- I'm Jeffrey Pang. - I'm Kevin Pang. Call your neighbors, call your relatives, invite everyone over because
today we're gonna teach you how to make:
- Stir fried noodles. - And it's going to be-
- Awesome. - It's gonna be awesome. (energetic music beginning) (energetic music ending) (upbeat music beginning) Last season on Hunger Pangs, our most popular episode
by far was fried rice. Not surprisingly. And this season, my dad and
I are gonna make another stir fried, starchy
deliciousness, stir fried noodles. Now you can call it lo mein, chow mein call it whatever you want. We like to call it stir fried noodles, and it's gonna be delicious. Now, dad, there are many
many different types of Chinese noodles out there, right? - The northern China, the
white noodle is more popular, and the southern China, they
use a lot of yellow noodles. And today we are going to use the yellow wheat flour noodles. - So we're gonna use
yellow wheat flour noodles, and you can find this in Chinatown, very inexpensive and
it's readily available. This is super easy to find.
- Yes. - Now we're gonna incorporate
the flavors of char siu, which is barbecued pork that
you can find in Chinatown. Now, the reason that we're
not using takeout char siu, first of all, you might not
live near a Chinatown, right? But second and more importantly, we're gonna be incorporating those flavors of the marinade into the
noodle sauce themselves. So we're gonna make a marinade, and it's gonna taste pretty
close to the real thing. So we're gonna start with
three tablespoons of soy sauce. We're gonna put this in the bowl here. We have two tablespoons of oyster sauce. We also have two
tablespoons of hoisin sauce. This is gonna add that
sweetness to the marinade. We have a tablespoon
of toasted sesame oil. And lastly, this is a quarter
teaspoon of five spice powder. (upbeat music playing) And we're gonna whisk everything together. (whisk scraping) And now my dad has a
pound of country style, boneless pork ribs, and this
is sliced pretty thinly, right? - It's about an eighth of an inch. - Eighth of an inch thick.
- Yes. - So we're gonna put
this into a Ziploc bag and we're gonna marinate this.
- Okay. (chopsticks clicking) - And to that, we're gonna add three
tablespoons of this marinade. - Two. Three. (laughing) - Perfect. Now this next
part is completely optional, but don't skip out on this, it makes all the difference in the world. This is liquid smoke. You smell that? - Like char siu? - Yeah, a little bit like
char siu, it gives it that really wonderful
woodsy, smokey flavor. This is a quarter
teaspoon of liquid smoke, and we're gonna add
this into the marinade. We'll give it a stir, and
this will need to marinate for at least 15 minutes,
but no more than an hour. I told you this marinade is
gonna be part of our sauce, and so we're going to add chicken broth. How much are we using here? - This is half cup of the chicken broth. - Half cup of chicken broth. (broth trickling) And we're also going to add
a teaspoon of corn starch. And what does this corn
starch do for the sauce? - So the corn starch is
to make the sauce silky. - Yeah, it makes it really silky. It gives it that very luscious feel. We use corn starch all the time, we're- - All the time for Chinese cooking. - And we're gonna let it hang there. Great. All right.
(bowl clattering) Now we also have two
cloves of minced garlic. And to that, we are going
to add two teaspoons of freshly grated ginger,
(spoon clattering) and we have half a
teaspoon of vegetable oil. (dishes clattering) Mix everything together,
let that hang out. And meanwhile, I'm gonna put the pork in the fridge, once again, let it marinate for at least 15 minutes, but no more than an
hour, I'll be right back. (energetic music playing) Now we're gonna prep the
vegetables and like the fried rice, you can use any vegetables
that you can find in the fridge, right? - Yeah. Open the fridge
to see any left over. - Now, today we're using
fresh shiitake mushrooms. These have been cleaned and trimmed, cut in half or into one third pieces. We also have two bunches of scallions. The green parts have been
cut into one inch pieces, like this, and the white
part are thinly sliced. Okay? Now we also have cabbage today. We're using napa cabbage, but really you can use any
type of cabbage, right? - Yeah. You can use a savoy
cabbage or the red cabbage. - [Kevin] Yeah. This recipe calls for one small napa cabbage. Unfortunately the ones that we
found are totally humongous. So we're only using one half,
but, and it looks like a lot, but I promise you, this is going to wilt, and it's going to
disappear into the noodles. So Dad, can you show me, how do you cut and prepare this cabbage? - Okay. So you take out the core, - Take out the core first. Okay. - Like the V-shape.
(knife clattering) Pull out.
- [Kevin] Take out the core. - [Jeffrey] And turn it,
and cut into the half. (bowl clanging)
(cabbage crunching) And then you cut into
half inch of the strip. - Okay. - [Jeffrey] So like this. (knife thudding) All right. - Beautiful. Now, again, this looks
like a ton of cabbage, but I promise you, this will
reduce into nothing at all. All right. We've got all our veg prep and
now it's time to get cooking. (energetic music playing) The pork has been marinating
for about half an hour. We have the wok, we've got
a teaspoon of vegetable oil, and we're gonna turn this up to high heat, and we're gonna be cooking
this in two batches. And the key here is we
really want the pork to get a good sear and a
good color on it. Okay? - Can you see the smoke?
