肉絲炒米粉 (Stir Fry Rice Noodle)

I have a party today and I made a big plate of 炒米粉 (mi fen).  I fed 20+ guests and  everybody loved it.  The ingredients below is half of the portions I made today.  It should be good for 5-6 people as a main dish.  By the way,  everything is just estimate, you can add or reduce based on your preference.

There is a lot of chopping and preparation for this dish.  So, it is a little complicated.  You don't need to use all the ingredients, or you can replace some of them based on what's available in your refrigerator.  For instance, I like to use 金針菜。Sometimes, I use onions instead of cabbage.  They all taste good.

Ingredients:

新竹米粉半包 （L&W Rice Sticks 8 oz half package)
lean pork   1/4 lb
dry mushrooms (香菰） 6-8 pieces
Wood ears (黑木耳）1/2 cups
cabbage 2 cups
carrot     1 stick
bean sprout 1/2 lb
green onion 2 pieces
chicken broth 1 can
shrimps  medium size 10-15 

Steps:

Preparation:

1. Put dry mushrooms and wood ears in water for a couple of hours until the mushrooms are soften and the wood ears are expanded. Note the wood ears would be expanded several times more than its dry form.  So, just use a small handful would be sufficient.  Wash them with clean water and make sure there is no sand there.  Slice mushrooms and wood ears into thin strips. Make 1/2 cups each.
2. Put half packages of rice sticks in a big bowl and cover it with water.  It will become soft in 30 minutes, use a scissors to cut it into half. Drain the water.
3. peel the shells of the shrimps, use a knife to cup open the top of shrimp, remove the black thing. Add some salt and wash the shrimps with water.  Pat dry the shrimps using a paper towel and put them in the refrig.
4. Slice the pork into thin strips and marinate it with corn starch, salt, and soy sauce. Put a slice of ginger.  Put it aside.
5. Remove the skin of the carrot and shred it into thin strips.
6. Cut cabbages into thin strips and wash the bean sprouts.
7. Slice the green onions side ways into thin strips.

Cooking:

1. Before cooking, add 0.5tb salt and 1tb corn starch in the shrimps and mixed them well (use your hand).  In a big (12 inch) deep frying pan, heat 1 TB oil, and stir fry the shrimps in high heat.  When the shrimps half turned color, add 1 tb cooking wine and keep fry them until all turned color.  Take them out and put it aside.
2. Heat 2 TB oil and stir fry the pork strips.  You have to use a wood spoon (鍋鏟）to separate them because the corn starch tend to bind them together.  So, be patient.  Again, when they all turned color, take them out and drain the oil.
3. Heat 2 TB oil and stir fry muchrooms and wood ears, add a little salt and soy sauce.  Stir fry for 2-3 minutes, add green onions about half way.  Take it out.
4. Heat 3 TB oil and put in carrots and cabbages and 1tb salt.  Stir fry them until carrots are soft. Add bean sprouts and keep stir frying them. Add 1TB light soy sauce.  
5. Leave the #4 ingredients in the pan, add one can of chicken broth, cover and simmer until it boils.  Finally, you can add rice noodles in and the mushroom and wood ears (#3) mix them well.  Turn to low heat, cover and cook for 5-7 minutes.
6. Add the pork strips in and check if the noodle is soft and moist.  If it is a bit too dry and all the liquid is gone, just add a bit more water.  Add some white pepper powder, maybe some oyster sauce, a little more soy sauce to your taste.  Cover and simmer for another 5 minutes.
7. put the rice noodles in a big flat pan and put the shrimps on top and serve.

 There are several tips in making this dish.  When you add the rice sticks in, make sure there is enough liquid to submerge the noodles.  Otherwise, the flavor will not get into the noodle and it will be tasteless.  Secondly, the vegetables and meat tend to fall at the bottom of the pan, you want to flip them to the top and mix them together with the noodle.   Last, I like to put the meat in at last so that it will remain tender.  If you think it is too much trouble, you can add it together with all other ingredient.  Oh, one last thing, there are two type of rice sticks, 新竹米粉 or  埔里米粉.  The first one is very thin and the second one is thicker.  You want to buy the thin one, not the thick one.  I made the mistake once and the result was very bad :)