Beef Hokkien Noodles
Charlie is the name I have given to my All Purpose Chinese Stir Fry Sauce. That’s how fond I am of him – I’ve named him. Charlie – as in Charlie Brown. Everybody say boo, how unoriginal!! 😉 You might laugh that I’ve named him but you won’t laugh if you try him. He’s becoming FAMOUS!!! He’s now not only one of the all time most popular recipes here on RecipeTin Eats, he’s got an entire six page spread in Super Food Ideas Magazine! I know Charlie isn’t beautiful. He’s a rather unassuming brown sauce, he looks rather unappetising actually, especially when he’s been in the fridge for a few weeks and he’s separated into layers. Unattractive he may be. But he’s packed with super powers because of his versatility, convenience and how darn delicious he is, even if you do nothing but add water to him in a stir fry. Who would have ever thought that a plain brown sauce would be sitting in the fridge of hundreds and thousands, if not millions, of households around the world? And now, he’s in SUPER FOOD IDEAS magazine!!! Five brand new recipes created using Charlie that I made especially and exclusively for the March issue of Super Food Ideas which just hit the stands! I think you’ll be pretty amazed at the range of dishes that can be made using Charlie. Stir fries and noodles are the obvious ones. But he can also be used as:
A sauce – like in the Pan Fried Chinese Fish recipe (middle right above) and the saucy prawn stir fry on crispy noodles (3rd from the right);For a speedy fried rice – I made a Speedy Pork Fried rice for the magazine (far right); andSoup! Pictured above is a Chinese Chicken & Corn Soup I made using Charlie (2nd from the right).
I was really, really torn about which recipe to share. I decided to go with the Spicy Hokkien Noodles because it’s a staple in my midweek meal repertoire. I very rarely follow this recipe exactly, I substitute the beef for whatever proteins I have – or even go meat free – and use whatever vegetables I have. Literally – anything. I even used fennel once. It was darn tasty actually! I love stir fried noodles because it’s a complete meal made in one pot (or skillet!) – no need to make a separate side of rice. My favourites that are in heavy rotation include Chicken Rice Noodles, Chicken Vegetable Ramen Noodles, Pad See Ew, Beef Broccoli Noodles and Chow Mein. This recipe makes enough for 4 people so I use the method of cooking the ingredient in batches, then bringing it all together at the end. The reason I do this is because otherwise the wok gets too full and the vegetables and beef will stew rather than be crisp and just cooked which is how they should be for stir fries. As with all stir fries, once you start cooking it all comes together very quickly so have everything chopped and ready to go. Are you ready for a quick dinner? Make up some Charlie to have on standby, then you’re just 20 minutes away from this! – Nagi x That’s right. Your cheerful local Chinese restaurant is using economical stewing beef to make stir fries with ultra tender strips of beef by tenderising it! Find out how to use this simple, highly effective method: How to Tenderise Beef (the Chinese way). This is optional only, when wanting to make stir fries with economical beef or you simply want extra tender beef, Chinese restaurant style!