- Yep. - It's times you put the pork. - Okay. Let me put half the pork in. - Yeah.
(pork hissing) - Woo!
- Okay. - And we want this in a single layer. The presentational part of
Chinese cooking is so important. The color, the texture, that's important. Right?
- Yeah. - And so a lot of times, you really wanted to let it hang out, resist the urge to touch it. Patience truly is the key. It's been about a minute. Now I can finally give it a stir. Look at that beautiful color
that we're getting on here, right?
(pork sizzling) And at this point, how much longer does
will this need to cook? - It's about two to three minutes. - Two to three minutes. Great. Get all the sides here. - Yes. See, looks beautiful. - It's been two to three
minutes, but we're not done yet. Right? - I think now's the time
to add the shaoxing wine. - Okay. We have two
tablespoons of shaoxing wine, and now you want to stir
constantly for about 30 seconds. Okay?
- Yes. (wine hissing)
Not more than that. (spoon scraping) (Jeffrey laughing) - You smell that? Yeah. This is the smell
of Chinese cooking, right? - Smell like char siu. (laughing) - It does smell a little
bit like char siu. We use shaoxing wine a lot for
marinades for cooking, right? - Yes.
- Yeah. - For Chinese cooking. - Yeah. It's a glutinous rice wine, and this is really the key to so much of good Chinese
cooking is using shaoxing wine. If you don't have it, you
can also use a dry sherry, but shaoxing wine is so readily available. You can get it for like
under $10 at any supermarket. All right. This looks done. We're gonna put this in the bowl, and we're gonna repeat
this with the second batch. (air whooshing)
(upbeat music playing) The pork's been cooked. We wipe the wok clean
with the paper towel. There's a lot of like
sugary gunk on there. We don't want it to
taste like burnt. Right? So we're gonna put this back on high heat. And my dad's going to add
another teaspoon of oil, vegetable oil, back into the wok. And now we're gonna cook the veg. We have the shiitake mushrooms. And then we also have
the scallions as well. You might also be wondering
why we're cooking this separately. Well, the
reason is the vegetables and the meat cook at different rates. And if you throw everything
into a wok all at once, it's gonna turn into a big bowl of mush, and we don't want that. We want it to retain the
texture and the flavor. And we don't want the meat to dry out. - Now you can see the liquids coming out. - Yep. And it's shrinking
considerably, right? - Yeah.
- All right. The more liquid it comes out, the more intensely flavorful
the mushrooms are gonna be. - This looks good. Let's add the scallions. - Okay. Let's add the scallions. - Yes. - Those in here, and the whites,
which we've sliced thinly, and this will take
another two minutes or so to wilt and cook down. - It looks okay now. I think we need to combine
with the pork right now. - Great. Okay. (wok clattering) (spoon scraping) - Okay.
- Great. We're gonna bring the
wok back up to high heat. And as always, we are going to add a teaspoon of oil into the wok and wait until it gets smoking. With the napa, it's gonna take
about three to five minutes. We're looking for it to
turn spotty brown, right? - Yes. - So we're going to add this into the wok. (oil hissing) Great. You were telling me
that when you were young, when you were like five,
six years old, your mother, my grandma, would take you to the market. And then afterwards she
would always buy you noodles. - But that's a wonton noodles. - Oh, that's wonton noodles? (laughing) - Wonton noodles, not
the stir-fried noodles. - But it's still noodles.
- Still noodles. It's a yellow noodle. - You should call you the king of noodles. - Okay. (laughing)
- Is that a good nickname? - Just like you, like king of the chicken. - I'm the king of chicken
and he's the king of noodles. - Okay. (laughing)
- Great. All right.
(cabbage sizzling) This is looking good. You can start to see
that, you see that we're starting to get a little bit of color? That's what we're looking for. A little bit of color, and this is gonna take
maybe another minute or so. - Yeah. - Next, we're gonna make a hole in the center of this wok. And you remember the ginger garlic mixture that we have earlier? We're gonna add this to
the center, just like that. (spoon rattling) Now, this does not take long. It takes about 30 seconds, but mostly you want it to get aromatic. As soon as you can start
smelling the ginger and garlic, you know it's done. You can help it along by just pressing it, mashing it, just like that. Okay. Now it's getting really aromatic. Now we're gonna stir everything together- - Mm-hmm.
- like this. (vegetables hissing)
(wok rattling) Now, as soon as this is ready,
we're gonna add the mushroom and the pork and the scallions
back into the wok, like this. - Yes.
- Okay. (bowl rattling) Dump the whole thing in there.
