Miến Xào Cua (Bean Thread Noodles with Crab)

My mom always likes to cook for me when I visit and this time she made miến xào cua (bean thread noodles with crab). I loved this dish when I tried it in Vietnam at the Crab Shack. I have to admit the crab meat wasn't as fresh as the crab in Vietnam but this dish was still a treat. How can you go wrong with noodles and crab?



Miến Xào Cua (Bean Thread Noodles with Crab)

* 250 g bean thread noodles (or mung bean noodles)
* oil
* half an onion, sliced thinly
* 1 cup crab meat (or more!), picked through for leftover shell
* 1/2 tsp salt
* pepper, to taste
* 3 or 4 ladles of water, or broth
* 1 green onion, sliced into 1/2" sections
* coriander (optional)

Run dry noodles through water.
Cut noodles in smaller sections with scissors if they are very long.
Heat oil in a large pan or wok.
Add onion slices and white sections of onion, and sauté until softened.
Add the crab meat and mix in.
Season with salt and pepper.
Add the noodles, mixing it in until the noodles soften.
If the noodles seem to dry out, add a ladle of water or broth.
Once noodles are nearly cooked, add green onions.
Taste the noodles, and adjust seasoning to taste.
Lower the heat and cover the noodles with a lid, cooking a further 5 minutes, until the noodles are cooked.
Garnish with coriander.
Tada!



Miến Xào Cua (Bean Thread Noodles with Crab).

This dish is easy to make and a good alternative when you want a big bowl of carbs with a yummy accompaniment! It will have to do until I can get back to Vietnam and get my hands on fresh crab dishes!



P.S. My mom served this with wonton soup as a starter and mango salad as a side (ooh, I thought I had a recipe for mango salad - will have to add it!).

Other bean thread noodles:
* Vietnamese Chicken Bean Thread Noodle Soup
* Vegetarian Bean Thread Noodles

Bún Tàu Chay (Vegetarian Mung Bean Noodle)

I have yet again neglected my little food blog. No excuses, but I do have a few posts planned. I have been making this vegetarian mung bean noodle (bún tàu = Chinese noodles, which refers to mung bean noodles and chay = vegetarian) dish fairly regularly recently. This is my mother's go-to dish during Lent, when we abstain from eating meat on Fridays. This is actually a vegan dish as it contains no meat products!

I love the combination of the savoury soy ingredients: fermented bean curd and fried gluten. Fermented bean curd, soft salty cubes of soy found in jars, is often used in Asian cuisine; we often have it in plain congee. My sister loves my mom's chicken marinated in fermented bean curd. Fried gluten, which comes in cans, is used to make faux/mock meat in Asian cuisine. Mung bean noodles (or cellophane noodles), another Asian ingredient, are made out of the starch of... mung beans, what else?

Bún Tàu Chay (Vegetarian Mung Bean Noodle) - Serves 4
One of the reasons it took me a long time to write this post, was that I wanted to figure out how to best cook the noodles. I've tried soaking them and they get too soggy so you just want to rinse them and have them a bit wet. You can add any vegetables you prefer. Mushrooms would be a great addition! Fermented bean curd is quite salty, so you probably won't need to add salt.

* oil
* ¼ or so of a napa cabbage, sliced ½" thick
* 3 or 4 small bundles of mung bean noodles (I like to buy mung bean noodles in a package of small little bundles)
* 6 cubes of fermented bean curd, or to taste
* cooked/thawed frozen vegetables of your choice (I sauteed some green beans, corn and carrots beforehand)
* 1 can of fried gluten, drained (I don't rinse it because I like the flavouring)

Heat up oil in a large pan.
Add the napa cabbage and cook for a few minutes; it will release some liquid.

Quickly rinse the mung bean noodles and add to the cabbage.

Mash the fermented bean curd so it becomes a thick paste, adding a bit of water if needed.

Pour the bean curd paste on the noodles and cabbage, and mix.

Once the cabbage is cooked, add the vegetables and fried gluten.
Taste and season to taste, adding salt or more bean curd.
Tada!

