A Taiwanese fall favorite: fried rice noodles with pumpkin

Fried rice noodles are a part of every southern Chinese food tradition. In many places these noodles are fresh and are often called hefen. When I lived in Taipei, both fresh and dried rice noodles were beloved by the local cooks, but if push came to shove, dried rice noodles would have won out.

Called mifen, these were usually stir-fried with vegetables and meats. One of my favorite versions was sold at a tiny farmer’s market just around the corner from where I learned how to paint Chinese landscapes. A dark alley led to a little square where stands were set up, selling mainly fresh produce and meats, but with the occasional food vendor. The one I always ate at served stir-fried mifen with a squid chowder, the finely minced seafood mixed with potato starch to form silky cigars that floated in a thick stock.

Squash, shrimp, & shrooms

As time went on, pumpkin mifen started to take the city by a storm, and soon just about every Taiwanese restaurant and stand offered their own spin on this new combination. 

This one happens to be the one I like best. The pumpkin offers a sweet contrast to the savory meat and mushrooms, and the chewy noodles are just barely cooked through so that they retain their lovely texture. (See the meatless version down below, too.) I have found that butternut squash works even better here than pumpkin, as it is firmer and so does not break apart easily.

Fried rice noodles with pumpkin

Nánguā chǎo mǐfěn 南瓜炒米粉

Southern Fujian & Taiwan

Serves 6 to 8

12 to 16 ounces (or so) butternut squash, pumpkin, or kabocha squash

2 tablespoons small dried shrimp

Cold and boiling water, as needed

3 to 5 black mushrooms, either fresh or dried and plumped up

1 (10 to 12 ounce) package dried thin rice noodles (mifen)

2 green onions, trimmed

4 to 6 ounces boneless pork

2 teaspoons light soy sauce

1 tablespoon mild rice wine

1 teaspoon cornstarch

6 tablespoons peanut or vegetable oil

3 tablespoons rice wine

2 tablespoons dark soy sauce

1 tablespoon mushroom seasoning

1 teaspoon sugar

Freshly ground black pepper

Taiwanese "rice sticks"

1. First prep all of the ingredients: Peel the squash or pumpkin, remove the seeds, and cut the flesh into thin julienne. Place the shrimp in a small work bowl and cover with boiling water; when they have softened, clean the shrimp and lightly dice. Remove the stems from the mushrooms and cut them into thin slices. Place the rice noodles in a large work bowl and cover them with cool water; when they are pliable, drain them in a colander set in the sink. Use kitchen shears to chop the noodles into shorter lengths — 6 inches long is about right. Slice the green onions thinly on the diagonal, and keep the whites and greens in separate piles. Cut the pork into thin julienne, place it in a small work bowl, and toss it with the light soy sauce, 1 tablespoon rice wine, and cornstarch, and allow the meat to marinate for at least 10 minutes.

Soak til silky

2. Set a wok over medium-high heat. Add half the oil when it is hot and then toss in the pork and all the marinade. Stir-fry the meat until it is slightly browned, and scrape it out into a clean small work bowl. Add the rest of the oil, and then the whites of the green onions, chopped shrimp, and mushrooms to the wok. Stir-fry them quickly until they start to turn gold, and then add the pumpkin plus 1½ cups of water, the 3 tablespoons rice wine, dark soy sauce, mushroom seasoning, and the sugar. Bring the liquid to a boil and reduce the heat to medium-low before covering the wok for around 2 minutes to cook through the pumpkin until it is soft all the way through, but not breaking apart.

3. Remove the cover, raise the heat under the wok to high, and toss in the drained rice noodles. Toss them with the vegetables until most of the liquid has been absorbed by the mifen. Taste and adjust the seasoning a final time. Add the browned pork and onion greens. Sprinkle on as much black pepper as you like. Serve hot.

Tip

-  See the directions on how to peel and seed a pumpkin here.

-  Vegetarians can omit the pork and shrimp, but double up on the mushrooms for extra flavor.

Yunnan's stir-fried rice noodles

When it comes to starch in Yunnan cuisine, only one immediately comes to mind: rice noodles. 

