Ketchup Noodles

I've prepared this before and will try it again soon.

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cook time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:

• 450g (16 oz) fresh Hokkein noodles
• 90g (3 oz) tofu puffs (or a block of firm tofu – diced and pan fried)
• 1 lime (garnish)
• 3 lettuce leaves (garnish)
• 1/4 cup chopped roasted peanuts (garnish) – store-bought or make your own
• 1/2 cup ketchup
• 2.5 tbsps light soy sauce
• 1/4 cup water
• 2 drops of sesame oil
• 3 tbsps cooking oil

Method:

1. Thinly slice the lettuce and set aside on a plate.
2. Loosen up the noodles before opening the packet.
3. Then remove the noodles from the packet. Loosen them further in a mixing bowl by hand. No need to cook the noodles.
4. Add tofu puffs with the noodles. Set aside.
5. Mix ketchup, soy sauce and sesame oil in a measuring jug.
6. Slice the onion thinly and make sure the thickness of the slices is even. Otherwise some small bits will burn more easily than the thicker ones. (If you were to use firm tofu, now is the time for you dice it into one inched cubes.)
7. Heat a wok (or a large pan) with 3 tbsps of cooking oil over medium heat.
8. When the oil is hot, add the onion and spread the slices around.  (Try not to stir the onion too much to ensure the onions stay crisp). It takes about 5 minutes to fry the onions until golden brown.
9. When the onions achieved the desired color and texture, turn off the flame and remove the onions from the wok. Spread them on a plate -they will crips up as they cool.
10. Use the oil in the wok to cook the noodles. Turn on the flame to medium and add the noodles and tofu puffs. Saute these ingredients for a minutes. For firm tofu users, this will be the time pan fry the diced tofu BEFORE adding the noodles. Once you have pan fried all the tofu, add noodles and the pan fried tofu and toss them for about a minute.
11. TURN THE FLAME TO A MINIMUM and add the ketchup mixture. (Note: this will buy us some time to mix everything together without burning the sauce and noodles).  If you see the noodles start to stick on the wok/pan, add about 1/4 cup water and toss the noodles and tofu to bind with the sauce.
12. Once you’re happy that everything is well mixed, turn the flame to high and quickly toss the noodles for a minute or until there’s very slight charring on the noodles. Turn off the flame immediately.
13. To serve: Scatter some onion crips, chopped peanuts, lettuce and squeeze some lime juice over just before digging in. For this recipe, these garnishes are NOT OPTIONAL!