Singapore Noodles

Name: Singapore Noodles
Total time: 25 min
Yield: Serves 4
Cuisine: Chinese
Ingredients: 200 g dried rice vermicelli (the thin's fine), soaked 5–8 minutes in hot (not boiling) water, drained and fanned dry; 200 g shrimp, peeled and deveined; 100 g char siu or roast pork, sliced thin (the master recipe's own); 1 red pepper (150 g), cut to fine strips; 1 onion (150 g), sliced thin; 100 g bean sprouts, drained dry; 3 cloves garlic, 1 thumb ginger, sliced (25 g); 3 scallions, cut to 5 cm lengths; 2 tbsp (15 g) mild curry powder (the Singapore's yellow — the turmeric's own); 1 tsp (3 g) ground turmeric (the colour's insurance); 2 tbsp (30 ml) light soy, 1 tsp (5 ml) dark soy, 1 tsp (5 g) sugar; 1 tsp (5 g) salt, a pinch of white pepper; 3 tbsp (45 ml) neutral oil, divided

Chinese · Easy · Serves 4

The Cantonese diaspora's most famous invention (the dish that Singapore never invented — the Hong Kong kitchen's own creation, the curry's yellow and the rice vermicelli's fine) and the wok's fastest bowl: the thin rice noodles soaked to their soft, tossed at the wok's maximum with the curry powder's yellow, the shrimp and the pork, and the vegetables' crunch. The technique is the vermicelli's soak (the hot-water bath, never the boil) and the curry's bloom.

Quantities live in the recipe card.

The noodles

The wok's team

The curry and the sauce

the turmeric's own)

- The vermicelli soaked (the hot tap's 5–8 minutes — the noodles' soft but still springy at the bite — never the boil's mush) and the drained mass fanned or spread to its surface dry (the doctrine's first law at the vermicelli's finest register).

Step 1. The curry's bloom and the proteins' fry — 90 seconds. The first oil's spoon at the wok's full smoke, the garlic and ginger for 10 seconds, the curry powder and turmeric stirred in for 15 seconds (the spices' bloom at the hot oil — the yellow's fragrance lifted), and the shrimp and pork through for 60 seconds more. Checkpoint — the oil carries the curry's golden stain and its fragrance (the spices' fat-soluble aromatics extracted at the hot oil's contact — the doctrine's bao xiang at the curry's register), and the shrimp are just-pink.

Step 2. The vegetables and the noodles — 2 minutes at the maximum. The onion and pepper for 30 seconds, the drained vermicelli in — the whole tossed at the fastest (the vermicelli's fine strand's fragility the gentle toss's own demand, despite the wok's maximum heat), the soy sauces and seasonings' splash, and the sprouts and scallions' fold at the final turn. Checkpoint — the eating test: the first strand's slurp — the vermicelli's springy-fine, the curry's warm yellow (a genuine, aromatic spice rather than the flat colour), and the shrimp's snap and the pork's savour between — the Hong Kong diaspora's own invention, honestly made at the home wok. Chef’s Note — the vermicelli's hot-water soak is the record's one law and the dish's most common home failure's cause: the rice vermicelli's fine strand cooks to its mush at the boil's full heat in under a minute, and the soak (the hot tap's or the just-off-boil kettle's 5–8-minute bath) delivers the strand's own soft-but-springy register — the tooth's slight resistance at the strand's centre that the wok's final toss finishes to its serving tenderness. The drained strand's surface-drying (the doctrine's first law, at the vermicelli's finest binding) and the gentle toss (the fine strand's breakage the hard stir's own cost) are the two cares; the rest is the wok's fastest bowl.