Chow Mein

Method

1. boil4 min
   a minute short of the packet, rinsed cold, then spread out to air-dry
   noodles, drained and left to dry on a tray for at least ten minutes if there is time. Surface water is the enemy of crisping: it has to boil off before the noodle can reach browning temperature, and while it does the pan cools and the noodles steam. Dry noodles brown in a fraction of the time
2. mix3 min
   two bowls: sauce, and cornstarch slaked in 2 tbsp cold water
   stock + soy sauce + oyster sauce (+ sugar) in one bowl; cornstarch and cold water in another. Cornstarch must be slaked in cold liquid first — dropped dry into hot stock it gelatinises on the outside of each grain instantly and sets into lumps that cannot be whisked out
3. fry7 min
   2 tbsp oil, high, noodles spread flat and left alone 3 minutes a side
   noodles, pressed into an even layer and not touched until the underside is golden and crisp at the edges, then turned in sections. The stillness is the technique — every stir resets the browning and the difference between chow mein and lo mein is exactly this crust. Set the noodles aside on a rack, not a plate, so the steam escapes
4. saute5 min
   remaining oil, highest heat, hardest vegetables first
   + garlic for fifteen seconds, then onion + celery (+ chicken or shrimp cooked first and reserved), then cabbage, each given a minute before the next. Order follows density: celery holds up to five minutes of hard heat, cabbage collapses in two, sprouts in thirty seconds
5. reduce3 min
   sauce in, boiling, slurry stirred in at the end
   + sauce brought to a boil, then + cornstarch slurry, stirred until it turns glossy and thickens in about twenty seconds. The starch has to actually boil to thicken fully — pulled off at a simmer it stays thin and tastes chalky
6. fold2 min
   off the heat, crisped noodles returned last
   + noodles + bean sprouts (+ scallions, + sesame oil), tossed briefly and served at once. The noodles go back in at the very end and everything is eaten immediately: sauce on a crisp noodle is a texture with a lifespan of about two minutes