Shanghai Sticky Rice Sticks

Chao nien gao, fried sticky sticks.

Nien gao or sticky rice noodles--I call them sticks because that's what's printed on the packet-- are small pieces of dough made of glutinous rice flour. In China, nien gao are sold fresh and ready-cut or in blocks to be cut according to your liking. Japan and Korea too have their own nien gao and like pasta, they come in different shapes. We can't get fresh nien gao here so if we are lucky to get them from relatives visiting from China, my kids would toast them over fire, like marshmallows, and dip them in light soy sauce for a tasty snack.

I have posted this recipe before but recently I found a better way to fry the rehydrated dried sticky noodles that we get here and the result is so good that I had to re-post the recipe. This is a great dish for days when you want something simple and quick.

The difficult part about frying rehydrated nien gao is getting the rice sticks cooked evenly without sticking together. I was taught by my MIL to add some water or stock during the frying process but sticky rice sticks cooked this way are not evenly soft and the texture is a little bit grainy and starchy.

I like the texture of Fuzhou fried nien gao (bai goh gang) so recently I wondered if blanching the nien gao briefly before frying will soften them evenly. I did just that and voila!--I fried the best plate of nien gao ever. Ever. The blanched nien gao was smooth and homogeneously soft with a gentle el dente bite, just like fresh nien gao. Frying time was shortened since the blanching half-cooked the noodles and the result was the noodles didn't become sticky-starchy.

Eaten with chili oil or my fave lime-bird' eye chilies-Maggi sauce dip, chao nien gao is a dish you won't stop eating until it's all gone. But be careful. Glutinous rice can cause indigestion.

Shanghai Chao Nien Gao/Fried Sticky Rice Sticks (feeds 4 to 6)

1 x 500 gm packet dried nien gao

1 small (300 gm) Chinese napa cabbage, in 1 cm strips  

1 cup to 11/2 cups thinly sliced meat (pork or chicken), marinade with white pepper, salt & cornflour

1 small can winter bamboo, cut into thin strips

8 to 10 small dried Chinese mushrooms, soaked & cut into thin strips

1 heaped T finely chopped garlic

4 T light soy sauce (Lee Kum Kee is good)

1/2 t chicken stock powder or a few shakes of msg

salt to taste

veg oil

Note: it's best to fry this amount of nien gao in 2 or 3 batches. If you fry too much in one go, the heat of the wok will be reduced and instead of tasting like it was fried, the dish will taste like it was boiled.

1. Soak the nien gao sticks in room temperature water, running your fingers through to separate them. Soak at least 8 hours prior to using. Once in a while, check and pull apart the noodles that are sticking together.

2. Keep a pot of water boiling while you fry the dish. Put 2 T oil into a hot wok or frying pan and then add the mushrooms, bamboo shoot and about 1/4 t salt. Stir-fry for about 1 minute under medium heat. Add the meat and stir well to mix. When the meat is cooked (no more pink color), push the mixture to the side of the wok or dish onto a plate. Add 1 T oil and 1/2 T  garlic to the wok, fry for 20 seconds and add all the cabbage plus a pinch of salt. When the cabbage is cooked (either still crunchy or soft, depending on your liking), push the meat mixture into the cabbage, mix well and cover for a couple of seconds for the flavors to blend. Remove the cover, stir again and dish onto a plate.

3. In the same wok or pan that's dry, add 2 T oil and 1/2 the remaining garlic. Keep the heat low. At the same time, put all the nien gao (drained) into the rapidly boiling water, stir well to separate them, and immediately use a big slotted ladle to scoop all the nien gao out, tapping the ladle well to drain all the water away. Now increase the heat to high and put 1/2 (or 1/3) of the blanched nien gao into the hot wok, drizzle 1 1/2 T (or 1 T) soy sauce over evenly, sprinkle the proportionate amount of chicken powder/msg and stir well to mix quickly. Now add 1/2 (or 1/3) of the fried meat and veg mixture, stir-frying quickly to mix all the ingredients evenly. Taste and season. Dish onto a serving plate and serve immediately. Repeat frying the remaining noodles and meat mixture.

