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GRETCHEN'S TABLE There's just something about a warm bowl of noodles that puts a smile on a person's face. Toss them with some crisp and colorful veggies and a rich sauce in quick fashion, as this recipe from "Kitchen Sanctuary Quick & Easy" does, and the pleasure is only double — tripled, if you're able to pinch a few pennies and clean out your refrigerator crisper in the process. One classic staple for noodle aficionados is chow mein, a quick stir fry of meat, vegetables and noodles that came to the U.

S. sometime during the Gold Rush era of the mid-1800s via Cantonese immigrants from southern China's Guangdong province. An Americanized version of Chinese "ch'ao mien," or "stir-fried noodles," chow mein has been a favorite American-Chinese takeout dish for many decades.



The tasty combination of noodles, crisp-tender vegetables and savory meat just works. And for those trying to re-create the flavors at home, it's also fairly easy to pull together once you've gathered and prepped all the ingredients. Cantonese chow mein is traditionally made with beef and green peppers, but I had neither and felt completely comfortable substituting what I had on hand instead: a big bag of shiitake mushrooms and red and yellow bell peppers.

If you grew up on those super-crunchy chow mein noodles La Choy famously puts in a can, you might be disappointed. In this recipe, the curly egg noodles are boiled before going into the stir-fry with the vegetables and sauce, so they're still fairly soft..

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