This recipe was inspired by something I saw on River cottage a few weeks ago, I’ve had a play around with it now and it’s really tasty, once you have the base noodle/veg combo down you can easily switch the flavours by using chilli powder, curry powder and all manner of herbs and spices along wtih any meat or other veg you want, just make sure you slice them thin enough so they cook when the hot water is poured on them.

You could also use those dried veg you get in tubs for use in pasta and soups or even dried mushrooms, although make sure they have been rinced first so you don’t get the grit in your pot.

Speaking of pots, you could go out and buy a specific pot to make your noodles in but i’ve found that the plasic ones you get supermarket “fresh” soup in work brilliantly. For the sauce pot I used a little jar i had left over from those tester sized jams you can buy in the supermarket.

For an extra firey kick you can also use a sprinkling of chilli flakes.

Ingredients

• 1 nest of fine egg noodles
• 1/2 tsp crushed fennel seeds
• 30g of good quality chorizo picante
• 3 spring onions
• 2 tbsp peas.
• 1 tsp fresh corriander, finely chopped.
• 1 tbs tomato ketchup
• 1 tbsp tomato puree
• 1 tbsp hot chilli sauce (not sweet chilli)
• 1 pinch of pepper
• Boiling water – enough to cover the noodles (300-500ml)

Method

1. Put the noodles in your pot.
2. Thinly chop your chorizo and add to your noodle pot.
3. Finely slice your spring onions, add to the noodle pot.
4. Add the peas to the noodle pot along with the fennel seeds
5. Mix the tomato ketchup, puree and chilli sauce together in your little sauce pot and season with pepper if necessary, you can adjust the quantities of sauce to ketchup as much as you want.
6. When ready to serve tip the sauce into your noodle pot, cover with boiling water and leave for about 5-6mins until the noodles have softened, mix well then enjoy!

This works best if you have some leftover chicken from Sunday lunch but you can use any kind of leftover or fresh chicken. Quantities are kind of to your own liking but if I have a cold, I really ramp up the ginger and chili!

Step 1

From leftovers:

Deflesh what remains of your chicken and put to one side, quarter the remaining carcass and boil for around an hour to make a stock. Remove the carcass and strain stock through a sieve.

From fresh:

Take a couple of chicken breasts and slice into inch thick strips, add them to a pan and poach gently until cooked (about 10 or so mins)

Step 2

Finely slice a thumb sized piece of ginger and two hot chillies, add them to a hot pan with some vegetable oil and gently fry, add some thinly sliced spring onions and garlic and fry gently for a few more minutes. Add your chicken and a couple of pints of (either cube or proper) chicken stock, add a good slug of soy sauce. Boil for about 20 mins on a low heat.

Three or four mins before serving add a couple of nests of dried medium egg noodles and continue boiling until they cook.

Just before serving thinly slice some pak choi and add along with some beansprouts.