This applies to all type of stir fried noodles in Asian cooking for example Chinese Chow Ho Fun, Pad Thai or Char Kway Teow. A well seasoned wok helps, I’m still capable of making a well seasoned pan sticks. How to avoid the noodle sticking to the wok without the need to add a lot of oil? How do you do it?
The noodles I buy, from the supermarket, usually require a short period of boiling before stirfrying. I find that a little bit of oil after the boiling, well stirred through the noodles, usually stops them sticking
I usually start by woking a chopped bunch of green onions before adding the cooked noodles. And or stir fry some velveted pork or chicken. Would this base or inclusion have any influence on how the noodles fry up?
That said, our pet name for this dish, whether brought in or housemade is “greasy noodles”.
Yeah, I always try to cheat but I’m convinced part of this is just being ok with using enough oil to coat your wok well. I think also it’s getting a wok well heated, so as your rice noodles touch the wok to get the sear, you don’t need to let it sit too long to get the right char. And then of course doing noodles in batches. This is my worse habit; I’m classic “eh, it fits” (proceeds to throw in everything so the wok is filled half way). And then things just steam, have to sit longer and sticking happens.
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Skip the wok for cooking your noodles. Do everything else in it while boiling your noodles in stock, then drain them and add to the wok. You can also add some of the liquid of the boiled noodles to thicken the sauce.
How are you separating the ho fun prior to them hitting the wok?
Boiling is a no-no for ho fun and will lead to sticking. You need to pull them apart manually. If they’re a little stiff, they can be microwaved.
(Also, it’s ideal if they’ve never been refrigerated, but if the store already refrigerated them, that’s unfortunate.)
If your stock has fat in it (most stocks do), a quick boil (or maybe blanch is a better term) should not lead to sticking.