People who are not familiar with these often get them mixed up with cellophane noodles (also called mung noodles or fensi). And this is perfectly understandable because in their dry state they look very similar: brittle, white, and translucent.

Rice noodles, though, are favored more in the south of China, while cellophane noodles reside comfortably in North China's many cuisines. Taiwan has some truly wonderful brands (particularly the ones made in Puli), and you will also find them made in China, Hong Kong, and Southeast Asia. The main difference -- besides quality, of course -- is thickness and whether the noodles are fresh or dry.

Textures & flavors abound

The dry noodles come in two basic shapes: thin round and thick flat. They are pretty much interchangeable when it comes to taste, although sticklers will say, for example, that Taiwanese fried mifen must be of the thin and round variety. If there are no sticklers around, it's pretty much your call.

Whenever you find fresh rice noodles in your Chinese grocers, think of this recipe and snag a package. Fresh noodles are ethereal and completely worth seeking out. If, on the other hand, you just have some dried mifen lurking in your pantry, it works beautifully here, and it doesn't matter whether it is thick or thin. This really is a forgiving and very accommodating dish.

In fact, you should think of this is merely a template for further explorations. Once you've mastered the minimal skills required for stir-frying rice noodles, let your imagination and appetite soar.

Today, for example, I decided I couldn't face another breakfast of eggs and toast or another bowl of oatmeal, so we had these rice noodles topped with fried eggs. Luscious.

Fresh wood ear

The noodles end up being a bland but plush background for an assortment of wonderful flavors. I had some fresh wood ear mushrooms in the fridge (we are lucky enough to live in mushroom country), so a bunch of them went into the wok. They too are bland, but they act as a nice, neutral setup for all the fireworks that are going on:

Red chilies explode, but in a nice way. The ones I used were the little dry Thai chilies that really only show off their heat if they gang up on your tongue; here, they mingle with everything else and so just shimmer away. The fermented black beans are nice salty punches of umami, scenting each bite as they burst and then disappear. Likewise the cilantro offers a pleasant funk, while the green onions lend their usual herbal note.

It's a wonderful combination.

Yunnan's stir-fried rice noodles
Yunnan chao mifen 雲南炒米粉
Yunnan
Serves 2 as a main dish

Aromatics

6 ounces dry rice noodles or 12 ounces fresh rice noodles
Boiling water, as needed for dry rice noodles
10 fresh or dry wood ear mushrooms, or other mushrooms
Small bunch of cilantro
5 small dried chilies, more or less
2 tablespoons fermented black beans
1 green onion, trimmed
4 tablespoons peanut or vegetable oil
1 tablespoon soy sauce
2 teaspoons roasted sesame oil

1. If you are using dried noodles, place them in a large work bowl and cover them with boiling water. As the water cools a bit, loosen the strands. After about 10 minutes, check the noodles; they should be loose and plump. If not, cover them with more boiling water. When the noodles are white and slithery, rinse them in a colander under cool tap water. Drain them and shake them dry. (If you are using fresh noodles, fluff them up so that they are in loose strands that don't stick together.)

2. Clean the mushrooms and trim, if necessary. Cut them into bite-sized pieces if they are large. Rinse the cilantro, shake dry, and trim off the ends; chop it coarsely. Break the chilies open and shake out the seeds, and then crumble them into pieces no larger than a quarter inch. Lightly chop the fermented black beans. Cut the green onion thinly on the diagonal.

3. Heat the oil in a wok over high heat until the oil shimmers. Add the mushrooms, cilantro, chilies, black beans, and green onion, and stir-fry for around a minute. Toss in the softened dried noodles or the fresh noodles and continue to stir-fry over high for around 5 minutes until the noodles are lightly browned. Add the soy sauce and sesame oil and toss some more; taste and adjust the seasoning. Serve hot.

Tips

Today's breakfast

Wood ear mushrooms are becoming more popular now in Chinese markets, but if you don't have them in your area, dried ones are easily reconstituted. Just remember that a tiny dried wood ear turns into an enormous one after it is soaked in boiling water. If you do happen to soak more than you can immediately use, just drain them and store in a plastic bag on top of a paper towel in the fridge for a day or two.

