I love the way Tracey asks me to cook her something special.
“You make this for me,” said my wife at Chin Chin in Melbourne recently, “and you can do whatever you want with my body.”
From the first mouthful of this dish all conversation refocused itself around what was in it and how I was going to reproduce it.
“It’s the sauce,” said Tracey.
“No, it’s the noodles,” I told my wife. It was like we were performing a poor parody of the old KFC ads. “They’re perfect in it.”
“So you know how to make it?”
“Nope.”
Luckily for me, as well as being a great restaurant, I discovered on our way out the door Chin Chin also sells a cook book with their best recipes in it.
“That’s cheating,” said Tracey cheekily when I handed over $50 to the cashier.
“Do you care?”
“Nope.”
You will need:
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 shallots, sliced thin
600g steak (I used rump) *
2 eggs
1 packet of cheong fun (fresh rolled rice noodles), separated
2 tablespoons soy sauce
a handful of Chinese greens**
2 tablespoons kecap manis (sweet soy sauce – ABC)
2 tablespoons oyster sauce
large pinch white pepper
1 small knob ginger, julienned
handful of fresh coriander
* recipe actually calls for wagyu beef chuck cooked in master stock for 6 hours. Thankfully it had a recipe hack at the bottom with this alternative which will save you…umm let’s see…6 hours.
** I used 2 bok choys cut lengthwise and half a dozen sliced snow peas, but recipe called for 2 stems of gai lan – Chinese broccoli – cut into 5cm pieces.
STEP ONE: Grill steak to medium-rare, then slice thinly and set aside.
STEP TWO: Toss shallots into the wok with half a cup of vegetable oil, and then turn on the heat. Stir the shallots in the oil until they go golden. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain well on absorbent paper. Set aside.
STEP THREE: Crack the two eggs into the oil in the wok and give a stir. They’re done when the oil starts to foam.
STEP FOUR: Add noodles and soy sauce and stir until the noodles soften.
STEP FIVE: Add the Chinese vegetables, kecap manis and oyster sauce. Stir the whole thing for a couple of minutes – until sauces caramelize.
NOTE FROM RECIPE BOOK: this dish is a dry stir-fry, like pad thai, so sauces need to reduce and be absorbed.
STEP SIX: Remove from heat and add slices of steak and toss through.
STEP SEVEN: Season with pepper and ginger.
STEP EIGHT: Garnish with coriander and those golden shallots.
STEP NINE: Consult the Karma Sutra to pick out your reward.
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~ raising a family on little more than laughs ~
