Biifun / Taiwanese fried rice noodles

My favorite rice noodle dish since my Taiwan days.

<Ingredients>

1/4-1/3 bag of mei fun rice sticks
2-3 dried shiitake mushroom
1 tsp (5-7 medium) shami dried shrimp
2-3 green onion
1/2 carrot
Handful daizu moyashi soybean sprouts
Small handful snap peas or sugar peas
Handful prawns
1 tbsp each sake & potato starch (for prawn prep, not in photo)
120 cc chicken stock
1tsp sesame oil
1 tsp oyster sauce
1/2-1 tsp soy sauce
1 red chili pepper (sliced)
1 tbsp oil (not in photo)
Salt and pepper, to taste (not in photo)


<Directions>
1.

Rehydrate shami dried shrimp and dried shiitake with water for 1 hour or with warm water for 10-20 minutes. Or soak them in water and microwave for 1-2 minutes.

2.

Soak rice sticks in cold water for 5 minutes.

Drain, cut into 2-3 sections (easy-to-eat length), and set aside.

3.

Clean prawns with potato starch.
Gently rub sake and potato starch, and set aside.

4.

Remove skinny roots and damaged parts by snapping them off with your fingers
Julienne rehydrated shiitake, green onion, carrot and snap peas.

5.

In a frying pan, heat oil, quickly saute prawns on medium-high heat and remove when color changes to pink.

6.

In the same frying pan, saute green onion, carrot and snap peas on medium heat.

When carrot becomes tender, add bean sprouts, and saute until slightly tender.

Salt and pepper to taste, and remove (transfer to bowl/plate of prawns).

7.

In the same frying pan, put shami, liquid from rehydrating shami, shiitake, chicken stock, sesame oil, oyster sauce, soy sauce and red chili pepper, and bring to boil.

8.

Add rice sticks, and stir. Cook until rice sticks absorbs liquid.

9.

Put back prawns and vegetables and stir well.

Taste, and add salt as necessary.

<Notes>

• Removing root ends of moyashi significantly improves the texture.
• If regular moyashi bean sprouts are used, add them 1 minute before the end in Process 9, as they cook much faster than soybean sprouts. When using a larger amount of moyashi, slightly increase the amount of soy sauce & oyster sauce.
• Vegetables may stick to the frying pan in Process 6, but don't worry. No oil needs to be added. Everything stuck to the pan will come off and be a part of the soup in Process 7.
• Green onion, carrot and one more crispy green (snap peas here) are the basic ingredients, but any vegetables, seafood and meat can be added.