Lo Mein
Ingredients
- 3 L water (as needed to boil noodles)
- Sauce Mix:
- 1.5 T soy sauce
- 1 T oyster sauce
- 1 T hoisin sauce
- 1/2 T sesame oil
- 1/8 t five spice powder
- The Rest:
- 1/2 lb pork (original calls for boneless country-style pork ribs, trimmed of surface fat and excess gristle and sliced crosswise into 1/8" pieces)
- 1/2 t Corn Starch / Corn Flour
- 1/4 c water
- 1/2 t minced garlic
- 1 t grated ginger (fresh)
- vegetable oil (divided: 1/4 tsp + 2 tsp + 1 tsp)
- 2 T rice wine (Chinese rice wine, or dry sherry)
- 1/4 lb mushrooms (shitake, stems trimmed, caps cut in halves or thirds)
- 6 green onion (whites thinly sliced and greens cut into 1" pieces)
- 100 g shredded bok choy
- 6 oz dried lo mein (see note for alternatives)
- 1/2 T Asian chile garlic sauce
Method
1. Bring water to a boil in Dutch oven over high heat. Once boiling, cover and keep at a simmer until you add the noodles in step 6.
2. Whisk sauce ingredients together in medium bowl. Place 3 Tablespoons of it in a quart-sized zipper-lock bag; add pork (and 1/8 tsp liquid smoke, if using). Press out as much air as possible and seal bag, making sure that all pieces are coated with marinade. Refrigerate at least 15 minutes or up to 1 hour.
3. Whisk water and cornstarch into remaining soy sauce mixture in medium bowl; set aside. In separate small bowl, mix garlic and ginger with 1/4 teaspoon vegetable oil; set aside.
4. While pork marinates, prepare your vegetables. Once pork is marinated and vegetables are prepped, proceed.
5. Heat 2 tsp vegetable oil in 12-inch cast-iron or nonstick skillet over high heat until just smoking. Add pork in single layer, breaking up clumps with wooden spoon. Cook, without stirring, 1 minute. Continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until browned, 2 to 3 minutes. Add 2 T rice vinegar to skillet; cook, stirring constantly, until liquid is reduced and pork is well coated, 30 to 60 seconds. Transfer pork to medium bowl and set aside.
6. Stir noodles into boiling water. Cook, stirring occasionally, until noodles are tender, 10 minutes for dried noodles or 3 to 4 minutes for fresh Chinese noodles.
7. Return skillet to high heat, add 1 t vegetable oil, and heat until just smoking. Add mushrooms and cook, stirring occasionally, until light golden brown, 4 to 6 minutes.
8. Add green onions and continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until wilted, 1 to 2 minutes longer; transfer vegetables to bowl with pork.
9. Add remaining teaspoon vegetable oil and bok choy to now-empty skillet; cook, stirring occasionally, until spotty brown, 2 to 4 minutes.
10. While noodles cook, once bok choy is cooked, clear center of skillet; add garlic-ginger mixture and cook, mashing mixture with spoon, until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Stir garlic mixture into bok choy; return pork-vegetable mixture and chicken broth-soy mixture to skillet; simmer until thickened and ingredients are well incorporated, 1 to 2 minutes. Remove skillet from heat.
11. Drain noodles and transfer back to Dutch oven; add cooked stir-fry mixture and garlic-chili sauce, tossing noodles constantly, until sauce coats noodles. Serve immediately.
Notes
Notes from Source:
Noodles for Lo Mein: Developing the recipe for our Pork Stir-Fry with Noodles, we discovered that not any old noodle will do.
BEST BET: The slightly dry and curly fresh egg noodles labeled “lo mein” from an Asian market boasted firm texture and the best flavor.
BEST ALTERNATIVE: Dried linguine, though not authentic, offered a firm chewiness similar to lo mein.
NO THANKS: Vacuum-packed fresh noodles from the grocery store labeled “Chinese-style” were gummy and pasty.
SJ Note 8 Aug 2010: The flavor of this was really good! But entirely too much cabbage, so I've reduced that a lot, and we'll definitely use bok choy instead of cabbage next time. I've increased the pasta, as well. We didn't use the liquid smoke, of course, but I've left it in in case others don't projectile vomit after consuming it, and wish to use it.