Grilled (Satay) Beef on Glass Noodles

Grilled Satay Beef on Glass Noodles

I was listening to Danny Chan in the car when suddenly I couldn't stop sobbing. Was I sad that my favourite HK singer died young? Probably, but I do have a very nice CD compilation of his best songs (offered to me by a Secondary Schoolmate whom I've since lost sight of). But hearing him sing in Cantonese was surely more the cause of this feeling of sadness, it brought to mind the nearly 13 years I've been away from home and nowadays it is starting to feel like 13 years too long.

You can take this girl out of Asia but not the Asian out of her. In my (now lost) youth, I had this dream : to learn many European languages. Looking back, I think I haven't done too badly. I'm fluent in French, know enough Spanish and German and am currently learning Italian. But somehow nothing gives me greater kick than hearing someone speak Cantonese or doing some cursing and swearing in Hokkien. Knowing that those kids of mine wouldn't be able to do any of that saddens me further.

E's Hub came back from a business trip in China and kindly gave me a pack of Mung Bean (aka Glass) Noodles. I thought of cooking them in a soup at first (they were quite large) but finally decided upon a Grilled Satay Beef on Glass Noodles.

Basically did the dish in 5 parts :

1) Sliced the beef (I used onglet/lombatello) and marinated it in light soy sauce, kecap manis, oyster sauce, sherry and sesame oil for a few hours. The same sauces and adding in corn starch and water or stock will use to fry the glass noodles with later on;

2) Immersed the dried glass noodles in hot water the time it took me to prepare the rest of the ingredients;

3) Cooked a thin omelette and shredded it;

4) Prepared and stir-fried some vegetables e.g. zucchini, carrots, asparagus, Chinese mushrooms, red peppers, chilli...in a fragrant ginger-garlic-sesame oil base;

5) Made satay sauce (actually quite optional) for the beef that I would have nicely-grilled (but still rare) on my iron grill.

Then I assembled them (glass noodles, vegetables, omelette, beef...), sprinkled some sesame seeds, fried shallots and fresh coriander leaves on top of everything and served the dish hot.