Braised Assorted Ee Fu Noodles (焖什锦伊面)

“Home-cooked Ee-Fu Noodles is irresistibly delicious”

Braised Ee-Fu Noodles is a popular noodle dish in Cantonese cuisine which you may find it almost in every Chinese restaurant in Asia (e.g. Hong Kong, Singapore, China and etc) or overseas Chinatown (I ate this at Chinatown in San Francisco), for casual dining or during special occasions like birthday celebration (especially old folk’s) as Ee-Fu Noodles symbolizes longevity. Ee-Fu Noodles usually braised with dark soy sauce, especially in Singapore and Malaysia. The taste of Ee-Fu noodles is marvelous with its aroma and interesting chewy texture in the palate!

Ee-Fu noodles aka Yi-Mien (伊面) is a kind of thin flat Chinese egg noodles made from wheat flour, normally presented in the shape of flat or rounded patty-like dried brick. They are golden brown in colour and usually sold in dry form, easily available in supermarket and Chinese grocery shops.

We like to eat braised Ee-Fu Noodles, but it’s often too salty when dined out. Perhaps they have to put much MSG to enhance the dish for their commercial purposes. Hence, I cooked my homemade braised Ee-Fu Noodles instead! No MSG, healthy, and a quick-cooked dish you may easily make as dinner during weekdays! One thing I like about home-cooking, not just for the health and balancing diet, but the freedom of putting a variety of quality ingredients! I called my recipe as ‘assorted’ Ee-Fu Noodles as assorted ingredients were added into this braised noodles (smiling).

Ingredients
4 bricks of Ee-Fu Noodles (chinese translation: 伊面)
1 cup of medium-sized prawn (about 8 – 12 tails), shelled with tail intact
1 cup of lean pork hind (about 100 gram), sliced or cut into strips
½ cup of pork liver, sliced and blanched
1 cup of whole button mushroom (about 8 pieces)
1 small carrot, thin sliced lengthwise
1 cup of green leaf vegetable, Chye Sim 菜心 (about 100 gram), trimmed
1 cube of seaweed tofu, thick sliced
4 artificial crab sticks, cut into 3 pieces each lengthwise
2 fishcake, sliced
1 clove of garlic, minced

2 tablespoons of dark soy sauce (thick soy sauce)
1 tablespoon of light soy sauce
2 tablespoon of oyster sauce
Sprinkles of sugar
Sprinkles of sesame oil

2 cups of water

Optional:
1 teaspoon of Hua Diao Wine (chinese translation: 花雕酒)

Method
1) Heat up a wok with sesame oil over medium heat, add garlic and stir-fry till fragrant.

2) Put in ingredients with sequence of meat, carrot, mushrooms, seaweed tofu, crab sticks, and fish cakes. Drizzle light soy sauce, and stir-fry for 5 min. Add noodles and plenty of water.

3) When noodles start to soften, stir in oyster sauce and dark soy sauce. Combine all ingredients well. Bring down heat to low fire, simmer for 8 min, or until noodles completely tender. Covered with lid.

4) Add in prawns and vegetable. Sprinkle sugar, and drizzle Hua Diao Wine (if desired). Simmer for another 3 – 5 mins. Put in pork liver right before heat off. Serve hot.

This noodle dish counts about 550kcal. Home-cooked version is still counting lesser calorie than those selling outside as we do not add pork lard. Well, having such enriched, full flavoured and heavy bodied meal, it’s still worth loosening your waist-belt once in a while (laughing).

Anyway, try this recipe. Your taste bud will be satisfied with this delectable noodles in 20 min time!

Tips: Vary the amount of water for braising the noodles – Ee-Fu noodles require plenty of water to cook as noodles absorb water quickly. Make sure your noodles are fully covered with water, when first added into the wok before simmering. *No worries if it’s too watery towards the end of the cooking, use cornstarch slurry to thicken gravy.
* Steeping or pre-boiling of Ee-fu Noodles is not required.
* Add pork liver lastly to avoid over-cooking in order to retain its spongy texture.
*I opted for Hua Diao Wine, as adding Hua Diao Wine gives extra aromatic flavor to the dish.
*Choose to add dried Chinese shitake mushroom (soaked and sliced) instead of button mushroom, if desired.
*Add more ingredients like fish slices and squids, or lessen it, as your wish.