Glass noodles pick up wonderful umami flavours from garlic and seafood in this comforting home-style meal.

Time: 3/5
Race your rice cooker, pat yourself on the back if you win

Effort: 3/5
The hardest part was cutting up the fish

Glass with Class

I’ve sang high praise for glass noodles (粉絲; Fun see / fen si) before. It’s one of the Cantonese cook’s best friends. Made by drying thin strands of rice starch, their abundant surface area make them excellent vehicles for holding on to flavours like the delicious liquor from buttery, garlicky scallops, some super fresh shrimp, or the delicate umami of dried shrimp.

Today, I am taking advantage of the properties of glass noodles to capture the savoury and aromatic essence of grouper filets and garlic. The whole affair is to be made even more delightful by reinforcing the sauce with the drippings left from steaming a whole fish yesterday (something I hope I get around to showing you one day).

The result is an absolute umami bomb that goes very well with rice. In fact, if it weren’t for the protein I would happily forget the fish! But I want them gains, and grouper is a good source of lean protein to keep you full for a long time after lunch.

I like to keep my vegetables separate from the ingredients, but you can turn this recipe into a one pan meal by stirring them in with the fish and the glass noodles.

Dramatis Personae

Glass noodles – about 50g to 100g per serving, or more if you can afford the carbs

As an ingredient that is cheap, shelf-stable and easy to prepare, glass noodles are definitely worth considering for permanent residency in the pantry. Rehydrate in room temperature water for a couple of hours, or with boiling water for 10 or 20 minutes.

Pro tip: once soft and supple, give it one or two random snips with a pair of scissors. They’re unmanageably long otherwise.

Garlic – a lot

More or less non-negotiable. Finely minced, in large amounts. Have your taste buds thank me later.

Fish – 100g to 200g per serving

Grouper is a good choice for this sort of application, and being quite a lean protein it makes up for the fact that the vermicelli does bump up the carb and calorie count (if that matters to you).

I got my grouper frozen. Fresh fish tastes better, but also hurts my wallet more. In theory any white, firm-fleshed fish would work, so substitute as needed. Cut into large chunks, accounting for some shrinking when they cook.

Sauce

Like mom would say, light soy for flavour and dark soy for colour. A bit of sugar often balances things out, and sweetened soy sauce is a classic pairing with fish. I had a scallion oil and soy sauce mixture from steaming a whole fish earlier, which is going into the sauce. Feel free to add whatever bits and bobs you have around, like the water from rehydrating the stems of the shiitake mushrooms you have left over from other recipes.

I would count the cooking oil as an element of the sauce. Oil does magical things when it clings onto the glass noodles after being infused with garlic flavour. Use butter if feeling indulgent, but any vegetable oil, like canola or peanut, would work. Be aware that if you use a strong-tasting oil like olive oil, it will feature prominently in the final flavour profile among the other relatively delicate-tasting ingredients.

Vegetables – about 200g per serving

Nothing too strong tasting, to avoid distracting from the savoury sensation that is seafood-and-garlic-infused glass noodles. 油麥菜 (yau mak choi / you mai cai; Indian lettuce, a close cousin of romaine), with its slight bitter note, fits the bill well as an accompanying palate cleanser.

Executive summary

1. Soak glass noodles in boiling water while the rest of the ingredients are prepped.
2. Mince the garlic and cut the fish into manageable chunks. The glass noodles should be softened by now and ready to be snipped a few times with scissors.
3. Cook fish until barely done, then reserve.
4. In the same pan, briefly sautee the garlic before returning the fish together with the vermicelli and sauce. Stir and cover on low heat to let it steam and let the flavours mingle.
5. In the meantime, prepare vegetables. Cook in the same pan to make use of the residual flavour, or in another pan for greater speed.

Play by Play

The key ingredient. Once soaked and softened, they will unravel and become unmanageably long. For now, the glass noodles remain as neat little nests of dried noodle that store well in an airtight environment.

A bigger bowl would have been better, but it’s easy to tuck and reposition after a few minutes to make sure everything gets rehydrated.

More or less all the prep you need. The glass noodles softened considerably during the time it took to process the garlic and the fish, so we’re good to go already!

Cooking the fish shrinks the pieces a bit and firms up the flesh, making it more manageable in the coming steps.

Garlic in the same pan. The fond will dissolve in the sauce later to make for more flavour and easier dishes. Off in the background, the vegetables were prepped while the fish was cooking and are now ready to go.

Returning the fish to the pan with the vermicelli and sauce. Notice how the vermicelli takes on the dark colour of the soy sauce, an indication that it has taken up the flavour as well. Taste and adjust seasoning.

Jep boon!

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