Lobster Noodle Stir Fry

In my family, my dad is the Noodle King.

Born in Penang, home to the mighty Asam Laksa, my dad came out to Australia in the 60s as a high school student. Back then, there was only one or two Asian restaurants in Adelaide and both were Chinese. So if dad wanted to eat the hawker dishes of his childhood like Char Kway Teow (fried rice noodles), Asam Laksa (sour fish noodle soup), Curry Laksa, Har Mee (prawn noodle soup), Sar Hor Fun (‘wet’ fried rice noodles) and Sambal Udang (prawn sambal), he had to learn to cook them himself.

And so he did.

Asian street food devotees may argue that you can never truly recreate the taste of a hawker dish in a domestic kitchen: they say that the wok doesn’t get hot enough and the ingredients are not the same. They say too, that it’s about the atmosphere – the sheer satisfaction of eating a bowl of $AUD2 noodles on a plastic stool underneath a furiously spinning fan at your favourite hawker restaurant can never truly be replicated.

That may be true but why should we not try to reach for those moments? After all, a little bit of love is better than none, isn’t it?

When my grandmother was alive she would cook her Asam Laksa paste and her Sambal Hebi (dried shrimp sambal) each time we visited Malaysia. We would freeze them in plastic bags and wrap them in old newspaper to bring home to Australia. Later, when I was working overseas, my parents brought me these precious parcels and whenever I was homesick I would use them as the base to create the dishes from my childhood. It made me feel connected and loved.

I’m working with Bertolli at the moment, developing Asian-style dishes for them using their light olive oil. The first recipe I made for them was a Beef Stir Fry and recently, I made this Lobster Noodle Stir Fry, based on my dad’s recipe. It’s not a dish he ate growing up, rather, it’s a dish that he makes for special occasions that the whole family enjoys. To watch my three year old niece slurp up these noodles is to witness pure joy.

Eat the love.

Tell me, dear reader, what are your most cherished family recipes?

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Ingredients

• 2 lobster tails (about 600 grams), washed and patted dry, cut into slices at the joints and fins and little legs removed (last one is optional).
• 1 tablespoon light soy sauce + 2 more teaspoons soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon sugar + 1 more teaspoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon cornflour.
• 2 tablespoons plus another 2 tablespoons Bertolli light olive oil
• 6 spring onions, trimmed and cut into two-inch slices.
• 3 inch piece of ginger, peeled and cut into large, 3mm slices
• 2 tablespoon oyster sauce
• 3 cups water
• 5 cakes of Yee Mee (deep dried noodles)

Instructions

1. Make a marinade with 1 tablespoon soy sauce, 1 teaspoon sugar and 1 teaspoon cornflour.
2. Mix and then add lobster pieces and stir to thoroughly coat. Cover and refrigerate for one hour.
3. Heat wok or large, non-stick fry pan until smoking and then add two tablespoons of Bertolli light olive oil.
4. Over a medium to high flame, add lobster pieces and three slices ginger. Stir occasionally, trying not to disturb the meat too much. Add half of the remaining spring onion pieces.
5. Once lobster meat is starting to brown and shells are red, remove to a serving plate and set aside. Turn heat off.
6. Mix 2 tablespoons oyster sauce, 1 teaspoon soy sauce, 3 cups water and 1 teaspoon sugar in a bowl.
7. Heat wok up again and add two more tablespoons of Bertolli light olive oil. Add half the ginger and half of the remaining spring onions. Stir for a minute or two then add the oyster sauce mixture. Add five cakes of fried noodles and stir to combine. Turn heat down to low and put lid on wok. Leave to cook for two minutes and then stir again. Put lid back on for another minute. Take lid off and return lobster to pot. Stir to combine and add rest of ginger and spring onions before putting lid back on for another minute. Taste and season if desired and then transfer to serving dish.

Variations:

1. Use 600 grams raw King Prawns or a combination of prawns and squid (calamari) instead of lobster.
2. Instead of 3 cups water, use 1.5 cups water and 1.5 cups chicken stock for an even more flavoursome dish.

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