Vermicelli Cooking Tips

[Eve]

Got a bit adventurous earlier when I went to a Chinese supermarket with a friend and decided to buy some goodies for tea, never realised how cheap it was!

I got some vermicelli noodles and wanted to doublecheck the best way to cook them. I was told they need to soak in boiling water for about 5 minutes before cooking them and was hoping to then cook them with some soy sauce in a frying pan like I do when making my own egg fried rice (don't have a wok anymore). Thought I'd ask for tips before I ruin it!

I bought a tomato and garlic sauce for prawns and then grabbed some cheap little prawns and chestnut mushrooms (on offer for 50p!) in Tesco to go with them. Not sure if the mushrooms will go, I love mushrooms but not tried chestnut ones but they were cheap!

Hoping I can make a decent job of it as I'd like to experiment more as nowhere near as expensive as I thought in there, cost me about £1.90 for a large pack of the noodles, a bottle of soy sauce and the sauce for the prawns!

If all goes well I fancy trying to make some laksa with some more of the noodles if I go get some coconut milk and the flavouring for it from there if anyone has any tips for that too.

[wolf63]

I am currently cremating fish and chips in the oven - they have different cooking temperatures and need different cooking times. For me this is as complicated as cooking gets.

I hope that you enjoy your meal.

[scrummyyummy]

Don't over-soak them because they will become stodgy and mushy. I tend to just plunge them in boiling water and as soon as they soften (very quick), I drain them and run cold water over them otherwise they become sticky from their own heat. You can then use them in stir-frys, soups or a cold salad. You can add anything you like to them but make sure you cook the raw meat first. The noodles will already be cooked from the boiling water so just add them at the end of stir-frying.

[Eve]

I did thanks Wolf, might go a bit easier on the sauce next time as it was lovely but quite hot, I like hot but a bit overpowering if too much used.

Thanks for the tips, much appreciated. I googled and a lot of sites seemed to say to boil them like normal noodles and they were very normal noodle like and, even with the stirfrying at the end with everything else, they stayed like that. I wanted them nice and dry like you get in restaurants.

I used the rest the day after and just soaked them in boiling water for about 10 mins and they were better but still quite normal soggy noodle like. Will definitely try just the quick plunge next time, hopefully that will get the effect I want :)

I'm definitley going back to the chinese supermarket we went too, it was so cheap! So much stuff in there I can get adventurous with without spending much money.

I've been on a serious budget so takeaways have not really been an option so I learnt to make my own egg fried rice and hoping to get some other skills. I really need to buy a wok though. I'm always in awe at a takeaway place (ahh the good old days haha) I love here called RICE. They do fusion cooking and cook things to order for you. The kitchen is open so you can watch them cook and it facinates me watching them chucking everything around in a wok.

I love their egg fried rice as none of the MSG oversalted stuff you get in many places. I used to have, as a special treats, Kashmiri lamb chops with them, they do them on a charcoal (I think) grill and they are gorgeous! I think I have a new post coming up...