So, recently I bought a pound of fresh stir fry noodles on my excursion to the Mei Mei Noodle Factory. I couldn't wait to cook them up in some sort of tasty noodle creation. After some hemming and hawing, I decided to take one of my favorite recipes from the book, "Noodles Every Day," for gai-lan (Chinese broccoli) and beef noodle stir fry and vegetarianize it a bit by subbing in some oyster mushrooms for the beef. I figured with the oyster mushrooms' firm, meaty texture I could marinate them just like I usually do with the beef. Bingo! It worked like a charm and tasted delicious.

Gai-Lan and Oyster Mushroom Noodle Stir Fry (adapted from, "Noodles Every Day," by Corinne Trang)

Ingredients

3 tablespoons soy sauce

3 tablespoons oyster sauce

3 tablespoons Shaoxing wine or sake

1 tablespoon sugar

1 tablespoon cornstarch

1 teaspoon dark sesame oil

6 oz. oyster mushrooms,stemmed

1 pound fresh noodles

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

3 large garlic cloves, crushed and finely chopped

1.25 cups vegetable stock

1 pound gai lan (Chinese broccoli), cut into bite-size pieces

Freshly ground black pepper


Instructions

1. In a medium bowl, whisk together 1 tablespoon each soy sauce, oyster sauce and sake (or Shaoxing wine). Add the sugar and continue to whisk until completely dissolved. Stir in the cornstarch and continue stirring until smooth. Add the sesame oil and oyster mushrooms, and mix well. Marinate for 20 minutes. Drain and discard the excess marinade.

2. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Cook the noodles until 1 minute shy of done and drain. (We'll finish cooking the noodles at the end.)

3. Heat 1 tablespoon of the vegetable oil in a skillet or wok over high heat and stir-fry the garlic until fragrant, about 10 seconds. Add the mushrooms and stir-fry until tender, 1 to 2 minutes. Transfer to a plate. Add the remaining tablespoon of oil and when hot, add the gai lan, stir frying so that the oil coats the gai lan. Pour in the 1/4 cup of the stock, turn the heat to medium-low and cover with a tight fitting lid. Cook the gai lan until tender, 3 to 5 minutes. Transfer the gai-lan to the same plate.

4. Add the remaining cup of stock and the remaining 2 tablespoons each of soy sauce, oyster sauce, and rice wine to the same skillet and bring to a boil over high heat.

5. Add the noodles and cook until the liquid has almost completely evaporated, leaving the noodles lightly moistened, 2 to 3 minutes. Return the gai lan and mushrooms to the skillet and toss to mix the ingredients thoroughly. Season with pepper to taste and serve.