Asian cooking

• Chicken, chicharo and quail eggs stir fry
• Beef and hofan soup
• Beef and asparagus stir fry
• Char sui (Chinese barbecue sauce)
• Smoked salmon and tofu stir fry
• Beef curry
• Tofu and eggplants with salted yellow beans
• Sandalwood in Vietnamese Pho
• Fried chicken and cabbage fried rice
• Salmon, mango and coriander maki

How to cook

• Aromatic (and tastier!) spring roll wrappers
• Don’t be a kitchen slave
• How to make crepe-like lumpia (spring roll) wrapper
• Sauteing basics
• Braised bangus (milkfish) fillets
• Herb-infused olive oil: make your own
• The how-to-cook series
• Pinoy pesto
• Stages in beating egg whites
• If you want your chilis mildly hot instead of very hot

Recent Comments

• leah
  on 'Colette’s buko (coconut) pie'
• leah
  on 'Colette’s buko (coconut) pie'
• vir
  on 'Chili garlic prawns'
• todo
  on 'Paksiw na lechon manok'
• Elai Atendido
  on '“Bibingka” and “puto bumbong”'
• Mayen
  on 'Special puto'
• Mayen
  on 'Special puto'
• Mc
  on 'Lo mein in less than 15 minutes'
• miera montero
  on 'Maja Maiz'
• mayums
  on 'Lord Stow’s egg tarts and wheat-bread siopao'

Pancit miki bihon

Here is a recipe that originated from China. The Chinese introduced noodles, noodle-making and noodle cooking in the Philippines centuries ago. We have adopted and improvised Chinese noodle recipes, and integrated them into our own cuisine using locally-available ingredients.

Just like Italian pasta, oriental noodles come is a wide variety of shapes and sizes, fresh and dried. Rice noodles–bihon, sotanghon, ho fan–are white; egg noodles, like miki, are yellow.

Ingredients :

1/2 kilo chicken breast, boiled and flaked
1 cup chicken broth (saved from the boiled chicken)
1/2 kilo of egg noodles (fresh noodles, if available)
100 g. of dried rice noodles (not vermicelli, both are transparent and may look the same, but they are different)
1 medium-sized carrot, cut into matchsticks
1/4 green beans (french beans, preferably), cut diagonally into 1-inch pieces
1/2 head of cabbage shredded
(You can substitute other vegetables like cauliflower, celery or broccoli)
1 onion, diced
1 head garlic, minced
1/2 cup oyster sauce (do not subsitute oyster-flavored sauce; Lee Kum Kee is a good brand)
2 to 3 tbsp. dark soy sauce
1/8 cup vegetable cooking oil
drizzling of sesame seed oil
pepper

Cooking procedure :

First of all, when you boil the chicken, spice up the broth with a whole onion, a whole head of garlic, a few peppercorns and a bay leaf. Don’t take shortcuts with this because the broth improves the overall flavor of the dish.

Place the egg noodles in a large heat-proof bowl. Pour boiling water to cover. Let stand 1 minute. Drain. This step is important if using fresh egg noodles. Fresh egg noodles are oily and salty. Blanching it in boiling water and draining it removes most of the saltiness and the excess oil.

Heat skillet (the best utensil to cook this dish in is a Chinese wok). Pour oil. Heat until just starting to smoke. Saute garlic and onions. Toss in carrots. Stir for a minute. Add beans. Then, the cabbage. When the cabbage starts to wilt, add 1 cup of chicken broth. When the broth starts to boil, add the rice noodles.

(While most people pre-soak the rice noodles in cold water, then drain it, I prefer to let it soak and cook in the chicken broth. This way, it absorbs the nutrients and flavor of the chicken.)

When the rice noodles has absorbed most of the liquid, add the egg noodles, flaked chicken breast, soy sauce, oyster sauce and pepper. Stir to distribute the vegetables evenly. Drizzle sesame seed oil all over. Give it a few more stir. That’s it! It’s ready. Serve it while still hot.

In the mood for more food?

1. Fish, mung bean sprouts (togue), tofu and rice noodles
2. Baked eggplants with bacon and cheese
3. Baked tuna belly
4. Win a free Pinoy Cook Tastebook!
5. Basil and garlic toast
6. Crispy chicken strips with sweet and sour sauce
7. Newspaper article on food blogs
8. Savory oven-grilled chicken
9. Pork Barbeque
10. Speedy’s picadillo