Mushroom chow mein

A Chinese cookbook I own has a chicken chow mein recipe that I've loved for ages. Last summer, I wanted to share it with my camping buddies, but some of them are vegetarian, and you don't have access to a full kitchen while out camping. Because of that, I had to replace the chicken with mushrooms and simplify the whole recipe a little. The result, to be honest, was even tastier than the original.

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Ingredients (to serve 2)

• 150 grams / 5 ounces of rice noodles
• 300 grams / 10 ounces of mushrooms, chopped however you like
• 1 red bell pepper, cleaned and chopped in strips
• 1 large spring onion, cleaned and chopped in slices
• 150 grams / 5 ounces of beansprouts
• Some salty soy sauce*
• Some cooking oil (any will do)*
• Some 5-spices mix*

* I say some because there's no exact measurement of how much it should be precisely. Every time I make it, I just estimate how much is enough.

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Recipe

1. Mix equal amounts soy sauce and cooking oil with the 5-spices together in a bowl to make a marinade
2. Add the mushrooms to the bowl, stir them so they're covered in marinade and let them sit to take in the flavour
3. Bring a pot of water to a boil
4. Add the noodles to the boiling water, and let them boil for as long as their packaging says they should boil
5. Drain the noodles and let them sit until you need them again
6. Put some cooking oil into a wok, put the wok on a high fire and wait until you start smelling the oil
7. Add the mushrooms and keep stirring them for five minutes
8. Add the bell pepper, the spring onion, and the beansprouts, and keep stirring for another minute
9. Put the fire out and stir the noodles through

Note: You can substitute the mushrooms with chicken thigh or breast, sliced in strips, if you want to get closer to the original recipe. You can also substitute them with whole shrimp, but then you also have to replace the soy sauce with sweet chilli sauce.

bon appetit