Good Eats: Fried Noodles w/ Ham & Cabbage

If you are a fan of Chinese food, then this is the dish for you. It is finger lickin' good. It feeds 4 hungry adults, or 8 smaller appetites. My mother is well known for being a wonderful cook, and this is one of her signature recipes. She adapted it from a complicated cookbook into ingredients found at every Walmart in america. The problem I have with most Chinese recipe's are that they require weird sauces or spices that you buy and only use once in your lifetime. This recipe uses up all it's ingredients, besides corn starch and soy sauce. It has a lot of steps and can feel daunting the first time you cook it, so be sure to have a helper on hand in case you have too many pots burning for two hands to handle!

Here are the ingredients (more or less): 3 Ramen noodle packages, Soy Sauce, Cornstarch, Mushrooms, Sliced Ham, and Chinese/Napa Cabbage.

Now get some water boiling and cook up your noodles, saving one of the flavor packets on the side. When noodles are cooked, drain and rinse them under cold water.

Prep your veggies by slicing up the Napa Cabbage and Mushrooms. Cut the Cabbage is two lengthwise first, then into inch-ish strips. Mushrooms can be chopped up however you please.

On a smaller cutting board, slice up your ham. I buy the packages of ham that are thick and presliced. If desperate, lunch meat ham will work fine.

(Not pictured, because I'm not very good at this). In a Non-stick 10-8 inch skillet, heat to just above medium with some oil in it. Put half of your cooked noodles into the pan, and spread out into a nice plate shape. Cook for 5 min and flip. The flipping procedure is pictured below. Take the skillet over to the sink (so if you drop the noodles, you can just scoop them back up and put back into the pan). Cover the skillet with a dinner plate. Carefully flip the skillet. Slide noddles from the plate back to the pan to cook for 5 more minutes. When finished cooking first half of noodles, hold them in a warm oven.

This is the sauce mixture; 1 cup warm water, 5 tsp. cornstarch, 1 tbs. soy sauce, and one flavor packet from the Ramen. Mix and put to the side.

Now to cook the veggies and meat. Use a Wok or a very large skillet on high with some oil. Dump cabbage and mushrooms into the hot skillet. It is important to stir constantly in the very beginning, till the cabbage starts to wilt. After that you don't have to be so religious about the stirring.

This is what it should look like once it is nice a cooked down. See how nice my noodles look in the background before I ended up burning them.

Next, push the vegetables off to the side and add your meat. It's precooked ham, so you just have to warm it up. I like to cook it till it starts smelling like bacon in the kitchen!

Turn the heat down to medium, add your sauce mixture, and cook a few minutes till it's thick and bubbly.

Pull your noodles out of the oven. Hopefully both of your plates will look nice golden brown like the one on the right, and not like my burnt one on the left. Sigh....

Split your Wok mixture over the two plates. Cut into halves or fourths with a knife and serve immediately! It's got it all; Protein, Carbs, and Veggies.

Recipe Card: Fried Noodles W/ Ham & Cabbage

3 pkgs. Ramen Noodles (cooked 3 minutes, drained, and rinsed under cool water)

1 head of Chinese (Napa) cabbage, sliced

1 containers Mushrooms, sliced (optional)

1/2 lb. fully cooked Ham, sliced

1 cup. warm water w/ 1 pkg. Ramen flavoring, 1 Tbs. Soy Sauce, 5 tsp. Corn Starch

In an 8-10 inch non stick skillet, heat 1 tsp. oil. Add 1/2 noodles. Cook over medium heat for 5 min. Place plate on top and flip noodles. Cook another 5 min. May add more oil between adding noodles back for better browning. Keep finished noodles warm in an 150 degree oven. Finish other 1/2 of noodles in the same manner.

In wok, heated on high, add 1 Tbs. oil and stir fry cabbage and mushrooms. Then add ham and stir a few minutes more. Stir in chicken broth mixture. Cook until thick and bubbling. Serve on top noodles.