- Yes. - Get all that beautiful sauce. We don't want to waste it. And at the same time, we're
gonna add the chicken broth and the marinade with
the corn starch in it. Add it into it.
(broth hissing) - Ooh. (laughing) - Look at that. And now won't you stir this here? And this will take about a minute. I mean, the sauce is almost gone. It's starting to bubble up, and soon as you start to see it bubble up, - Yeah.
- You turn it off. You take it off the heat,
and now comes the most important part of stir
fried noodles, the noodles. (energetic music beginning)
(dishes clattering) we got a Dutch oven, four
quarts of water boiling. And we have these fresh
Chinese noodles. Right? How long should this take to cook? - About four minutes. - Four minutes. Okay.
- Yeah. - Look at the packaging. What you don't want to do is overcook it. This is not like dried pasta,
- Yes. - where it's gonna take like
10 to 12 minutes to cook. - Yes.
- Refer to the packaging. If you overcook this,
- It will turn gummy. - Yeah. It'll turn gummy.
- Yeah. - You don't want that, right? - Yeah.
- Great. Okay. So let's leave this
here for a few more minutes. - Yeah. You need to stir sometimes, okay? Otherwise they will stick together. - Yeah. You don't want it to get clumpy. - Yeah.
- Great. And how can you tell when
the noodles are done? - You can tell by the size of noodle, they will be a little bit thicker. - Yeah.
- Expanding. - Yeah. But you don't
want it to get too thick, because otherwise that's
when it gets soft and gummy, you don't want that, right?
- Yeah yeah. - Now meanwhile, I've got
the pork, the vegetables. I've got it on just the barest of heat. It's still warm. And we're gonna be transferring this from the Dutch oven into the wok here. Now, normally, if you have a
spider skimmer, that's great. Otherwise, you want to dump
this into a colander, drain it. You don't really want any water,
any moisture left in this. You want this to be fairly dry by the time it goes into the wok. Let's get the noodles
into the pork and veg. Show me what do you do? Because you have a sort
of a very interesting way of a stir frying this. - (laughs) Okay. - [Kevin] So what you have is you've got this extra
long pair of chopsticks. - Yes. - You usually have two
pairs of chopsticks, right? And show me what you're doing. - Yeah. You need to toss all
the ingredients and noodles. (stir fry sizzling) Let them combined together. - Yeah.
- Look at this. - You're getting the sauce to start- - Yeah. - sticking to the noodles, right? - [Jeffrey] Yes. Let the
ingredient go inside the noodles. - [Kevin] Yeah. You're
folding all the meat and the vegetables into the noodles. - Yes.
- This looks great. And just for good measure, we're gonna add some chili garlic sauce. This is a tablespoon. I'm gonna add that into it. If you don't have chili garlic sauce, you can use sambal or sriracha as well. But we like chili garlic sauce. This looks absolutely delicious. Beautiful.
(Jeffrey laughing) Look at the sauce. It's
just enrobing the noodles. It smells great. - So you just don't have
char siu inside, right? - We don't have char siu, but
it actually smells like it. Right?
- Yes! (laughing) It smells very smoky. Yeah. This is great. All right. Now we're ready to serve. And this is a two man job here. So take some of these noodles. Pile it- oh, goodness me. (upbeat music playing) Presentation is so key here. When it comes to Chinese cooking, really for all types of cooking,
we're putting the toppings on top to make it look more bountiful. Like there's more meats
and vegetables, right? And that's it folks, stir fried noodles. Just like it came from a restaurant. - Do you know why this is the best? - Why is this the best? - Because son and father cook together. - Oh gosh. - Let's eat.
- Okay. My favorite command. I know you like mushrooms. - Napa. - I know you like napa. You see, the napa has
practically disappeared. You can take that. I'll take mine as well too. - You get more? - Yeah. It's okay,
right? I'm a growing boy. (Jeffrey laughing)
I need my energy. All right, let's try this. Why don't we take a bite. (Kevin chewing) This is great. The noodles, not overcooked, right? The sauce, not too intense. What do you think? - The shiitake mushroom
is very, very good. - [Kevin] The flavors are
just, I mean, it's really, really intense. This is why we cooked it for a long time, for about five minutes,
because it really shrinks down. You saw how thick they
were to begin with, right? But this is shrunk down and
it's absorbed all that sauce and all that flavor, right? - Yeah. Tastes char siu, but
no char siu. (laughing) - Taste like char siu
the barbecue pork, right? If you taste this, it's
got this sweet, savory, a little bit of smokey flavor. This is a dish that you
really can use anything or everything from the pantry
or in your refrigerator. The key though is don't
cook it all at once, layer at a time. And that's how you get really
great stir fried noodles. (air whooshing) So what's your favorite noodle dish? Let us know in the comments below. And for this recipe, go to America's test kitchen.com/pang,
or scan this QR code. - Thanks for watching, please
like this video and subscribe. (upbeat music playing)
