Glass noodles are an excellent vehicle for delivering the savouriness of dried shrimp and the sweetness of hairy cucumber in this simple but satisfying dish.

Time: 2/5
Minimal prep, tastes good, scales well

Effort: 2/5
Not much else to do besides throwing stuff into a pot

Simple pleasures

Let me introduce you to one of Cantonese cooks’ best friends: glass noodles (粉絲 i.e. Fan see / fen si in Cantonese/Mandarin). They’re made by forming starch from mung beans or potatoes into thin strands before drying. The result is a thin and absorbent noodle with plenty of surface area on which sauces and flavours can cling to, making it a wonderful vehicle for delivering deliciousness into your mouth.

Even when cast with more illustrious ingredients, you can be pretty sure that the glass noodles are the star of the show whenever it makes an appearance – even when they’re a topping for scallops or for shrimp. Today I am taking advantage of their properties to capture the savoury essence of dried shrimp, and pairing it with some sweet and fresh hairy cucumber.

The result is an umami yet clean-tasting dish that goes very well with rice, and certainly works well with noodles or simply eaten alone. In fact, if it weren’t for protein I would happily have nothing but this and rice, and call it a meal; if you’re looking to reduce your meat intake or learning to like vegetables, this is a recipe for you. In fact, I have a whole series I call Carnivore Rehab, which is written with this purpose in mind.

Dramatis Personae

Glass noodles – about 50g dried pax

They’re sold dried, and must be rehydrated before use. This can be easily achieved by soaking them in boiling water for a few minutes, or an hour or so in room temperature water. It’s said that you get a better texture if you rehydrate them more gently, but I can’t tell the difference myself.

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

Dried seafood – 20-30g pax

Dried shrimp belongs to a family of ingredients we call 海味 (Hoi mei / Hai wei in Canto/Mandarin) which refers to various forms of dried seafood like scallops, octopus and squid. The drying process concentrates flavours, and the resulting abundance of glutamates lends them to use as a form of natural MSG. Just like with hoi mei in general, the shrimp needs to be rinsed clean of any dust that may have settled on the surface, then soaked for several hours to soften them. Since they’ve been washed before soaking, the soaking liquid can (and must!) be saved and added back to the dish to capture all of the flavour. Like with glass noodles, you can speed up the process of soaking by using hot water.

I had some dried shiitake stems left from earlier recipes that called for just the mushroom caps. Always keep the stems! They are way too tough to eat, but they still have a lot of flavour that can be extracted with a soak in water. Like with the shrimp, give them a rinse before soaking for a couple hours (or shorter with hot water) and save the soaking liquid.

Hairy cucumber – 200-300g pax

Sort of a cross between a cucumber and a melon, with a coat of fine downy hair on the outside. Also known as winter gourd (although this typically refers to the more mature, larger version of the plant), they can be boiled until soft until falling apart in a soup, or cooked lightly to retain some texture and sweetness like we’re doing here. You’ll get a good look at them in the photos later. They do shrink by quite a bit after cooking, so buy a bit more than it looks like you need.

Aromatics

Ginger does the heavy lifting here in terms of aromatics. If you cut them into large, thin slices you’d get the flavour without having to deal with itty bitty fibrous bits in the food. Together with the dried shrimp and shiitake mushrooms, there’s plenty of flavour going on.

You could add garlic if you like, but this is a rare occasion where I’d argue that the dish would actually be better without. To me, garlic has a way of making food taste more ‘demanding’ or substantial, like it’s something to be taken seriously. If that makes sense.

Seasoning

You will need a bit of salt and sugar, maybe a quarter teaspoon of each per portion, but nothing else. This is a recipe that shines in its simplicity.

Executive Summary

1. On the night before or morning of cooking, soak vermicelli in water. Rinse and soak dried shrimp and shiitake.
2. Cut ginger into large, thin pieces. Peel and cut hairy cucumber into matchsticks.
3. Drain the glass noodles and discard the glass noodle water. Fish out the dried shrimp and shiitake, reserving their soaking liquid. Discard shiitake stems.
4. Briefly stir fry ginger and dried shrimp in oil before adding the hairy cucumber.
5. Add salt, sugar and the reserved soaking liquid. Stir to combine, and cover. Cook on low heat until hairy cucumber is tender.

Play by play

Glass noodles, the star of the show. Even though they’re thin they will still take a good while to fully rehydrate. Give each bunch a quick snip with a pair of scissors to cut them down to a more manageable length.

Further in the background, the dried shrimp and dried shiitake stems are soaking after being rinsed clean. As they soften, they will infuse the water and turn it into a savoury yet clean and delicate broth. This is a very good reason to save your shiitake stems – an instant upgrade for any soup, stew or sauce.

The easiest way to peel a hairy gourd is going lengthwise, around the circumference. Then, trim the bottom and top and cut into rounds to be stacked and cut into strips. You can adjust the length of the final matchsticks by adjusting the angle with which you slice the rounds – the steeper the angle, the longer the strips.

Shrimp and ginger leading the way. Stir fry until fragrant. We’re not looking for browning because we’re going for simple delicate flavours, not deep and complex ones.

Throw everything else into the wok. The shrimp and shiitake water goes in now, as well as salt and a bit of sugar.

Stir to combine, then cover and cook. It was almost half-done by the time I was done stirring.

Here it is, next to some Korean fried chicken. About half an hour from prep to 6 servings.

Keep browsing by categories, or by tags: