Use Your Noodle

The lovely Miriam from Hong Kong inspired dinner tonight, she’d sent me a large pack of lovely noodles along with various other goodies and they were screaming out to be used. Combining these with the new purchase of Chinese Food Made Easy (Ching-He Huang) and the necessity to use up two crabs which I’d defrosted, meant only one thing: Chilli Crabs with Ginger.

The meal was superbly but simply flavoured, relying only on ginger, garlic and a little chilli to flavour the noodles and crab. I was very surprised how well everything came together, the lack of ingredients in comparison to many oriental dishes left me wondering how it would work and if it would be bland; bland it certainly wasn’t with each mouthful leaving you craving another.

Something else that had me wondering about the meals success was the inclusion of tomato ketchup, not something I expected to see being used here at all, but it just helped add a slightly sweet and sour depth to the sauce, with the tomato flavour not really being noticeable at all.

I added a little chilli oil as well as the sliced chilli too, not for heat particularly but because I love the change in flavours they both give.  Fresh and hot coming from the sliced chilli and a deep resonate heat from the oil, both working to give a harmony to the finished dish. The chilli oil also came from the very lovely Miriam but various brands are widely available in most large stores.

Scattering the raw spring onions over the cooked meal brought a freshness which really cut through the heat and spice of the noodles, as well as lending a pleasing aesthetic to the dish too. Once again some fresh coriander or even parsley would have helped perk the plate up a wee bit but I unfortunately didn’t have any to hand.

Would I eat this again? Yes! Yes! Yes! Ready in twenty minutes, super tasty and healthy too, what more could I ask?

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