From top left clockwise: (1) jar of fermented bean curd and can of fried gluten (2) cubes of fermented bean curd (3) mung bean noodles and (4) straining the fried gluten.

When you have excessively eaten meat, this is a great dish to get back to eating healthy and light! It has quickly become a new savoury favourite dish for dinner.

Another mung bean noodle recipe:
* Vietnamese Chicken Bean Thread Noodle Soup

Carbs Galore (Noodles, Pasta, Rice, etc.)

Grains

Grilled Vegetable Couscous	Couscous with Mint & Raisins	Red & White Quinoa Mushroom Risotto

Noodles

Bún Thịt Heo Băm Xào (Rice Vermicelli with Ground Pork)	Cooking Bánh Hỏi (Fine Rice Vermicelli)	Cooking Bún (Rice Vermicelli)	Stir-Fried Broccoli and Scallops on Pan Fried Cantonese Noodles

Stir Fried Wide Noodles with Beef

Pasta

Asparagus alla Carbonara	Baked Chicken Penne in a Rosé Sauce	Chicken and Mushroom Orzo	Eggplant Parmesan

Fresh Egg Pasta	Fried Polenta and Mushrooms	Mushroom Ravioli	Pasta with Mushroom Sauce

Pasta with Pesto, Grilled Chicken and Vegetables	Pea Ravioli	Penne with Sausage and Swiss Chard	Penne with Turkey Meatballs

Pesto Goat Cheesy Pasta	Pumpkin Ravioli	Roasted Vegetable Lasagna Roll	Shrimp & Pesto Alfredo

Spaghetti & Meatballs

Spinach Stuffed Pasta Shells

Truffle Macaroni & Cheese

Rice

Cơm Tấm Chả (Vietnamese Broken Rice with Meatloaf)	Risotto with Asparagus

Recipes in green font are vegetarian.

Click here for Recipes by Cuisine.
Click here for Recipes by Types of Dish.

Phở Xào Thịt Bò (Stir Fried Noodles with Beef)

There are certain dishes that I don't make on my own. I'm not sure if it's laziness, or I'm just not interested enough to make it on my own. Phở xào thịt bò (stir fried noodles with beef) is one of these dishes. Therefore, it's the perfect dish to ask my mom to make when I visit! I guess I thought it was not worth the effort; however, I realized it's not as hard as I thought.



Phở Xào Thịt Bò (Stir Fried Noodles with Beef) - 2 servings
My mom broke the recipe into two so it would be easier to stir fry in the frying pan. If you want to make more servings, multiply all the ingredients, cook the beef all at once and just divide the noodles into manageable portions. The recipe is split into two: first, you need to cook the meat, then you cook the noodles and add the beef at the end.

Cooking the beef
* 200 g beef, sliced thinly
* baking soda (just a bit to make sure the meat is not tough)
* salt
* ground black pepper
* garlic powder
* sesame oil
* white parts of green onion
* oil
* ½ onion, sliced
* 1 garlic clove, minced
* oyster sauce

Pre-season the meat by adding baking soda, salt, pepper, garlic powder and sesame oil to taste.
Heat oil in a large frying pan at medium-high heat.
Cook the onion slices and garlic until softened.
Add the beef and green onion and cook quickly, while stirring.
Add a bit of oyster sauce and mix again.
Set the beef aside once the meat is finished cooking.



Cooking the beef.

Cooking the noodles
* oil
* ½ package phở (Vietnamese rice noodles), soaked in water until soft and drained
* dark soy sauce
* 1-2 handfuls of bean sprouts
* green parts of green onion, in 1" sections

Heat oil in a large frying pan on medium-high heat.
Add some dark soy sauce and make sure the noodles are well coated.
Add the bean sprouts and green onion, and mix well.
Once the noodles have cooked and softened, turn off the heat and add the cooked beef.
Serve with Thai basil.
Tada!



Cooking the noodles.


A hearty dish of noodles and beef.

For other Asian recipes with beef:
* Betel Leaves stuffed with Ground Beef
* Vietnamese-style Grilled Beef with Rice Vermicelli
* Vermicelli with Stir-Fried Beef