Fresh rice noodles will be fine if kept in the fridge unopened for a couple of days, although they will lose some of their softness.

Asparagus with seasoned rice noodles

If you are like me and find most attempts to coat hard vegetables (like asparagus and green beans) with flavor just a bit more of a bother than seems right, let me share a new way to enjoy them.

Up to now, the only way I've really enjoyed Chinese style green beans is when I've used the Sichuanese method called "dry frying," which really means that the beans have to be deep fried before being tossed in a sauce. 

Asparagus, while admittedly a newcomer to Chinese cuisine, also seems stubbornly resistant to any flavorings that aren't stuck on to the stems with cornstarch or other thickeners. Even so, these veggies --especially when cooked in restaurants -- often teeter between an unwelcome rawness and mushy oblivion.

An early spring crop

That is why a novel idea from Shanghai grabbed my attention.

Here, the asparagus is first quickly steam-fried so that it is barely done, keeping the lovely lengths a sparkling green and cooking them to the perfect degree of doneness. Once they are ready, everything else is tossed in, and all of the flavors gang up on the rice noodles, which turn a lovely shade of mahogany.

The brilliant thing about this is the way that rice noodles readily absorb all of the seasonings and then drape themselves around and among the veggies so that each bite is a spectrum of flavors and textures.

This is another one of those super easy recipes that rely on a clever bit of know-how (in this case, using the rice noodles to transport the savory sauce) rather than lots of time and preparation.

Crunchy yet soothing

You can use any other green vegetable here that is not leafy, like snow peas, those green beans, and so on; whatever is in season and appeals to you. All of the prep is easily done ahead of time, and if you are serving these at a dinner party, you could even cook the veggies earlier in the day so that all you have to do is toss them with the rice noodles and sauce. 

Who says Chinese food has to be hard?

Asparagus with seasoned rice noodles 
Lusun chao mifen 蘆筍炒米粉  
Shanghai
Serves 4 to 6 as part of a multicourse meal

6 to 8 ounces wide or thin dry rice noodles (see Tips)
1 pound very fresh asparagus (see Tips)
Filtered water as needed

Trap the steam with a small lid

1 tablespoon peanut or vegetable oil
1 teaspoon sea salt
2 tablespoons roasted sesame oil
1 clove garlic, minced
1½ tablespoons sweet wheat paste
1 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon Shaoxing rice wine
1¼ cups filtered water
1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds

1. Place the rice noodles in a medium work bowl and cover with cool tap water; allow them to soak for about 30 minutes until they are white and soft, and then drain. Wash and trim the asparagus, removing and discarding the tough ends. Cut the stalks into 2-inch lengths. 

Taiwanese rice noodles

2. Put the asparagus in a wok along with a tablespoon or so of water, the oil, and salt. Bring the wok to a boil and place a small lid on top of the veggies to trap some of the steam and keep them more or less submerged. Open the lid now and then to toss the asparagus. (The asparagus and noodles can be prepared ahead of time up to this point.)

3. When the asparagus is a bright green and has just a hint of rawness in the center, add the sesame oil, garlic, sweet wheat paste, sugar, rice wine, 1¼ cups water, and the softened rice noodles. Bring the wok to a boil over high heat and toss the veggies with the noodles and the sauce for only about 2 minutes to allow the noodles to soak up the sauce. Plate the dish and sprinkle with the sesame seeds. Serve hot.

Tips

Select asparagus that have tight, purplish heads with no signs of decay or dryness. The stems should be taut and juicy, while the ends of the stems should be white where they were cut. All of these tell you that the asparagus is fresh.

Softened rice noodles

Store asparagus in the fridge, preferably with the cut ends in a bit of water and the tops covered with a plastic bag, since these actually are just very dignified fern fronds. Asparagus doesn't keep well for more than a day or two, so use it up as soon as you can.

Break off the ends with your fingers, rather than cutting off the ends, as this allows you to keep only the tender parts of the stalks.

Rice noodles from the town of Puli (Poolee) in Taiwan are superb. Green bean noodles (fentiao) are equally good in this dish; as with the rice noodles, you can use wide or thick ones, and they too require a soaking in cool water to ready them for this dish.