Shrimp Lo Mein

I may have said this before but I was 100% asian in another life. I crave Asian food for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I figure you’re initial reaction to Asian food for breakfast is GROSS, but they put eggs on EVERYTHING so ca’mon you can’t blame me. Anyways, now that the new year is here I’m not going to lie the holidays really threw me for a loop, this is the first holiday season that I haven’t been working full time in the hospitality industry. Due to the free time that meant I spent more time eating and drinking, basically living my best life. With that, came ignoring the gym and gaining a few extra lbs. I needed to curb my craving for Chinese food (the option of giving it up was just not in the cards for me) without consuming all of the fat and sodium (not to mention the infamous MSG) that usually comes with Chinese takeout consumption. This shrimp lo mein hits all the spots and doesn’t leave me feeling like I took a salt shaker to my mouth. Something about knowing exactly what’s in your food can make all the difference.

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Now to get started on this dish the actual cooking time is quite fast. However, if we are talking prep time, just like fried rice I would recommend cooking the noodle a day in advance or using “day old” noodles. Now the reasons these recipes will call for day old rice or day old noodles actually has to do with the starches. With rice if you cooked the rice from raw to cooked and then tried to throw it right in a skillet to be stir fried the starches are so fresh which would in turn cause the rice to stick to the pan making it impossible to properly stir fry. You’ll most likely come out with a pile of mushy rice. The noodles have a similar story, now if you don’t have the time to wait an entire night I found that I was able to mimic this effect on the starches by cooking the pasta and cooling it off (I used the freezer and kept checking the noodles to ensure they did no freeze). Once the noodles are nice and cool which gives the gluten time to relax this will allow for premium texture when stir frying.

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The sauce, it’s all about the sauce. Asian sauces are made so many different ways but there are typically the same key ingredients incorporated in every good stir fry sauce. Soy, ginger, garlic. Now a little tip for this lo mein dish, don’t over ginger your sauce, sometimes I won’t even add ginger to these kinds of “take out” dishes because it over powers the salty garlicky flavor that I love about them. As for the vegetables, there is no rule for these, it’s basically a free for all, I usually use what I have on hand in my fridge and it always turns out delicious! However some of my favorites to add into a lo mein besides bell peppers and onions is celery! I know you may think celery doesn’t add lots of flavor to a dish but boy would you be surprised. Not to mention the crunch of adding this vegetable last minute perfectly compliments the salty tender noodles. Mouth is watering let’s do this!

Ingredients:

Method:

• Cook noodles according to package until aldente, and let cool in the fridge
• Mix Sauce, in small bowl add shrimp and 1 tbs. of the sauce and toss until coated allow to sit for 15 minutes.
• In a large skillet or wok, heat a splash of vegetable oil on high heat and add the peppers, onions, celery, and saute until slightly soft (do not cook until completely soft you want these veggies to have a nice bite to them with the soft noodles), set aside.
• Add another splash of vegetable oil into the pan or wok and saute shrimp until cooked through, set aside.
• Now it’s time to add the noodles, add a splash of vegetable oil to the pan and throw in the cold noodles and lay in a single layer. Allow the noodles to fry in the pan without agitating them so they start to get a crisp layer on the bottom about 3 minutes.
• Add the vegetables, sauce and garlic and continue to cook for 5 minutes until everything is cooked through and the noodles have some crispy bites, add shrimp and grab your chopsticks!