‘Lets find some other place to eat ‘, I muttered, annoyingly flipping the waxy pages of the menu before I decided I did not want to eat there. Barely few days after I came to the States, eating at a chinese restaurant which did not serve chicken manchurian or hakka noodles made little sense to me. Hurriedly grabbing the handbag I got up, blatantly asking him to hunt down the Chinatown for a place which serves decent chinese food.
Four year since, as much as I enjoy american-chinese at restaurants out here, when it comes to cooking at home, we settle for indo – chinese. Growing up, I fondly ate noodles for sunday breakfast or evening snackage. My mom made them slightly greasy, soaking in sauce and tossed them with lots of colorful vegetables, sometimes she added shredded chicken, sometimes couple of runny eggs atop did the trick.
Hakka noodles or Veg Chowmein is an extremely popular (indo-chinese) street food in India.Cooke with Chinese condiments and Indian spices, it is an addictive treat.I can picture many of you scratching your heads right now. The way noodles are cooked has nothing to do with cuisine of Hakka in China. It just derives its name from there.Thin noodles are tossed in a spicy sauce and served on their own or as a side.
What is it about these? the sauce? spices? or is it the union of cuisines?
Again, like with most indian cooking, there are no set rules regarding how these have to be made. No two recipes will be the same, everyone makes them the way they like it.On my recent trip to Delhi, I was flabbergasted to see ‘chef’s special’ hakka noodles tossed with cashew nuts and sherry soaked cherries. Now beat that imaginative cooking!
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You can add or skip any vegetables in this recipe. Just make sure that the vegetables have similar cooking time and they are cut in almost (similar) sizes. Ingredients (serves 2 -4)
For the sauce
Update : 01/14/2014 – I added about 1/4 tsp of black pepper powder ( reduced chili flakes to 1/4 tsp & few other changes) to hakka noodles yesterday & they tasted awesome! Maybe you want to try it if you make them. I m updating the recipe for these reasons because it was better. Method In a bowl, mix together the ingredients listed under the sauce and set aside for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, cook the noodles in salted water as per package instructions. Drain the noodles, rinse under cold water and rub with 1/2 tbsp oil.Set aside to cool down. In a wok, heat up the oil on medium – high. Using your mortar & pestle, mince garlic, and green chillies together. Add to the oil and let cook for 5-8 seconds till you smell the aroma. Add the sliced onions, scallions (white parts) and green chillies to the wok and continue cooking till onions start to turn light brown on the edges. Add the sauce mix prepared above to the wok and cook on high for 2-4 minutes till the mixture thickens and gets shiny. Next, add the cabbage, carrots, bell peppers to the wok and saute for 1-2 minutes(just so they get coated in the sauce but retain their crunch). Add boiled noodles to next along with green parts of the scallions. Toss everything together and check the seasoning,adjust salt if required. Serve warm with gobi manchurian or chilli chicken/manchurian. Notes:- I highly recommend letting the noodles sit for 30-40 minutes before you serve them. Warm them up slightly and add fried eggs, tofu to them. If adding a protein (chicken, shrimp), preferably add them cooked at the point when you add vegetables so that they get coated in sauce too. |
Enjoy!
Oh my goodness….my all time fav!!! Love it anytime…
This is a great post. Excellent pictures ,nice commentary and even a printablerecipe which is something that many food blogs failed to include. Great job you made me really curious and I will probably try to make this I love vegetables and noodles and being able to make it with Indian spices sounds ingenious. Thank you
Looks so good..perfectly coked noodles and veggies too..Love the clicks…
omggggggggggggg thank God! I have been looking for a decent hakka noodles recipe and you have nailed it! Fabulous job Tanvi!
Yummy and a perfect comfort food!! Who doesn’t love Hakka noodles are definitely missing something so delicious in their life 😀
Wonderful pics of hakka noodles.
Deepa
I’ve never had hakka noodles. But that looks and sounds delicious. I’m glad you didn’t use sherry-soaked cherries though!
Gorgeous pix, as always!
This is so perfect looking, reminds me of my college days. Great pictures.
Huge fan of Hakka noodles here and ‘am loving it:) I remember noting down the recipe when I made it last. That was a few months ago. For some reason, I haven’t made it lately.. Time to use the wok again!;-) Love the pictures!
Beautiful n Yummmm!
A wonderful dish! Noodles are o addictive.
Gorgeously moody shots!
Cheers,
Rosa
So pretty. Gorgeous. My husband absolutely adores hakka noodles and I havent made any in a while! Thanks for this pretty reminder. xo
Love the tones in the snapshots Ranvi.
Oops, type- Tanvi! :-)!
loved the dark tones in the pic. i haven’t made hakka noodles in a long time.
oh yumm! Hakka noodles were a favorite growing up.. Interesting to see your very different sauce. I’ve never made one like that. Need to add hakka noodles to my dinner list for this week ..
beautiful shots.
Beautiful clicks. Love your photography.
And yes, hakka noodles are a big time fav of any Indian.. but you add garam masala.. wow! Now thats explosive 🙂
I could have his for meal everyday and I wouldn’t be bored. Super tempting and awesome shots!
I could have this at every meal everyday and I wouldn’t be bored. Super tempting and awesome shots!
AWESOME NOODLES, WAY BETTER THAN WHAT WE GET OUTSIDE…LOVED THE USE OF GARAM MASALA AND HONEY…IT WILL BOOST UP THIS YUMMY NOODLES A LOT 🙂
Reblogged this on Vegan,Vegan.
Reblogged this on 7 is mine.
was looking for a good hakka recipe and yours is one of the better ones I have found so far 🙂 Will def give it a try this weekend! yummy pics making me hungry haha 🙂
I hope you like the recipe. Let me know
I tried it and it was pretty good : )Thank you!
Just had this dish at an Indian restaurant last night and it was also served with 2 small sides of sauce, as your picture shows. What is the light, spicy sauce? Is it just chiles and vinegar? And is the other just soy sauce?
You are right Paul. Thats chilies are pickled in the refrigerator with vinegar,salt & a clove or two of garlic (we do not serve the garlic but it enhances the flavor of pickling liquid) for 1-2 days. The other one is just soy sauce, in case someone wants to add it to the noodles. If you go to India,you might seldom see red chili flakes and sesame oil served along side too.
Wow! It is such an interesting guide to cooking good food.This recipe looks easy and one I will add to my list!
Hi! This sounds wonderful but I have a question. The sauce ingredients call for tomato paste or tomato purée but when I go to the printable version, it’s not listed in the recipe anywhere. I know you said you made some changes to the recipe so I’m not sure which is correct. Do we add the tomato to the sauce or leave it out? Thanks so much…can’t wait to try this!
Yes the tomato sauce is needed. As you mentioned, I changed the recipe and missed noting that down. SO sorry, Will correct the printable version.