Peiwen’s Meal for Two – Easy Chinese Egg Fried Rice and Fried Noodle

Do you avoid buying fresh ingredients and vegetables because you are worried that you cannot cook them all before they spoil? We can relate!

To make the most of your ingredients, it is best to have different recipes that requires the same ingredients so there wouldn’t be any surplus left forgotten in the fridge. Here are two easy recipes which are great weeknight quick dinner fixes and with the same ingredients: Chinese Fried Noodles and Egg Fried Rice.

Chinese Fried Noodles

Egg Fried Rice

The ingredients are pork shoulder butt, eggs, French beans, carrots, dried Shiitake mushrooms, garlic, ginger, soya sauce, sesame oil, Chinese cooking wine (hua diao chiew), cornflour, salt, and pepper. Each recipe uses half of the packaged amount you get at the supermarket for the vegetables and pork.

*As the preparation for both dishes similar, the steps shown are for Egg Fried Rice where the ingredients are diced into small cubes. However, when preparing for the Chinese Fried Noodles, take note to slice the ingredients into strips instead. The cutting styles are to suit the shape of the rice or noodles and ensure that there will be a bit of each ingredient in every spoonful of rice or forkful full of noodles.

Let’s get started with the first step which is to marinate the pork.

Cut the pork before marinating.*

Dicing pork for Egg Fried Rice

Place the cut pork into a bowl and add all of the marinade ingredients. Mix well to combine. #cookingtip cornflour gives pork a smooth texture!

Simple five ingredient pork marinade

Mix cut pork with marinade sauce

Let the pork marinate for at least 20 minutes, but for maximum flavour you can marinate it overnight.

Next, prepare and cut the French beans, carrots, and mushrooms.*

Chopping French beans for Egg Fried Rice

Chopping carrots for Egg Fried Rice

Remember to soak your dried mushrooms overnight before cutting them. If you have forgotten to do so, simply soak the mushrooms in a pot of boiling water for 5 minutes and let sit for 20 minutes with the fire off.

Chopping mushrooms for Egg Fried Rice

#cookingtip for the health-conscious cooks, use more fresh vegetables so you can add lesser noodles or rice in the dishes and still be full!

The next step is to stir-fry the pork and vegetables. **To ensure a great tasting dish, there are some slight differences in the cooking steps here for the two dishes, so if you are starting with Chinese Fried Noodles first, skip on down. However, essentially these are the prepared ingredients for both dishes.

Prepared vegetables and meat for Chinese Fried Noodles and Egg Fried Rice

Cooking up a plate of Fried rice is simple and you can use any ingredients you love! Peiwen’s rule-of-thumb for a plate of great tasting Fried Rice is “Dry” and “Fragrant”.  Hence, prepare two frying pans when cooking as frying the ingredients separately reduces the amount of gravy or oil that will turn the rice mushy.

Stir-fry the pork for three minutes until it is fully cooked.

Frying pork for Egg Fried Rice

Set the pork aside. Using a clean pan, sauté the garlic and vegetables until cooked and season them with salt and pepper. A clean pan retains the vegetables’ original flavour and prevent them from soaking up the taste of the pork for more complexity to the dish. Set the cooked vegetables aside on a plate.

Fry vegetables until soft for Egg Fried Rice

Set cooked vegetables aside

In the last step, we will fry the rice and assemble the dish. Add some cooking oil and three eggs into the pan. Give the eggs a quick stir and add in the pre-cooked rice.

Give eggs a quick stir

Coat each grain of rice with egg

Coat the rice with the egg by tossing and stirring it until cooked dry. The rice has to be fried at high heat to remove any excess liquid and to ensure that every grain has the fragrances of the egg.

Cook until rice is visibly dry

Add in the stir-fried vegetables and pork and fry for two minutes to let the flavours come together.

Add the pork and vegetables to the rice and fry.

When the wok is smoking, season the rice with some soy sauce. The Egg Fried Rice is ready to be served!

Easy Egg Fried Rice

**For the Chinese Fried Noodles, stir fry the pork first, as for the Egg Fried Rice, and set aside. This time, we will be cooking the eggs first before the vegetables.

In a bowl, season the eggs with soya sauce and pepper and beat them.

Season and beat the eggs evenly

To a clean pan, add some cooking oil and stir fry the eggs until slightly brown. Set the cooked eggs aside.

Cook the eggs until there are brown spots on them

In the same pan, add some cooking oil and stir fry the garlic and vegetables. Season with salt and pepper and add some water to the pan.

Stir fry the vegetables and season

Once the vegetables are soft, add in the pre-cooked noodles and pork and combine with the vegetables. #cookingtip after boiling the noodles, rinse them with tap water to prevent them from overcooking and becoming too soft.

Add the pork and noodles to the vegetables

Mix the noodles with the ingredients

Season the noodles with some soy sauce and add in the cooked eggs. Mix well and cook for another 2 minutes before plating.

Add the eggs to the fried noodles and mix well

Garnish the Chinese Fried Noodles with some chopped spring onions and you are done!

Garnished Chinese Fried Noodles

Peiwen’s Meal-for-two was created for newly-weds and couples who have just moved into their new homes, have a beautiful kitchen to work in, but have no idea what to whip up. These recipes are by Loo Peiwen, herself, who is an avid home cook, has a passion in culinary, and enjoys creating dishes using her love for food. These recipes have been tried and tested, are authentic, delicious, and perfect for two! These meals are easily achievable, just simply follow our steps and instructions! Most importantly, you can be sure both of your appetites would be satiated at the end of the day! 

Get the full recipes below!