How to make glass noodles springy and not slippery – two quick recipes for ‘dry’ dishes
- When it comes to fen si, or cellophane noodles, soup broths can make them difficult to eat with chopsticks
- These ‘dry’ dishes offer an alternative, and the noodles work equally well in spring rolls
I love the noodles known in Cantonese as fen si, or in English as mung bean vermicelli, bean thread noodles, glass noodles and cellophane noodles. In soups, they absorb the broth and become slippery and difficult to pick up with chopsticks, but in “dry” dishes, such as the two below, they have an interesting springy texture. They can also be mixed with vegetables and meat or seafood to add bulk to spring-roll fillings.
The noodles should be soaked in hot (but not boiling) water to hydrate them so they are pliable.
Ants climbing a tree
The name of this dish visualises the bits of meat clinging to mung bean noodles as ants climbing a tree. It’s a fast meal to cook – not including the time needed to soak the noodles, the ingredients take less than 15 minutes to prepare.
If you don’t eat pork, use minced chicken instead, or a meat substitute, such as Omnipork.
125 grams (4 1/2 ounces) fen si
150 grams (5 1/3 ounces) minced pork
¼ tsp fine sea salt
5ml (1 tsp) light soy sauce
10ml (2 tsp) rice wine
20ml (4 tsp) cooking oil, divided
60 grams (3 1/2 tbsp) chilli bean paste
5 grams granulated sugar
150ml (2/3 cup) unsalted chicken or vegetable stock, preferably home-made
