Vegetable Hakka Noodles.

"Vegetable Hakka Noodles" ... preparing this one after a very loonnngg time ... Laziness and Maggi went hand in hand and hakka noodles cribbing took the back seat ... so today finally brought it on front line and relished one large bowl of it as brunch ... tummy bhi kush, hum bhi kush ... Yummilicious ......

** Mentioning of "Vegetable Hakka Noodles" will always now bring a smile on my face for sure. A simple dish which is very easy to prepare and is loved by children the most and is polished off from plate without a murmur. My Blog does not have much of Chinese dishes except for a few, as though there was a time when I cooked them a lot say about 2 decades back, in the last decade or so, I had almost stopped cooking them for personal reasons. Do excuse me for not have thought of this before. For this post, or rather I should say for starting back on cooking Chinese dishes, a huge bunch of thanks goes to my friend’s son. A month back at a function he introduced me to his friend and innocently said “Aunty prepares lots of yummy dishes, but does not know any Chinese dishes”. I was completely taken aback and my poor friend was embarrassed to the hilt and tried to stop him from talking further.

** I assured her not to worry and that her son was right in his own way, as he had not tasted it. Children are so innocent and blurt out the truth and we should really encourage them to do that and never stop them from speaking out truth. However, that set my mind thinking, and when I laughingly told my hubby the same, he sheepishly agreed he too missed my hakka noodles, Manchurian, spring rolls a lot. OMG, what a mess I thought or rather felt why I had not thought of it before. Well to cut short, you will definitely see more Chinese dishes that I love cooking in my own way to suite our taste in my home, sort of in Indian way. I had posted Manchurian a few days back which I had prepared with raw jackfruit and carb fried rice a few years back. You can check them out from search option.  I will try my best to include them more often now. Once again thanks to Deepu (pet name of my frds.son) for pointing out the same. 

** Here is my simple method of preparing "Vegetable Hakka Noodles"  .... My Style ... 

** Preparing the Noodles : Boil about 2 liters of water and when it comes to boiling boint add in about 200-250 gms of hakka noodles cut into large pieces and stir once, let it come to boiling point again, once it does, let cook for 2-3 minutes, then remove from fire, add in a teaspoon of oil, mix well and keep it aside covered for 5-10 minutes. Keep checking in between to avoid the noodles getting mushy. Takes about 5 minutes. Then drain off the excess water by putting it into a colander. Rinse under running water well till the cooked noodles are completely cooled. Keep it aside allowing all water to getting drained off properly, keep this ready aside. 

** Peel of the skin of one large sized "Carrot" and cut them into 3 inch sized strips. Also wash and cut the green "Capsicum" into strips of the same length. Similarly also do so with "Cabbage". All three veggies should be cut into thin strips of same size and kept ready. Peel off the skin of one large sized "Onion" and slice them lengthwise as thinly as possible. Peel off the skin of 3-4 large sized "Garlic" cloves and finely chop them. Keep all of these ready before you begin to prepare the Noodles. 

** In a thick bottomed wide mouthed thick bottomed kadai add in 2-3 tblsp of Oil and bring to smoking point heat. Now add in the finely chopped garlic and fry for a minute, immediately add in the sliced onions and continue frying for another 2-3 minutes. The onions should just be stir fried and should not change in colour. Now add in all the three veggies ie, carrot, capsicum and cabbage and stir fry on high heat for 3-4 minutes. 

** Note : All frying should be done on high heat, this is done so to trap the water in the veggies or else the crispiness of the same gets lost. But in doing so care should be taken to see that the veggies do not get burnt. This tip was shared by worldwide famous chef. Sanjeev Kapoor ji. 

** Now lower the heat to minimum, cover with a lid and let the veggies cook for 2-3 minutes, stirring once of twice in between. Now add in the prepared and kept aside noodles, 1 tblsp of soya sauce, 2 tblsp of red chilliy sauce, 1 tsp of pepper powder and salt to taste (Optional). Mix well on medium heat till it is equally and well heated from within, say atleast for 5 minutes. Do not add in any water at any point. 

** "Vegetable Hakka Noodles" is done and ready to be served. Always serve it piping hot right from the kadai to plate. Tastes awesome when served for dinner or when children come home hungry from playing out in hot sun or from school too. It is holidays now and children love noodles, this time instead of giving them instant noodles serve them hakka noodles to which you have added on plenty of veggies, that way it turns out a healthier option and also the best way to make them eat the same. 

** Note : Addition of Salt is individual choice. I do not add as I believe in cutting off salt as much as possible which is not good for health. Here addition of the sauces ensures that enough of salt is added as these sauces have high content of salt in them. In case you wish to add as per the taste of your family do check in and add only that much how much is necessary. 

** Note : I have neither added Aji-no-moto or vinegar as somehow I do not like them and I find that there is no much change in taste too if they are excluded. Some do add in a pinch of sugar, which again I have not added. White pepper powder is added on preferably to noodles instead of black, I did not have any, also the addition of soya sauce makes it ok when black pepper powder is added. 

** Note : You can increase the amount of red chilly sauce if desired depending upon your family spice level tolerance. If not you can also add on some red chilly powder or paprika powder too. The choice is exclusively yours. I somehow, prefer my noodles to be kept simple and I have found the taste to be same as that of which is served in the restaurants. 

** Note :  Instant noodles are OK if consumed once in a while and do not make the habit of the same. Instant noodles are really not that good for health though we all love to eat them when we are hungry and short of time. A little bit of planning when done ensures you serve a healthier meal to your family. You can always prepare Hakka Noodles with plenty of veggies of your choice and serve it during dinner as it hardly takes time to cook while it ensures that your children eat healthy veggies. 

** An Earnest Request : There are many more recipes of different types in the blog. For all my Recipes, use the search option or the label section in the Blog. If you are still not able to find it or have a query, please leave a message in comment section or mail me the same. I will try my best to get back to you as soon as possible. Do try out various types of dishes included in the Blog and Enjoy them with your family and friends and do give me a feedback if possible.

** I am happy to inform you that I have also started a food group for by the name "KONKANI DELICACIES" which is over and year old, with about 19K strong members. It is a pleasure to inform that you will find in the group many more recipes posted by our expert members and you too can share some of your own. The link to the group is posted on the left side of the blog page. Do join us in our culinary journey. I strongly believe in Sharing and always endorse that "Sharing Is Caring" … Thank You ….