Shallot Sauce Lobster Noodles (紅蔥龍蝦麵, Hung4 Cung1 Lung4 Haa1 Min6)

Lobster is not a frequently used ingredient that I use, given the cost and all the work needed to extract the meat from the shell.  I found a cooked lobster available at my local Asian market for a good price and decided that I wanted to make a noodle dish. The previous published Lobster Noodles (龍蝦麵, Lung⁴ Haa¹ Min⁶) recipe, uses a sauce thickened by corn starch. This lobster noodle dish doesn’t use a thickener for the sauce and is made more like a traditional chow mein recipe. The main ingredient in the sauce is a prepared shallot sauce that also can be purchased at your local Asian market. The combination of shallot sauce and lobster tastes pretty good, so give this recipe a try if you’re lucky enough to find a good priced cooked lobster.

Enjoy!

Ingredients

1 lb.	500 g.	Whole cooked lobster (龍蝦, lung4 haa1), meat removed from shell
½ lb.	250 g.	Baby bok choy (小白菜, siu2 baak6 coi3), leaves removed
7.4 oz.	210 g.	One 15 oz. (425 g.) can unpeeled straw mushrooms (草菇, cou2 gu1), drained
3 stalks	3 stalks	Green onions (葱, cung1), cut into 2-inch (5 cm.) pieces
½ in.	15 mm.	Knob of ginger (薑, goeng1), crushed in a garlic press
2 cloves	2 cloves	Garlic (蒜, syun3), crushed in a garlic press
1 lb.	500 g.	Chow mein noodles (炒麵, caau2 min6)
		Oil for cooking

 

Sauce Ingredients

2 Tbs.	30 ml.	Bull Head brand shallot sauce (紅蔥醬, hung4 cung1 zoeng3) or equivalent
2 Tbs.	30 ml.	Soy sauce (豉油, si6 jau4)
1 Tbs.	15 ml.	Hoisin sauce (海鮮醬, hoi2 sin1 zoeng3)
2 Tbs.	30 ml.	Shaoxing rice wine (紹興酒, siu6 hing1 zau2) or dry sherry
½ tsp.	2.5 ml.	Ground white pepper (白胡椒, baak6 wu4 ziu1)
1 tsp.	5 ml.	Sesame oil (麻油, maa4 jau4)

 

Equipment

14 in.	35.5 cm.	Wok or pan

 

Bull Head Brand Shallot Sauce
(紅蔥醬, hung4 cung1 zoeng3)

Preparation Instructions

1. Remove the claws and tail from the whole cooked lobster. These parts can be removed with a sharp cleaver or by hand with a quick twist. Use a sharp cleaver to cut the body in half lengthwise. Remove and discard the black/green intestine that runs the length of the lobster body and tail. Use kitchen shears to cut and remove the shell from the lobster parts, including the small legs. Try to keep the lobster meat as intact as possible and cut the larger parts into 1-inch (25 mm.) pieces.
2. Wash and remove the leaves from the baby bok choy.
3. Open and drain the liquid from the can of unpeeled straw mushrooms. Peeled straw mushrooms can be substituted if the unpeeled version is not available.
4. Crush the ginger and garlic in a garlic press and put into a small bowl.
5. Wash and cut the green onions into 2-inch (5 cm.) pieces.
6. Prepare and mix the sauce in a small bowl: add the Bull Head brand shallot sauce or equivalent, soy sauce, hoisin sauce, Shaoxing rice wine or dry sherry, ground white pepper, and sesame oil.

Cooking Instructions

1. Cook the noodles according to the instructions on the package and until the noodles are al dente. Drain the noodles and set aside. If ready-made or fresh noodles are used, “fluff” the noodles to separate them (i.e. you don’t want put a single mass of noodles into the wok).
2. Heat a wok or pan over high heat before adding oil and then the straw mushrooms. Stir fry the mushrooms and then remove them to a bowl.
3. Reheat the wok over high heat before adding oil and then the bowl with the ginger and garlic. Quickly stir fry the ginger and garlic until fragrant before adding more oil and then the baby bok choy. Stir fry the ingredients and then remove them to the bowl with the mushrooms.
4. Reheat the wok over high heat before adding more oil and then the noodles. The wok should be very hot before adding the oil and then the noodles. Noodles cooked in a restaurant wok (over much higher heat than that available in your kitchen) are served slightly burned, which gives the noodles an extra added flavor.  To try to emulate slightly burned noodles, try to put the noodles in one layer in the hot wok and add some liquid (water, stock, or Shaoxing wine; but not too much liquid otherwise you’ll steam the noodles) to facilitate the heat transfer from the wok to the noodles, and leave the noodles alone. You want the noodles to get burned before adding more oil to the noodles and turning them over, repeating the process.
5. Add the lobster, green onions, and the contents of the bowl with the mushrooms back into the wok and stir fry all the ingredients together. Add the sauce ingredients to the wok and mix all the ingredients together. Put the cooked ingredients into a serving dish.