Stewed Pork Fried Vermicelli

Growing up, weekends were quite often spent swimming. My mother had an uncle with a swimming pool at his house. In those days, swimming pools in a private home was rare but my granduncle was a successful textile businessman who had a huge house. Fortunately for us, we were welcomed to use their pool any time.

Quite often, my mother would whip up her signature fried vermicelli (or bee hoon as it is known locally) to feed us. I've never not been hungry after a swimming session and I always associate this meal with those childhood memories by the pool.

The characteristic taste of this dish comes mainly from the canned stewed pork used and my family has our favourite brand. The canned pork is either stewed pork chops or stewed pork leg with mushroom and chestnut. The pork chops are healthier because the pork legs come with layers of fat.

Do not be put off by the globules of fat or the layer of oil from the canned meat. The fat can be removed for a healthier option or you can allow it to melt into the noodles when frying it up. The layer of oil can be skimmed off or used as fat to saute the vegetables.


Stewed Pork Fried Vermicelli
serves 4

300-400g dried rice vermicelli or green bean thread
8-10 dried Chinese mushrooms
1 1/2 cups shredded carrot
1 1/2 cups sliced french beans or shredded cabbage
2 cans 14 oz stewed pork chops or pork leg
1 tbsp fish sauce or soy sauce

Soak the vermicelli or bean thread in water until soft then drain. Soak the mushrooms in about 1 cup of water for a couple of hours until soft then remove the stalks and slice up. Save the mushroom liquid for the noodles if it gets too dried out when frying. After opening the cans of stewed pork, spoon out the fat for frying, pour out the rest onto a shallow bowl. Remove the bones and mash up the the meat so that there are no big chunks.
In a wok or large frying pan, saute the vegetables in a bit of vegetable oil or the fat from the stewed pork. When half-cooked, add in the stewed pork and turn down the heat while mixing the ingredients together. Toss in the noodles and turn up the heat, pushing it into the sauce at the bottom of the pan to soak up the flavour as it cooks. Continue stir frying until the noodles are cooked and all the ingredients are well combined. Add in fish sauce or soy sauce to taste.

Serve with cut red chilli or pickled green chilli and dig in!

I'm also submitting this to Ruth at Once upon a Feast for the six-month anniversary or Presto Pasta Nights.

Pesto Calabrese

My favourite pesto to add to pasta is Barilla's Pesto alla Calabrese. Its a spicy creamy sauce that's a little sweet and perfect over fish or shellfish as well. If I'm in a hurry for dinner, I open a bottle of this. If I'm really in a hurry for dinner, I make risoni which cooks quickly and spoons easily into a hungry mouth.

I love it so much that I thought I should try to re-create it on my own. I figured that I could just go by the proportion of ingredients listed on the label and take it from there. The peppers I used were very sweet after being cooked but did not pack any heat so I had to add in a chilli as well. However, I needed more heat so I tossed in some chilli powder too.

I'm also submitting this to Ruth at Once Upon a Feast for Presto Pasta Night #25.


Pesto Calabrese
makes about 3 cups or about 4 servings

2 large red peppers or capsicum
1 small onion
3 tbs olive oil
1 chilli, deseeded
250g or 1 1/2 cups ricotta
100g or 1/2 cup grated pecorino or parmesan
1 tsp salt or more to taste
1 tsp chilli powder (optional)

Chop up the peppers and onion into bite-sized pieces and stir fry with 1 tablespoon of olive oil until cooked. In a food processor, blend together the peppers and onion to get about 1 cup of puree. Continue blending this with the rest of the ingredients. Spoon over cooked pasta or refrigerate until ready to use. Serve with more grated cheese or chopped cilantro.

Verdict: Very close to the bottled version and so easy to make! I mixed cooked peeled prawns into the sauce and had it over the pasta. I'm going to freeze the extra and see of it's still good.

Brown Sauce Noodles (Zhajiang Mian)

Yesterday, I went for lunch at a famous Taiwanese restaurant that has branches all over Asia and the U.S. While the steamed pork dumplings were good, the Zhajiang Mian was rather disappointing. I thought I should be able to do better since I've made it before so I went back to this book.

The author likened this dish to the Chinese equivalent of the Bolognese sauce and I totally agree. Just like making the Bolognese sauce, this is just as easy. That's why I'm submitting this for Presto Pasta Night hosted by Once Upon a Feast. Look out for the round-up!

Getting the right type of noodles is important. The recipe recommended fresh noodles but I could only find the dried versions at my supermarket. Basically, the noodles are the Asian equivalent of pasta, whether fresh or dried. Look out for labels like Shanghai noodles or if all else fails, ramen should also do.

I couldn't find any brown bean sauce as in the recipe so I substituted it with crushed salted soya bean which looked sort of like a brown bean sauce.

Brown Sauce Noodles (Zhajiang Mian)
serves 4

4 tbs crushed salted soya bean

1 tbs hoisin sauce

1/2 cup chicken stock

1 tsp sugar

1 tbs vegetable oil

1 cup spring onions (including white part), chopped

1 tbs garlic, finely chopped

500g (1 lb) minced pork

300g dried Shanghai noodles

1 cucumber, cut into long matchsticks

Mix the crushed soya beans, hoisin sauce, stock and sugar. Heat the oil in a wok and fry the garlic and 3/4 cup of the spring onions until the garlic is starting to brown. Add the pork and stir fry. When pork is almost cooked through, add in the bean mixture, reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes.

Cook the noodles in boiling water for 4-5 minutes. Drain and divide into serving bowls.

Serve the sauce over the cooked noodles together with the remaining spring onions and cucumber matchsticks.

Verdict: The sauce was quite salty but it went down well with the noodles and cucumber. Do a taste test and add more water, hoisin sauce or sugar accordingly. This was SO much better than the one at the restaurant and I'm glad I got that craving settled.