Angel's Braised Ee Fu Noodles 爱的焖伊府面

D likes braised Ee Fu Noodles a lot but it is not commonly found in the menu of the zhi char (煮炒) stalls in coffee shop or hawker centre. Though there is something similar called fried yee mee (炒伊面) the noodle itself and cooking method are different.

Braised Ee Fu Noodles are normally served in Chinese restaurants and sometimes during wedding dinner. Thanks The Little Teochew for sharing her braised Ee Fu Noodles recipe and now I can replicate it at home for my loved ones. The recipe is very easy to follow. Though I didn't follow the recipe to a T it gave me a very good guide.

I tried to look for the dried Ee Fu Noodles in the supermarkets, went to a few including hypermarket but only Yee Mee was found. Finally I got it at the wet market near my house. (Update: Had seen in NTUC Finest and Cold Storage)

Traditionally this dish is cooked with yellow chives (韭王/Jiu Wang) but I have never seen it before in the supermarket or wet market. I tried my luck to look around for it but it was proven that I had no luck. I abandoned the project and grabbed a pack of green chives to standby.

At the end I only used the green chives for garnishing but not cooking as I afraid that the taste might be too strong to blend in with other ingredients. Then I remembered I had a Boy Choy sitting in my fridge so I used Boy Choy instead. I believe the sweetness from Boy Choy compliments other ingredients which are basically different types of mushrooms.

I cooked this dish for Mid-Autumn Festival dinner together with a finger food (coming up in my next blog post) and beancurd longan soup with egg.

I was very pleased with the result. My family enjoyed the dish a lot. D mentioned that this dish was almost perfect if not lacked of marinated green chili.

Because I had put in a lot of love and effort in preparing this dish, one of D's favourite dishes, I decided to name it "Angel's Braised Ee Fu Noodles" (Ju, I hope you don't mind).

I am sharing my adapted recipe from here.

Ingredients: (for 4 servings)
4 - 5 cloves garlic (chopped)
4 - 5 leaves Chinese cabbage/Bok Choy (白菜) (cut into stripes)

1 can straw mushroom （草菇）(halved or quartered depending on size)

1 pack enoki mushroom（金针菇）
3 large dried shiitake mushroom（香菇） (presoaked in water and thinly sliced)
4 - 5 tbsp vegetable oil + ½ tsp sesame oil
4 dried mounds (200g) Ee Fu Noodles

Braising sauce: (mix together)

3 tbsp oyster sauce/abalone sauce (I used 1 tbsp vegetarian oyster sauce & 2 tbsp abalone sauce)

½ tbsp light soy sauce (adjust the amount or omit it if the oyster sauce used is salty)
1 tsp dark soy sauce (for colouring purpose, reduce the amount if desired)
1 tsp sugar

½ tsp Chinese cooking wine (花雕酒)
¼ tsp white pepper

2 cups dried scallop broth *
* Rinse 30g (or a handful) dried scallop and soak in 2 cups of water for a few hours. Remove and break down the dried scallop. Bring the water to a boil, add the dried scallop and simmer for 20-30 mins, off fire and let the dried scallop soak in the broth till cooking time.

Method:

1) In a wok, heat vegetable oil and sesame oil. When it is very hot, add in garlic and saute till fragrant. Add bok choy and stir-fry till becomes slightly soft. Add all the mushrooms and stir-fry for about 1 min at medium-high heat.
2) Add braising sauce and simmer till a gentle boil. Add in Ee Fu noodles, making sure you submerge them in the braising sauce as much as possible. Cover with a lid and let the noodles stew in the sauce at low heat for 2 to 3 minutes. Open lid and check for doneness.
3) Gradually add little hot water if the noodle is not cooked yet and continue to simmer (I repeated this step for 2 - 3 times). Meanwhile, taste the noodle, add more seasonings if required. If it is too salty, add a pinch of sugar.
4) Off fire when the noodles is almost cooked and little braising sauce is left. Cover with lid and allow the residual heat to continue cooking the noodles till al dente (when the dish is done it should have no braising sauce).

5) Dish up on serving plate and garnish with cut chives or coriander.