| By: Alexandra Qi|
Ring oil eel paste noodles are one of the representative traditional dishes from the southern part of China. I ate this dish in Suzhou and it is known for the ringing oil in the pan after the swamp eel is cooked. Thus, the soul of eel paste is the ringing oil instead of the seasoning. Right after the eel is cooked, the cook pours the heated oil on the top of the dish to enhance the flavor. Since it is a way of heating directly, the oil doesn’t destroy the appearance and flavor of the dish. By adding a glossy layer to its chewy texture, oil enriches the smooth taste of the eel.
Ingredients
Yield: 1 serving
300g Yang Chuen noodles
8 oz (227 gm) frozen boiled & shredded Asian swamp eel
30g shallot, chopped
15g garlic clove, chopped
2 slices ginger
1 tbsp butter
20g canola oil
10g Shaoxing rice cooking wine
1 spoon dark soy sauce
2 spoons light soy sauce
3g salt
10g sugar
3g white pepper powder
15g corn starch
10g sunflower seed oil
Cooking Instructions
Chop the garlic and shallot into tiny pieces and cut the swamp eel into shorter lengths. Mix the corn starch with a little water in a separate bowl.
Heat the pan over high heat until the surface is hot. Add the butter and after it melts completely, add ginger, garlic and shallots to stir fry. After 2 minutes, add canola oil to stir fry until the oil is sizzling.
Turn the heat to medium-high. Pour the swamp eel into the pan and add Shaoxing rice cooking wine. Keep stirring until the eel pieces no longer stick to each other.
Scoop in a spoon of dark soy sauce, and stir fry the sauce for a short while. Similarly, add two spoonfuls of light sauce, three spoonfuls of salt and two spoonfuls of sugar.
Add the white pepper powder and then thicken using the mixture of corn starch and water. Stir fry the condiments until they are mixed together. Turn off the heat and transfer the eel paste onto a plate. Put some chopped green onion on the top of the eel paste.
Add a spoonful of salt and put 300g yang chuen noodles into the boiling water. Let the noodles sit in the pot for 2.5 minutes.
Transfer the noodles onto a plate and pour the eel paste onto it. Use high heat to boil 10 grams of sunflower seed oil.
Finally, pour the heated sunflower seed oil onto the eel paste noodles.
Notes
Lard oil is a better substitute for butter. Here, I don’t use lard oil because I’m not able to purchase it. Also, you can add sesame oil to the eel paste when it is done if you don’t have sunflower seed oil. I highly recommend the sesame oil because it will enhance the flavor.
I pick the ginger slices out after adding salt and sugar because I personally don’t like them. If you don’t want to pick them out, you can smash the ginger pieces instead of cutting them into slices.
Start to boil the water before cooking the eel paste because it’s time-consuming for water to boil in the pot. As you are boiling the noodles, use chopsticks or spoons to stir once the noodles are placed into the pot. This will help avoid the noodles sticking to the bottom of the pot.
In case sometimes you don’t have noodles, you can also have the ring oil eel paste served with rice or other staple foods.
Oil temperatures are key to tightening the flavors. A higher heat should be kept when thickening the sauce and stock, while a lower heat should be managed during the final step of juicing. In addition, patience should be given when it comes to the seasoning part of eel prior to the stove. Soaking in cooking wine could greatly reduce odor and at the same time help the eel incorporate the flavors that are later introduced.
