BRAISED NOODLES WITH MUSHROOMS AND VEGGIES

It's a pretty cool night, and I'm longing for some comfort food, you know, something familiar, like what your mom used cook, but the fridge is full of veggies, and I have to finish it off, so this is one dish that includes ingredients that were common in my mom's kitchen. 

When we were kids, salted soy bean paste, aka taochu, was something that my mom used quite a bit. It goes with fish, pork, chicken and noodles too. Since it has been a cool day, a little ginger will go a long way in keeping the body warm and bringing flavour to a vegetarian dish. Add some garlic to the mix and it would taste like how my mom used to cook pork liver. I used to love that dish! So cooking noodles with whatever veggies I have in the fridge with that as a braising broth should taste pretty good too! If the ingredients looks familiar, it's because one pack of veggies is always too much for the both of us to finish off, so I have to think of creative ways to get rid of them without it going to waste. ;-)

Ingredients

1 portion of wantan noodles
6 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 king oyster mushroom, sliced
A handful of bean sprouts
A handful of japanese mushrooms
A handful of green dragon veggeis, chopped
A 5cm knob of ginger, finely sliced
5 teaspoons of salted soy beans, mashed to a paste
1 tablespoon corn flour with some water

Method

In a pot of boiling water, cook the wantan noodles for 15 seconds, drain and put aside
In a hot pan, cook the garlic and ginger until fragrant
Add all the mushrooms, salted soy bean paste and half a cup of water, let it cook till the mushrooms are soft
Once the water has boiled down and the mushrooms are soft, it's time to add the green veggies and the bean sprouts. These do not take long to cook, so you might want to add the wantan noodles in at this point, with the watered corn starch mixture to thicken the gravy. 
Stir it well and it's ready to serve.

Feel free to add some soy sauce to this dish if it's not salty enough, but to me, it's just fine the way it is. A balanced meal with all the protein, fibre and carbohydrates to take you to breakfast! 

Enjoy!