Friday 19 September 2008

RECIPE: FRIED NOODLES WITH SEAFOOD IN XO SAUCE


This is one of Mr G and my favourite. If you can find hand made noodles, it makes the dish so much nicer. Also, don’t skimp on your XO sauce. This is one instance where the dearer the XO sauce, the tastier the meal.

FYI, XO sauce is a spicy seafood sauce. It was developed in the 1980s in Hong Kong for Cantonese cuisine. The sauce is made of roughly chopped dried seafood, such as scallop, dried fish and shrimp that has been cooked with chilli, onion, garlic and oil. Once a prestigious concoction confined to gourmet seafood restaurants, XO sauce can now be found as a pre-made product on grocery stores shelves, produced by Asian food companies like LEE KUM KEE. (Source: WIKIPEDIA)

Ingredients
500g fresh hand made noodles or egg noodles
2-3 cloves - garlic minced
200g assorted seafood – prawns, squid, firm fish pieces etc - marinated in 1 tbsp of light soy sauce and 1 tsp sesame oil
1-2 tbsp Chinese light soy sauce
2-3 tbsp Lee Kum Kee XO sauce
1-2 handfuls of bean sprouts - optional
3 spring onion – cut into 3 cm lengths2 tbsp veg oil

Method
If using egg noodles, wash the noodles in water several times to get rid of excess oil. Then, if using either noodles, quickly blanch the noodles in boiling water. Rinse with cold water, drain and set aside.

Heat oil, sauté garlic and seafood until nearly cooked. Add egg noodles, followed by XO sauce and soy sauce, stir-fry until the noodles are heated through. Add bean sprouts if using. Moisten with some chicken stock or water if required. You may need to adjust the sauces according to your taste. Stir through spring onions and serve whilst hot.

NB: I like eating this with 'dried chilli flakes in oil'. The ‘Hub Asian Supermarket’ in Canberra (Tuggeranong and Gungahlin) sells jars made by the owner and instead of vegetable oil, it is made with olive oil. Delicious.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have never heard of this dish or xo sauce. Sounds intriguing.

VG said...

Anon

I'd recommend you buy a small jar to try. I find it really yum and the dish is easy to cook. You can then use the paste to flavour other stir fries. I find it really yum with stir fried snake beans with shrimp. Ahhh...an idea...I'll post that recipe soon!

Tastes of Home said...

hey vg!, I love XO sauce, I used to order fried noodles (lai min) with xo sauce when I was studying in London all the time! it was at a chinese 'restaurant' called 97 and it was pretty good..

I must try out your recipe..thanks!

VG said...

Hi ToH

You are welcome. The first time I tried this was in Melbourne and I fell in love it. Mr G likes it too. Let me know how you go cooking it.

What did you study in London and when?