Hokkien Noddles with Cashews and Vegetables

From Vegetarian Stir-Fries, The Australian Women’s Weekly, ACP Publishing, 2002.

I never seem able to master Asian stir-fries—well not to my satisfaction anyway.

For this dish I put the hokkien noodles in a bowl and poured over hot water. I gave them a rinse, separated the noodles, and then drained them.

In another bowl I placed firm tofu cut into cubes and added a mixture of ½ cup hoisin sauce and 1/3 cup light soy sauce. I left them to marinate while the rest of the dish was prepared.

I heated some oil in a wok and stir-fried some cashew nuts until they had lightly browned. They were then removed from the wok and placed aside.

I now cut up all of the vegetables: one onion diced, 2 garlic cloves crushed, 1 green and 1 red capsicum sliced, some snow peas topped and tailed, and a quantity of spinach leaves washed and drained. The onion and garlic went into the pan until the onion softened then the capsicums and peas were added. These were fried a little longer until they had begun to soften then the noodles went in, the spinach, a handful of bean sprouts, the cashews and the tofu with its sauce. These were gently stir-fried until the spinach had wilted and everything had warmed up.

With such a good mix of vegetables and plenty of sauce I was surprised that this did not work totally.  I found it somewhat bland and missing an extra kick to make it work. It was all right but not what I was seeking.

Taste: ✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