Excerpted from Wendy Kiang-Spray’s The Chinese Kitchen Garden.

In a good Chinese restaurant these soft noodles will be speckled with a few spots of brown, and the entire dish will be infused with a slight smokiness accomplished by a professional kitchen’s super hot flames. In the home kitchen, we can re-create this by resisting the urge to stir immediately and frequently and by letting the noodles cook undisturbed for a bit. The wide rice noodles used in this dish are generally sold pre-cooked in Asian supermarkets, either fresh in the bakery section or bagged in the refrigerator case. Ask for haw fun.

Much of any season’s garden harvest can go into the combination of vegetables used in this recipe. The trick is to separate the harder vegetables (such as sugar snaps, carrots, baby corn, green beans, and the sturdy stems of Chinese greens) from the softer vegetables (such as bean sprouts, mushrooms, and tops of leafy greens) because the harder vegetables require a longer cooking time. Vegetarians can look for a vegetarian oyster sauce, usually made from mushrooms. If you choose to add chicken or sliced beef, stir-fry the meat first, set aside in a bowl, then add to the wok of cooked vegetables at the end to reheat just before topping the plate of cooked noodles.

Mixed Vegetable Chow Fun

Serves 4-6

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons light soy sauce
• 2 teaspoons cornstarch
• 2 teaspoons Shaoxing rice wine
• 2 tablespoons oyster sauce
• 1/2 cup water
• 3–5 tablespoons corn or peanut oil
• 1 pound fresh wide rice noodles, cut into
• 3/4-inch strips and then separated
• 4 slices ginger, 1/4 inch thick
• 3 green onions, cut into
• 2-inch lengths
• 4 cups vegetables, rinsed (any combination of sugar snaps, snow peas, long beans cut into 2-inch sections, bean sprouts, julienned carrots, mushrooms, baby corn, or Chinese greens such as bok choy or gailan cut into 2-inch sections)
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic

Instructions

1. Combine the soy sauce, cornstarch, rice wine, oyster sauce, and water in a glass or small bowl. Set aside.
2. Heat a wok over high heat until hot and then add 2 or 3 tablespoons of oil. When hot, add the separated noodles and quickly spread them along the walls of the wok. Cook for 30 seconds without stirring. Then, gently turn and stir noodles until they’re softened, about 5 minutes. Transfer to a serving dish.
3. Reduce heat to medium heat and add another 1 or 2 tablespoons of oil to the wok. When hot, add the ginger and green onions and stir until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add sugar snaps and other hard vegetables and stir-fry for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add remaining softer vegetables and garlic. Continue to cook until all vegetables are tender, about 3 more minutes.
4. Add the soy sauce mixture to the wok and cook until the sauce bubbles and thickens. Pour the mixed vegetables and sauce over the noodles to serve.

About the Book:

A beautiful introduction to growing and cooking with the variety, deliciousness, and healthfulness of Chinese cuisine!

Wendy Kiang-Spray’s family has a strong culinary and gardening tradition. In The Chinese Kitchen Garden, she beautifully blends the story of her family’s cultural heritage with growing information for 38 Chinese vegetables—like lotus root, garlic, chives, and eggplant—and 25 traditional recipes, like congee, dumplings, and bok choy stir-fry. Organized by season, you’ll learn what to grow in spring and what to cook in winter.

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