My daughter told me her favorite meal is now chow mein so I thought I would give the homemade version a try. I looked through my Jamie Oliver Food Revolution cookbook and sure enough he had a healthy version of chow mein. She liked this dish so much that she asked me to make it every night…success! I changed a few things to our liking from the original recipe. Also, you can omit the chicken for a vegetarian version.
Recipe found in Jamie’s Food Revolution cookbook.
Ingredients:
- • 1 thumb-sized piece of fresh root ginger
• 2 cloves of garlic
• ½–1 fresh yellow chilli, to your taste
• 1 large skinless chicken breast
• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• Small bunch of fresh cilantro - • Peanut oil
• 1 heaped teaspoon cornflour
• 2–3 tablespoons soy sauce - 2 scallions
- 1 baby bok choy
- 4 shiitake mushrooms (optional)
- 4 ounces chow mein noodles
- 1 lime
- 1 8 ounce can of water chestnuts (i omitted this because I don’t like water chestnuts)
Directions:
Put a large pan of water on to boil. Peel and finely slice the ginger and garlic. Finely slice the chili. Slice the chicken into finger-sized strips and lightly season with salt and pepper. Cut the ends off your onions and finely slice. Pick the cilantro leaves and put to one side, and finely chop the stalks. Halve the bok choy length ways. If adding the mushrooms, either tear into pieces or leave whole.
Preheat a wok or large frying pan on a high heat and once it’s very, very hot add a good lug of peanut oil and swirl it around. Stir in the chicken strips and cook for a couple of minutes, until the chicken browns slightly. Add the ginger, garlic, chilli, cilantro stalks, mushrooms (if using) and half the onions. Stir-fry for 30 seconds, keeping everything moving round the wok quickly. Add your noodles and bok choy to the boiling water and cook for 2 to 3 minutes, no longer. Meanwhile, add the cornflour, water chestnuts and their water to the wok and give it another good shake to make sure nothing sticks to the bottom. Remove from the heat and stir in 2 tablespoons of soy sauce.
Halve the lime, squeeze the juice of one half into the pan and mix well
Drain the noodles and bok choy in a colander over a bowl, reserving a little of the cooking water.
Stir in the noodles and bok choy with a little of the cooking water to loosen if necessary, and mix well.
Have a taste and season with more soy sauce if needed.
Use tongs to divide everything between two bowls or plates, or to lift on to one large serving platter. Spoon any juices over the top and sprinkle with cilantro leaves.
Serve with lime wedges.
Chez Starz 