Clay Pot Crabs With Glass Noodles

This is a dish that we always order whenever we eat Thai food anywhere but KK. That's because there are hardly any Thai restaurants in KK and the few that claim to be never have this dish on their menu. Wey, who doesn't like seafood, loves this dish after tasting it in Bangkok but that's because he only wants the fatty pork strips at the bottom of the pot.

I've made this dish several times but the flavor and taste somehow just didn't measure up to what I've tasted in Awana Hotel Singapore. Recently Wey asked for the dish again and I spent an hour searching for the recipe on the net, weeding out the ones that didn't read tasty enough. I finally settled on the recipe from here. I'm glad I did because the whole family gave two thumbs up for the dish. I've made some changes to the ingredients (used Maggi sauce as recommended by Appon, pounded the coriander stems into a paste for stronger flavor) but the biggest change is in the cooking of the crabs. Instead of frying the crabs in the clay pot, I stir-fried them separately in a wok because I find that unless you get your clay pot heated very well, the crabs don't get that stir-fried flavor. I think that's why many restaurants in Thailand use thin metal pans rather than clay pots for this dish. Frying the crabs also shrinks them so that they fit better into my clay pot.

This dish, btw, is called poo ob woon sen. Poo (that's right, poo, not phoo) is crabs in Thai, ob is to simmer and fry (sort of) and woon sen is glass noodles, so-called because they are clear as glass. Russell Peters was right. Asian languages are hilarious.

Teamed with a soup, poo ob woon sen can make a substantial meal.  Squeeze some lime juice and sprinkle on some bird's eyes chilies on the noodles and tackle the crabs with your fingers. Yum.








Clay Pot Crabs With Glass Noodles
1 kg live crabs (or lobster or prawns)
1 T butter
7 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced in half lengthwise
4 slices bacon
5 to 6 fresh whole coriander/cilantro plants, roots intact
3 slices ginger
1 t (1/2 t if you don't like the heat) white peppercorns, pounded coarsely
250 g glass noodles* (mung bean noodles), soaked in cold water at least 15 minutes
1 T light soy sauce
2 T fish sauce

Stock:
2 1/2 cups chicken stock
3 T oyster sauce
1 T Maggi soy sauce
1 T fish sauce
2 t sesame oil
1 (or 2) t brandy or whiskey
1 1/2 t caster sugar

garnish: coriander leaves, spring onions and lime wedges

*get the type that doesn't break easily upon cooking. In KK, myXo Green Bean Vermicelli from wet markets is the best.

1. Mix all the stock ingredients in a bowl. Set aside. Separate the coriander into 3: the roots hairs, the main root and stems, and the leaves. Using a pestle and mortar, pound the main roots and stems into a paste. Scrub the crabs well, cut into big pieces, drain very well and toss with 1 T of the fish sauce.

2. Put the bacon into the unheated clay pot and then turn the heat on, medium low.

3. Meantime, heat up a wok or frying pan. Add the butter and fry the garlic until golden. Add the coriander root hairs, coriander stem-root paste, ginger and peppercorns and fry a couple of seconds before adding the crabs. Add 1/4 cup of water, 1 T light soy sauce and the remaining 1 T of fish sauce. Cover the wok and simmer a couple of minutes until crabs are cooked & the liquid has dried up. Transfer the crabs into the pot.

Alternatively, you can do step 3 in the clay pot. This is how it's normally done but I prefer to give the crabs a good fry to get a better flavor.

4. Add the glass noodles to the pot and pour the sauce over, stirring well to mix. Do not disturb the bacon though; leave them in the bottom of the pot. Cover and let simmer about 5 minutes. Taste and season. Switch off the heat. I find that this lets the noodles soak up the liquid and flavor better.

If you add the uncooked crabs to the clay pot, let it cook until it's almost done before adding the noodles.

5. When ready to serve, heat up the pot and add a little bit more stock or water if necessary. Garnish with coriander leaves and spring onions.