I miss 煮炒 Cze Cha Part 2---Fermented Black Bean Fish Slice Hor Fun豉汁河粉

In my earlier post of "I miss 煮炒 Cze Cha", I mentioned that I will cook one of my favourite dish-- black bean fish slice hor fun 豉汁河粉. So today I have finally prepared all my ingredients and give this dish a try. Actually it is not difficult, but than just don't have the 'wok hei' taste. Home cook with an electric stove is difficult to achieve that. That day I was watch 吃饭皇帝大 and they are teaching how to cook the Hong Kong style 豆豉牛肉河粉and they teach us a "play cheat way" or short cut way to cook the hor fun so that it has the colour and soya taste fast. The trick is to marinate the hor fun with some soya sauce first. Sounds easy and i gave it a try. The second trick to making your 豉汁 more fragrant is to steam the 豆豉 with some shaoxing wine, water and sugar than you stir fry the 豆豉 in the pan and the 豆豉 will be full of the 豉汁 smell.

Ok putting all theories into test. I did what the show taught. And the result is ---well I find just so so. First reaction from  my husband is "wow smells very nice leh", after eating for a while he says "hmm.. still lack the wok hei but why the hor fun is dry one" . So his comments sort of sums up the results. I totally forgot that Singapore Cze Cha 豉汁河粉 has some gravy. I cooked the dry version like the 干炒河粉 ;p I think I got influenced by the cooking show and the yummy version I ate during my visit to Chicago's Chinatown. Their version is the dry type and I 念念不忘the豉汁河粉at CHicago. Haha so too bad my husband don't get to eat the Singapore version.

Next time when I cook this again, I think I will add on one more step. That is to stir fry the hor fun alone for a longer time, hopefully will get a bit of more the wok hei taste. I know that is what the Cze Cha stalls do. But being lazy, I thought I can stir fry it together with the ingredients and get the taste.

I shall try it again!

Ingredients:
1) Hor Fun for 2 pax
2) Fish slices around 15 slices
3) A small bundle of Chinese Chives (韭菜) cut into around 5 cm
4) Bean sprouts
5) Minced garlic, 1 tablespoon
6) Fermented beans around 1 1/2 tablespoon
7) Oyster sauce 2 tablespoons
8) Soya sauce 1 tablespoon
9) Shao Xing wine 1 tablespoon

Steps:
1) Marinate the fish slices with some salt, pepper and a little bit of shao xing wine.
2) Wash the fermented bean with water drain well. Add 1 tablespoon of water, some oil, sugar and shaoxing wine to the fermented beans. Steam it for 8 to 10 minutes. I use microwave to heat it up for 1 minute. If you use microwave, you might need to adjust the time because different brands of microwave's power is different. Basically, as long as you can smell the fragrant of the fermented beans you can stop microwaving. Once it's done, pour away the liquid and drain the beans.
3) Season the hor fun with dark soya sauce and set aside.
4) Heat up some oil in the pan and stir fry the ginger slices for a while. Than add in the fermented beans and stir fry till you can smell the fragrance than add in the garlic and stir fry.
5) Add in the chinese chives and bean sprouts and stir fry for around 3 minutes.
6) Scoop up the bean sprouts and chives. Than add in the hor fun. Spread the hor fun in a thin layer in the pan and let it fry for a while.
7) Add in the oyster sauce and soya sauce and wine. If you think it is too dry you can add in some water. Mix well with the hor fun.
8) Add in the bean sprouts and chives, mix well with the hor fun.
9) Once the hor fun is coated with the sauce, you can scoop up and serve.