Fiery Singapore Noodles

I saw Ching He-Huang make this recipe in an episode of Daily Cooks! on BBC America about a month ago, and I knew I had to try it! Besides the fact that Singapore Noodles is one of my husband's favorite dishes, it has a lot of my favorite ingredients. Turmeric is amazing in its flavor, vibrant color, and health properties. It is like, Super Spice. I love getting the chance to use it :-)

One of the great things about stir fry is that you can customize it however you want. If you don't want this to be spicy at all, omit the chiles! If you want it extra spicy, leave the membranes in when you chop the peppers! Don't have any sesame oil? Leave it out! You get the idea. Never forget that you are the one in charge of what you're cooking, not the recipe. My only tip for making this dish is to get all your prep done before you start cooking it. By which I mean, have all of the elements sitting on the counter next to your range so you can grab them and keep cooking with minimal running around.

1/4 pound shiitake mushrooms, thinly sliced
1/2 pound thin, dried rice noodles
2 tablespoons peanut, corn, or vegetable oil (peanut is best)
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 inch piece of fresh ginger, grated
2 chiles, seeds and membrane removed, finely chopped
1/2 pound shrimp, peeled
2 teaspoons turmeric
4 green onions, finely sliced
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
1 egg, beaten
A couple of pinches crushed red pepper flakes
1/2 teaspoon white pepper (freshly ground black pepper is fine if you don't have white)
A few drizzles of sesame oil

Put the rice noodles in a big bowl and submerge in hot (not boiling) water for 10 minutes. I try to time this right so that the 10 minutes are up when I'm already cooking, so I can pull the noodles out of the bowl with a pair of tongs and put them straight into the skillet.

Heat the peanut oil in a wok or deep skillet over high heat. Throw in the garlic, ginger, and chiles and cook for a minute, until the garlic begins to change color. Add the mushrooms and shrimp and stir until the shrimp turns pink.

Add the turmeric and stir around until everything is coated. Add the noodles to the skillet and use a pair of kitchen shears to randomly snip them several times to shorten the strands--this will make them much easier to work with. Toss together with the shrimp and mushrooms so that everything gets combined.

Toss in the green onions and soy sauce, oyster sauce, and rice wine vinegar. Stir to combine. Pour the beaten egg over the noodles, turn down the heat, and let the eggs set for 30 seconds. Stir gently.

Turn off the heat and sprinkle the crushed red pepper flakes and white pepper over top. Finish with a few drizzles of sesame oil.

Mark Bittman wrote an article in today's New York Times about using shrimp shells to make a simple stock to use in shrimp based dishes. I was going to make some to use in this dish, but I realized too late that I had bought the already peeled shrimp by accident. D'oh! I probably would have thrown in a 1/4 cup or so of the stock at the same time as the sauces. Maybe next time. Let me know if you try it!

Rating: This is awesome
Mmmm, so awesome. Simple cooking with tasty flavors, my favorite kind of food to make and eat. Definitely a keeper! My husband's verdict was that while it tasted good, it wasn't "greasy enough." Uhm, I can live with that, thanks!