Dark Soy Sauce Stir Fried Cheung Fan 豉油皇炒腸粉

I’ve lately had a lot of braised, steamed, and soup noodles and wanted something different. I was craving 豉油皇炒腸粉 dark soy sauce stir fried cheung fan which until now I’ve only had at Cantonese restaurants. It’s enough of a simple dish, but I normally don’t have any of the noodles sitting around. When I make cheung fan, I eat them pretty quickly leaving no leftovers. I’m glad that I started this blog and I’m recording a lot of knowledge from my parents. As this this quarantine is playing out, I’m also pretty happy I’m not caring about being a perfectionist and cranking out the posts. They’re still pretty good, but it’s part of cooking to accept that you’ll probably never reach something perfect.

So this takes it back to an older post of making 腸粉 cheung fan from scratch. It’s not to most efficient setup, but with the extra time, it’s nice to make at home. You can make some ahead of time and refrigerate it overnight. Just be sure to steam them so they’re tender and soft to work with. I really like these noodles so I wouldn’t mind having them two different ways in a day. When I made this two days ago, I had some for breakfast and just saran wrapped 3 rolls on a plate and left it out on the counter until it was time to make dinner.

As far as I know, there are three variations to this dish. 豉油皇炒腸粉 Dark soy sauce stir fried cheung fan is the simplest of the three with 腸粉 cheung fan being stir fried with dark soy sauce. For those curious about the name, 豉油皇 si yau wong is just another name for dark soy sauce which others might know it as 老抽 lou chau. A really common variation of this is with XO sauce added to it, so of course it’s just called XO酱油炒肠粉. This can also be made with chili paste instead and it’s called 辣椒酱油炒肠粉. I’m really writing this out for those Asian diaspora out there so you can more easily order one of these variations at a restaurant if you don’t want to make it at home. As the name implies, you must have dark soy sauce but it should not be the only soy sauce that you use. Everybody will have different ratios, but you need to blend both light and dark soy sauces for a balance of flavor and color. Personally, I like it heavier on dark soy sauce, but you can try different amounts to find out what you like.

Besides the blend of soy sauces, the core ingredients of this dish are 腸粉 cheung fan, onions, bean sprouts, and green onions. And as mentioned, adding XO sauce or chili paste can be other variations to this dish.

This dish can be done at home on a non-stick skillet too, but if you’ve practiced how to make beef chow fun in a wok, I think it’s more fun that way. Normally, you’d see this dish with bean sprouts in it. It’s been nearly 3 weeks since I grocery shopped and there’s no way to keep bean sprouts fresh for that long so I had to omit them. I also added some minced garlic and ginger which is typically not found in this dish. I just wanted to add a little more to it and I can’t have most XO sauces cause I’m allergic to shrimp. I also wanted to make it more plain since I have a lot of chili crisp that I made.

When making this, it’s best to take a bowl and to prepare the seasoning on the side. In my opinion, salt isn’t needed for this and it’s just sugar and chicken bouillon that’s needed. But like stir frying chow fun, tossing it in the wok too much will make the noodles fall apart. So to season the small amount of sugar and chicken bouillon more evenly, it’s best to try and dissolve it in the soy sauce mixture. Once this bowl is ready, it’s pretty much the only seasoning you need to grab for fast and easy stir frying.

RECIPE:

3 rolls of 腸粉 cheung fan, cut into pieces about 1 inch long
Neutral oil
1/2 tsp light soy sauce
1 1/2 tsp dark soy suace
Pinch of sugar
1/4 tsp of Knorr chicken bouillon
4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 inch knob of ginger, minced
1/4 small onion, chopped
1/2 cup of green onions, sliced to about 1 1/2 inch pieces
Salt to taste

Prepare the 腸粉 cheung fan first. If these noodles were kept in the fridge, steam them for a few minutes until they are warm and soft again. Otherwise, they will crumble apart when you stir fry them. Drizzle a little bit of oil and quickly toss and set aside. It’s best to keep these noodles under saran wrap so they don’t dry out.

Cut out a quarter of an onion. Reserve the rest of other uses. Cut out the core and slice into large pieces. Separate the onion pieces and set aside.

Wash and cut some green onions and set aside.

Finely chop the garlic. Peel and mince the ginger and set both of these aside.

In a small bowl, combine the light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, pinch of sugar, and chicken bouillon. Stir with a spoon and set this aside.

Heat a wok over medium-high heat and add neutral oil when the wok is hot. Add the garlic and ginger and stir fry for about 30 seconds until it is fragrant. Remove from the wok and reserve it in the same prep bowl.

You may need to add a little bit more oil, so do this if you need it. Add the onion pieces, lightly season with salt, and stir fry for about a 1-2 minutes until they are starting to turn translucent. You don’t want the onions too cooked so they get soft. Remove the onions and add them to the same prep bowl as the stir fried garlic and ginger.

Add a little bit more oil as needed to the wok. Add the 腸粉 cheung fan and don’t move them for about a minute and a half or until one side is lightly seared and crispy. When one side sears and doesn’t stick, quickly flip the 腸粉 cheung fan to sear the other side for about another a minute and a half or until they are lightly seared.

After both sides of the 腸粉 cheung fan has a nice light golden sear, take the bowl with the prepared soy sauce and spoon some in as you need to coat all the 腸粉 cheung fan. You might not need to use all the prepared soy sauce. Quickly toss to coat. Don’t toss too much otherwise the noodles will unravel.

Add the onions, garlic, and ginger back to the wok and toss for about another 15 seconds to reheat them.

Add the green onion slices and toss for about another 15 seconds to mellow out their flavor. The green onion shouldn’t be cooked to the point they turn yellow.

Plate and eat right away to get that 鑊氣 breath of the wok. I like having some chili crisp on the side with this dish.