Shanghai Fried Noodles

1. Marinate thinly sliced, julienned pork in 2 tablespoons of light soya sauce, a pinch of sugar, and sherry or rice wine. Leave it to marinate for a minimum of 30 minutes.

2. If using fresh noodles, cook the rice noodles now. They need to be boiled like dried pasta and usually take about 20 minutes. When cooked, leave them to drain in a colander. If using oiled noodles, these have been pre-cooked, so there’s no need to cook them; just chuck them in at step 8. In the meantime, start preparing the vegetables. Chop the cabbage into bite-sized chunks and slice the mushrooms thinly.

3. Heat up your wok on high heat. Add the vegetable oil.

4. Fry the garlic and ginger in the vegetable oil and immediately add the pork. It doesn’t take long at all for the pork to cook, about a minute, so add the cabbage when the pork is still a little pink.

6. Add 4 to 5 tablespoons of water, stir the cabbage and pork so they are well mixed, and put the lid on to cook the cabbage. Turn the heat to medium and leave it for about 10 minutes, until the cabbage is cooked to your liking.

7. Add the mushrooms, the remaining 3 tablespoons of light soya sauce and stir it all together.

8. Add the cooked noodles, and fry for a few minutes more until the noodles are hot again and everything is well coated. Add the sesame oil at the end (optional), and turn the heat off.

Serve with chopsticks!