Easy
recipe which uses one (large) pan and one bowl.
Vegan except for the
oyster sauce, which is easily substituted...
(By the way, I call this "Thai" because of the use of cilantro, chiles, and lime...)
Ingredients:
One package (about 4-5 cups before cooking) chow mein noodles. Cook for three minutes in boiling water, then drain (do this in your fry pan if it's big enough)
A dozen chopped mushrooms (fairly small pieces, a large dice)
One cup thinly sliced cabbage (lke cole slaw)
Two sticks celery, chopped
One half onion, chopped
1/4 cup sunflower seeds or roasted peanuts
One package deep fried tofu (or make your own by deep frying a dozen 1 inch cubes of tofu until golden brown and puffed). Don't use "raw" tofu as it will just flake and fall apart.
4 tbsp dark soy sauce
4 tbsp oyster sauce (or substitute your favourite thick stir-fry sauce)
4 tbsp chili-garlic paste (or to taste, depending on the heat of your paste)
4 thai birds-eye peppers, or 2 jalapenos, thinly sliced (any similar pepper is fine to substitute here)
1/4 cup cilantro, finely chopped
juice of one lime
Peanut Oil
Start heating the fry pan -- you want it VERY hot, close to the maximum setting. Combine in a metal bowl the lime juice, soy sauce, oyster sauce, chili-garlic paste, peppers, peanuts/sunflower seeds, and cilantro. Stir it up -- if it's not liquidy enough add more dark soy (dark soy has less salt/sodium than lighter soy sauces, BTW). Put the bowl right on a stove element or over the flame and get it to a boil (use a small saucepan if you don't have metal bowls, but this is the easy method!)
When the pan is HOT, add 2-3 tablespoons of peanut oil, then add the well-drained noodles. Cook 2-3 minutes until the noodles start to brown, flip the whole thing over, and cook another 3 minutes. Transfer to a platter.
Add another couple of tablespoons of peanut oil to the hot pan. Add the onion, celery, and cabbage, and sprinkle lightly with salt. Stir-fry about 2 minutes on very high heat until it all starts to wilt. Add the mushrooms and again stir-fry for close to 2 minutes until the mushrooms have given off a bit of water. Add the tofu and fry the stuff for another minute. Finally add the sauce, mix the whole shebang together, and cook about 1 minute longer.
Pour the vegetable and tofu mixture over the noodles and serve. Serves 4 peckish or 3 hungry people.
Followup: this reheats very well! Mmmm!