Today, I had an interesting cooking class. My student Robin Harper is a Green party’s Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) who is celebrating his 70th birthday (Happy Birthday, Robin!!!). How cool is that?! I never thought that one day I would have a chance to teach a British politician. I can’t believe a politician who has shook hands with the queen and has met the prime minister was in my kitchen this afternoon and listened to my directions for pouring in stock and adding soy sauce to the dish.

It felt great when I saw him wolfing down both the Singapore noodles and steamed scallops he cooked in my kitchen. From the way he was eating them it looked like he really enjoyed both and has kindly offered to endorse us.

When he arrived I didn’t quite catch his job title but his wife explained who he was but I didn’t quite catch on. (How daft I am! What can I say? I’m not very good with English politics.) I’m really happy that I didn’t know he is a real politician before we start cooking or I probably will be too nervous or panic.

We cooked Singapore noodle and Steamed scallop today but I will only share this Singapore noodle recipe on my blog today with all of you. (Steamed scallop’s recipe will be on it’s way soon!!)

Singapore Noodle is another popular eastern dish in the UK and it has a rather strong flavour. The rice noodle has been marinated by turmeric powder and curry powder but you can choose a different kind of curry powder to marinade the rice noodle to your own personal preference.

The other interesting thing about this dish is this dish is actually not from Singapore. I have no idea where this dish originates from but it appears on many Chinese restaurants and take away menus. I kind of think Chinese people named this dish as “Singapore” noodle is because of the kind of spices used to marinade the noodles.

Ingredients:

3 bunches rice noodles
1 piece of chicken breast, julienne it
1 red pepper, julienne it
1 small size carrot, julienne it
3 head of bak choi, julienne it
1 chilli, take out the seed and chop finely
2 cloves garlic, chopped finely
2 thin slice ginger, chopped finely
1 teaspoon dried shrimp

Marinade for chicken breast:

1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon potato starch

Marinade for prawn:

1 teaspoon potato starch
1 teaspoon rice wine
½ teaspoon salt

Marinade for rice noodle:

1 tablespoon curry powder
1 teaspoon turmeric powder

Seasonings:

1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon sugar
½ sesame oil
1 cup of stock

Procedures:

1. Remove the skin from the chicken breast and julienne it. Marinade it with the seasonings for 15 minutes.
2. Make a deep cut on the back of each prawn. Marinate with seasonings for 5 minutes. Stirfry it until the prawn turns to red colour and leave it to one side.
3. Soak the rice noodles in warm water for 20 minutes to soften and then marinade the rice noodle with curry powder and turmeric powder for 20~30 minutes.
4. Soak the dried shrimp in warm water 15 minutes to soften it and chop finely.
5. Heat a wok with a couple tablespoons of oil and fry the garlic, ginger and chilli first then add chicken breast and carrot to stir-fry it until the chicken turn white colour.
6. Add pepper and all the seasonings to the stir-fry then add the rice noodles.
7. Using a spoon add small amounts of stock to the noodles and keep stir frying it at the same time until the rice noodles suck up all the stock.
8. Add bak choi and prawn in the end and keep stir fry it until the bak choi is cooked.

Photo credit: All photos were taken by Chris at: http://www.chrisradleyphotography.com