Stir fried Cats Ear Noodle
Stir fried Cats Ear Noodle
I can imagine what you are thinking. Oh no, an Eastern person has cooked her cat! Don’t worry, our cat Popo still has his ears. Cat’s ears noodles is an interesting dish with an interesting story behind it.
During the Qing Dynasty, one day the Qianlong Emperor dressed himself as an ordinary person and travelled to West Lake, Hangzhou. He hired a ship and travelled along the West Lake.
Suddenly the weather turned really horrible. It was raining really heavily so they, it’s raining heavily, so they had to stop of the lake until the weather improved and they could continue their journey. However the rain continued and the emperor felt really hungry so he asked the old boatman for some food to eat.
The old boatman told him: “I have some flour but I don’t have a rolling pin to make noodles for you”. When they didn’t know what to do the boatman’s daughter, who was holding a pretty little kitten in her arms, told the boatman “it’s ok that we don’t have a rolling pin, I can use my hands to make noodles”. After she had finished making the noodles, the old old boatman cooked these noodles and mixed it with some sauce and gave Qianlong a bowl of noodle to eat. Qianlong had a bite of the noodle and was surprise about how tasty this noodle was. So he asked the boatman’s daughter for the name of the dish and she answed “Cat’s ears” due to the shape looking a bit like a cat’s ear). Afterwards the Qianlong Emperor went back to his palace and he hired the boatman’s daughter to be his chef and gave her and her family a lot of money and jewellery.
There are many ways to make cat’s ear noodle. I know some people like to make cat’s ear noodle soup or just stir-fry with some dried shitake mushroom and other vegetables. But today I use broad beans and prawn to cook with this cat’s ear noodle because I love broad beans with prawn and stir-fry broad beans with prawn is also another childhood dish for me. I hope you like my story today but also my recipe.
Credits: Preparation photos were taken by myself but final photos were taken by Chris at: http://www.chrisradleyphotography.com
Stir fried Cats Ear Noodle
Ingredients
Ingredients for cat's ear noodle
- 1.5 cup bread flour
- 1 cup plain flour
- 1 whole egg
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 cup water
Ingredients for stir-fry cat's ear noodle
- 1 cup broad beans
- 250 g baby corn cut into small dices
- 500 g prawn
- 1 small carrot diced into 0.5cm squares
- 2 cloves garlic chop finely
- 2 thin slice ginger chop finely
- 1 chili remove seeds and chop finely
Seasonings for stir-fry cat’s ear noodle
- 1 tbsp oyster sauce
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tsp sesame oil
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp sugar
- 1/2 cup water
Instructions
Procedures for cat’s ear noodle
-
Mix all of the ingredients together and use your hands to knead the dough until it’s nice and smooth.
-
Cover the dough with cling film and leave it for 20 minutes.
-
After 20 minutes, cut the dough into 3 portions and use a rolling pin to flatten each portion individually, Use a knife to cut it into small dices.
-
Use your thumb to press down the small dices of dough individually first and then gently push forward. You will see the dough starts curling like a shell.
-
Boil half a pot of water to cook the noodle. Pour a cup of cold water in the pot when it’s boiling. Repeat this procedure twice and when the noodle is floating on top of the water it’s cooked. Place the noodle into a big bowl and toss with some oil or sesame oil and leave it on aside. It’s now ready to serve.
Procedure for stir-fry cat’s ear noodle
-
Heat up one tablespoon oil in a wok set to full gas power and stir-fry the garlic, ginger and chilli first until you smell they have cooked. This will take around 10-20 seconds.
-
Add broad bean and carrot into the wok and stir-fry for 1 minute. Pour water into wok and bring it to the boil.
-
Once the water is boiling turn the gas power to the lowest temperature and simmer for 5 minutes.
-
Add all the seasonings into the wok and mix evenly. Place cat’s ear noodle into the wok and stir-fry together for 5 minutes.
-
Add the prawns to the noodles and continue to stir-fry until the prawns have cooked.
