I am busy writing four important chapters for my Ph.D. which needs to be done in the next six months. This does not leave a lot of time for cooking and experimentation.
I cannot remember when last I tried a new dish. But in the last couple of weeks, I have made the same dish over and over again: a sweet and sour ginger and chicken noodles dish. With small differences here and there, I have in some sense perfected this dish. It took me 30 minutes to make, a much-needed break from all of the reading and writing; 30 minutes to just unwind a bit.
In this 30-minute break, I made this dish in three different steps. In this post, I want to share with you how I made it with some tips and tricks on cooking it. This is by no means something revolutionary, it is by no means healthy, but it is something really easy and quick to make and it is dirt cheap!
So, please follow along as I make this dish in these three easy steps.
Ingredients/Recipe
In this dish, I used simple and cheap ingredients I am sure you can find in any store. For the main ingredients, I used:
- Two-minute noodles,
- Leftover chicken,
- Ginger,
- Onion,
- Zucchini,
- Green pepper,
- Broccoli, and
- Broccoli stem.
For the quick and easy sauce, I used:
- Lemon juice,
- Vinegar,
- Soya sauce, and
- Two teaspoons of sugar.
Method in Three Steps
As noted, the recipe consists of three easy steps. Firstly, I mix the sauce; secondly, I cook the noodles; and lastly, I cook the whole dish.
Step one: Make the Sauce
The sauce is very simple and can be a very basic base for some more complex sauces.
I mix two teaspoons of sugar with lemon juice, vinegar, and soya sauce. I set it aside in order for the sugar to dissolve.
Step two: Cook the Noodles
I have been cooking two-minute noodles in the same way for more than 15 years now. I think I started with I was 10/11 years old. I have, in my opinion, perfected the art of cooking two-minute noodles in the way I like it. This is not to say that everyone should cook noodles like this or that this is the only way to cook noodles. Not at all. This is just the way I cook them and the way I fell in love with.
I start by adding just enough boiling water to cover the noodles which I broke into smaller pieces into a microwave-safe dish.
I microwave the noodles for about 2 minutes (depending on your microwave) and give them a quick stir around. I place them back in the microwave for 1 minute. (Funny, I should have called it the three-minute noodles!)
They are perfect! In my opinion, that is. They are sticky, the sauce is thick, and some of the edges have caramelized a bit.
Step three: Cook the Dish
Now that the sauce is made and the noodles as well, we can begin to cook the dish itself!
I begin my prepping the vegetables. I cut them into quasi-julienne strips. This makes for the best shape with the noodles. I have tried cubes and smaller pieces, but that was not good. I try to make all of the pieces the same size. The trick will be to cook the vegetables so that they get charred in the hot oil but not be overcooked and soft. I prefer and like charred crispy vegetables.
I do this by adding them to a wok with very hot oil. The initial heat in the pan will potentially “burn” some of the veggies. At this stage, I only add the onion, ginger, broccoli stem, and green pepper.
When you have some charring on these veggies, I add the zucchini and broccoli. I cook this for less than a minute.
I then add the already-cooked noodles. Be careful, they tend to stick to the bottom of the hot pan!
I then finish the dish with the sauce. The pan should still be extremely hot so that the sauce can caramelize a bit as well. Beware when you use non-stick pans. Sugar that burns to the pan is a nightmare to clean.
Eat and Enjoy!
The dish is done! It is really that easy and quick to make this dish. It is really tasty as well! But tasty does not always equate to healthy. But it does not have to be expensive to make it tasty. This dish is extremely cheap to make.
And, if I could do a quick pricing, this would cost less than $1.5 to make. One USD in my currency is almost R20. The noodles cost less than R5; the vegetables (because we buy in bulk) cost less than R5; the sauces and sugar (also bought in bulk) are also about R5; the leftover chicken will be the most expensive, but I used so little it will not be more than R10. If you also take into account that it makes two helpings, it will cost between $0.5-0.8 per serving, which is extremely cheap in my opinion.
But, this is not the healthiest dish ever. The noodles can be substituted for more vegetables. I could have added some carrots as well and maybe some pineapple; there is no need to add the noodles at all! One can make this vegan/vegetarian/plant-based as well. All in all, this is to me such a nice basic and plain dish that you can creatively fill in to make it more interesting. Think maybe a fennel bulb and coconut base, or a pineapple and coconut one, or even just lemon grass! The possibilities are really endless. So please make this recipe your own and experiment with me! Cooking is after all about experimentation.
I hope you enjoyed this recipe. Have you done something similar? Happy cooking, and stay well!
The recipe in this post is my own creation; it is basically an amalgamation of different things I have done throughout the years. The photographs used are also my own, taken with my iPhone.