Cook this classic Chinese dish made of silky glass noodles tossed with crunchy Napa cabbage in a flavourful braising sauce. It is quick, tasty and filling!
1tablespoonoyster saucesee note 2 for vegan substitutes
120gwaterabout ½ cup
Instructions
Prepare
Put the dried noodles into a large bowl. Add hot water and leave to soak for 5 minutes until they become pale and pliable but still hard to break with nails (see note 3). Rinse under running water to cool. Drain well then set aside.
Tear the leafy part of the napa cabbage into pieces, then cut the firm white part into strips.
Stir-fry
Add oil and whole Sichuan pepper to a cold wok (frying pan/skillet). Over low heat, toast the peppercorn until you see intense bubbles appear and smell its fragrance. Use a spatula to remove it from the wok leaving the oil in the wok.
Turn up the heat to medium-high. Add dried chilli pepper, garlic and scallions (leave some for garnishing later). Fry until the garlic turns lightly golden on the edge.
Put in the white part of the napa cabbage. Stir fry for 30 seconds or so. Add light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, oyster sauce and water.
Toss to evenly distribute the seasoning, then put in the leafy part of the cabbage and the noodles.
Braise
Mix well then cover with a lid. Leave to cook over medium heat for about 4 minutes. The cooking liquid should be fully absorbed by the noodles at this point (if not, cook a little longer uncovered).
Sprinkle the remaining scallions to garnish. Serve warm on its own, or as part of a multi-dish meal with steamed rice.
Notes
1. You may use round or flat shaped sweet potato noodles or potato noodles. If you have trouble sourcing these two types, use mung bean vermicelli (Fen Is/粉丝) to substitute. Since it’s much easier to cook, reduce the cooking time accordingly. 2. You may replace the regular oyster sauce with vegetarian stir-fry sauce (素食蚝油), or mushroom vegetarian stir-fry sauce (香菇素食蚝油).3. If using flat sweet potato noodles or potato noodles, you’d need to soak them for about 10 minutes.