atheist from a Hindu Brahmin family. I do not like the BJP and their Hindutva agenda. I do not like Islam. I do not like Christianity. I do not like any religion. But I grew up learning about Hinduism – I thought the spiritual lessons of karma and doing good deeds were good lessons and worth following. I was not raised in a household that pushed any religion onto me – I was taught that all religions essentially teach the same thing – be good, do good. My earliest understanding of religion was that it was a practice in moral science aimed at keeping people kind and honest. “Who is the main God?” I once asked my folks, since my grandma’s pooja place had pictures of several gods. My grandfather explained it to me like this: “They are all the same. It is the human imagination that is unable to comprehend the concept of a creator and hence we choose to visualize them as Brahma, Vishnu & Maheshwar – with each entity handling a different task in the Universe. We have assigned name...
Read more

Instant Connection. Or Not?

-
Image
Love stories through the years have led you to believe that all connections are instant and sudden. That people just fall in love at first sight, and live happily ever after. If you're older than twenty years of age, chances are that you're already disillusioned with that notion. You know better than to believe that fairy tales exist. You have lived the "real life" where meeting new people is a tedious task, putting yourself out there feels like a real burden and liking someone, genuinely liking someone doesn't come easily.  So when Ishika and Siddhant met for the first time, neither of them was naive or inexperienced enough to believe in 'love at first sight' or anything remotely similar to it. They had both had their own share of relationships and heartbreaks and were just exploring something new. Ishika in fact had no intention for it to be anything more than an evening out with a new guy. Siddhant was cautiously optimistic. Blind dates hadn'...
Read more

Juice Review: Raw Pressery 100% Valencia Orange

-
Image
It all started for me a few days ago when I added Raw Pressery’s Sugarcane juice to my shopping cart on Big Basket. It was slightly expensive than all the juices out there, but that didn’t matter to me as it was an impulsive buy. I like to sample new products every now and then. Well, the tall bottle of juice was chilled and sweating when it arrived. That’s usually a good thing with juices. You see if a brand it making an effort to transport a juice in a refrigerated environment, it usually means their product does not have preservatives. Well, I tried it and it was really good. It was a flavor of juice which isn’t commonly bottled by companies. And having it at the roadside thelewala , while refreshing can be a health hazard at times. And the bottle was new and well designed. The cylindrical thick ribbed bottle stood out from the rest. All in all, it left a good impression. So the next time I was surfing Big Basket, I searched for Raw Pressery. I found that they were selling a...
Read more

26th February, 2017 5:30 AM

-
Image
I usually just refer to it as the "accident", but it wasn't an accident at all, was it? It was a case of mob violence. On 26th February, 2017, at 5:30 am, I was almost killed by a group of angry people, armed with sticks and stones. That day changed me forever. And it's the first time in more than two years that I am willing to tell everyone the details of what happened on that fateful morning. I am Rajinder. I hail from the hilly state of Himachal Pradesh. I worked in retail before getting promoted to the marketing department of the brand I work for, back in 2016. I moved to Gurgaon for the job and took up residence at a hostel in Manesar, at a walking distance from my office. Things were going well.  In January of 2017, a new guy called Shammi became my roommate. Shammi had a big personality and everybody took a shine on him instantly. By big, I mean the kind of macho aggressive that young men usually gravitate towards. But I never had any problems with h...
Read more

In The Name of Ram...

-
Image
A while ago, I made a video questioning whether the Indian epics Ramayan and Mahabharat were historical events or mythology. It drew a lot of anger from a lot of people. The thing is – I was not always aware that I was an atheist. There was a time when I prayed to God as well – Lord Shiva actually. But I never believed the stories to be true or historical. I viewed them as mythology – which even if it ever happened, happened in some other realm or alternate reality. Because with what we know about science and our own development, we can safely assume that the magical elements in the holy books of all religions are just not possible. I thought everyone knew this – I thought everyone knew that these were stories – metaphorical mostly and meant to impart a moral lesson to the people. So, it was astonishing when a very close friend of mine became seriously offended because I questioned the authenticity of Mahabharat and hence, Shri Krishna in association.  I tried to reason with him, s...
Read more