cooking noodles

traceymonkstown

hi,
am just wondering if you can cook noodles in a wok or should you always boil them in hot water??? when i do them in a wok some always seem to stick to the bottom

boodlesdoodles

You don't say which noodles you use. I soak egg noodles in hot water for 3 or 4 mins then add to the stir fry to basically coat them and get them really hot. The trick to stopping them sticking is to keep everything moving constantly, you should only stop when you're putting the stir fry/noodles on the plate. If the stir fry needs extra moisture just add a drop of water.

traceymonkstown

thanks boodlesdoodles, i'll try that next time! i normally use singapore noodles or just the normal oriental ones when stirfrying

BaZmO*

If you're stirfrying noodles you should boil them in water first, once they're cooked drain them and pour cold water over them to stop them from continuing to cook.
Drain again and you can then use them in a stirfry by throwing them into the wok near the end of the cooking process to heat them up.

The cold water thing stops them from sticking.

Alun

You don't even really need to boil them as such usually, just bring a pot of water to the boil and put them in for 3 or 4 mins max. Some of the bigger or thicker noodles might need a bit longer, but your average egg noodles don't need much more than that.

If you're going to use them right away, there's no need to do anything other than quickly strain and put in the wok with the other ingredients, but if you're not too good at timing things then you can rinse them in several changes of cold water to stop the cooking process. If you don't they'll carry on cooking in their own heat and congeal to form one big lump.

Alternatively if you're serving them separately, instead of combining them into the dish, then I find a splash of sesame oil is a nice way of both adding some flavour and keeping them separate.