Gormandize: Filipino Pancit Canton

Sunday 29 March 2015

Filipino Pancit Canton

The Philippines is a fun country to explore, it's such a melting pot of different influences. A lot of Chinese influence has made it into their traditional dishes, and this is one of them. Pancit means noodles, so these noodles are called Cantonese Noodles in the Philippines. It's a dish of stir fried noodles with vegetables (and usually pork) similar to a chow mein. It has lots of variations, you can use any variety of mixed veggies, and a few different cooking methods. I love how easy this dish is because you cook the noodles in the broth, rather than separately, which makes it a great one-pot dish.

Filipino Pancit Canton

Ingredients
1 cup dried shiitake mushrooms
2 tbsp. oil
1 onion, sliced
6 cloves garlic, crushed
2 medium-large carrots, cut into sticks
4 cups vegetable stock
1/2 cup light soy sauce
750g dried wheat noodles
3 cups shredded green cabbage
A few handfuls of snow peas, trimmed
Generous grinding of black pepper

To Make
1. Soak shiitake mushrooms in one cup of hot water while you chop all your veggies.
2. Heat the oil in a wok and sauté the onion until just softened and then add the crushed garlic and cook for another few minutes.
3. Add the carrots, vegetable stock, soaked mushrooms, soy sauce and any liquid remaining from the mushrooms. Bring to a simmer and simmer until the carrots are just slightly softened.
4. Add the dried wheat noodles and simmer until he noodles are just cooked and have soaked up the liquid. Add the shredded green cabbage, snow peas and a generous amount of cracked pepper. The residual heat will cook them just enough. Serve immediately.

Serves 4.

Note: Depending on the thickness and variety of your wheat noodles, liquid quantities may be variable. If your noodles have absorbed all the stock but are not quite yet cooked through, you may need to add in a little bit more liquid - make sure it is boiling hot rather than cold. Alternately, you may find that the noodles are perfectly cooked but you still have quite a bit of liquid. In this case, mix 1 tbsp. cornstarch with 2 tbsp. cold water and stir just before you take it off the heat and add the remaining veggies.