Shanghai Noodles Soup in Brown Meat Sauce

When I have a craving for noodles, I usually cook a bowl of this Shanghainese noodle soup. It is a simple dish of meat and pickled mustard greens in brown sauce. I had this many years ago at a friend's house and I remembered how she would make her own noodles and spend hours washing the fresh mustard greens and pickle them in salt. Nowadays, you can easily purchase these plastic wrapped pickled mustard greens in Chinese supermarkets. I loved mine served with sambal belachan, a spicy hot chili sauce with shrimp paste) on the side.
Ingredients:
1 lb Shanghai noodles (or fresh or packaged Udon noodles)
½ lb lean grounded pork, or beef
2 (12 oz.) pickled fresh mustard greens (washed and drained well)
2 slices of ginger, minced
5 cups low salt chicken broth
1 Tbsp. cooking oil
2 eggs, beaten (for garnishing)
Fried minced garlic (optional)
Sauce:
1 Tbsp. dark black soy sauce
1 Tbsp. dark sweet sauce
2 tsp. soy paste
1 Tbsp. oyster sauce
1 tsp. light soy sauce
2 tsp. Shaoxing wine (Chinese rice wine)
3 tsp. cornstarch
Method:
1. Mixed the sauce ingredients in a bowl and set aside. Heat some oil in a pan pour half of the egg mixture to form a thin omelet. Flip over and brown both sides of omelette. Remove and cook the rest of the egg mixture to make 2 omelettes. When cooled enough to handle, roll omelettes and cut into thin strips.
2. Heat oil in large saucepan and fry ginger until fragrant but not brown. Fry the mustard greens for about 10 minutes until fragrant. Add the grounded pork and fry until pork is no longer pink and cooked evenly, then add in the sauce ingredients, followed by the 4 cups of the broth. Stir to mix well and turn heat to low and simmer for about 15 minutes until greens are soft and sauce has thickened slightly. Add more broth to the mixture if you like it more soupy. Adjust seasonings to your taste.
3. Divide noodles into individual bowls and pour meat sauce gravy on top. Garnish with egg strips and fried garlic.
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