Shanghai Noodles with Spring Onion Oil 葱油面cōng yóu miàn

You can eat them for breakfast, lunch or midnight snack. The combination of oil infused with the fragrance of spring onion and the umami savouriness of soy sauce is irresistible no matter how humble and simple the ingredients sound.

Serves 3-4

 Spring  Onion Oil Dressing (yield about 8 tablespoons) 葱油汁

• 5 to 6                   spring onions, 香葱切段，葱白、葱叶分开
• 6 tablespoons    cooking oil
• 4 tablespoons    light soy sauce 生抽
• 2 tablespoons    dark soy sauce老抽
• 4 teaspoons       caster sugar白糖
• 1                          spring onion for garnish, minced 葱花

300g-400g      noodles (100g per person)

Method

1. on a cutting board, separate the white and green parts of the spring onions. You may smack slightly the white part with the flat side of your Chinese clever or a rolling pin to loosen their fibers. Then cut the white and green parts evenly into 6-7cm sections.
2. Heat the cooking oil over medium heat for 2 minutes. Turn it to LOW heat. Add the green part of the spring onions and fry for about 5 minutes. Drain and discard the caramelized spring onions. Then add the white part of the spring onions. Continue to fry over low heat for about 10 minutes. Add light soy sauce, dark soy sauce and sugar and fry over low heat for 1-2 minutes. Turn the heat off once you see the bubbles start emerging. The spring onion oil dressing is done. Pour it in a bowl.
   

   
3. Bring a large pot of water to a boil over HIGH heat and cook the noodles to your liking, then drain them well – depending on the types of your noodles, the process takes no more than 10 minutes. Cool the noodles off with running water if you’d like. Put the noodles in a serving bowl. Add the spring onion oil dressing and mix well with a pair of chopsticks. Garnish the serving bowl with minced spring onions. Think about adding two tablespoons of spring onion oil dressing for one serving (100g noodles.)
4. Ready to serve.

 Tips:

1. Make a large quantity of the spring onion oil and keep it in the fridge. Then you can have a bowlful of this gorgeous snack in 10 minutes – the time requires to boil water and cooking the noodles.
2. Make the spring onion oil dressing over LOW heat. Boil water and cook the noodles over HIGH heat.