Chicken with Vermicelli noodle soup

I love summer.  It is the most beautiful season.  It is becoming warm in UK.  The weather is very nice during these two weeks. My family members would like to have a change of appetite.  They like eating some with sweet and sour, some with soup and more cold desserts.   Today I cooked chicken with vermicelli noodle soup using my husband's favorites, like mussel meat and dried shrimps.  He loved it very much.

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Cooking time: 20 minutes

Serve: 2

Ingredients:

l  100g chicken breast (shredded)

l  12g dried shrimp (cleaned and soaked in half cup of water for 10 minutes)

l  70g mussel meat

l  130g dried rice vermicelli

l  100g chinese leaf (sliced)

l  1 spring onion (diced)

l  10g Tianjin preserved vegetable (cleaned)

l  6g ginger (shredded)

l  ¼ tsp salt

l  ¼ tsp sesame oil

l  ¼ tsp dried coriander or a handful of fresh coriander

l  6-8 ice cubes

 

Seasoning:

l  ½ tsp fish sauce

l  1 tsp soy sauce

l  1 tsp sugar

Method:

1.	Marinate the chicken with fish sauce, soy sauce and sugar.
2.	Boil 1L of water in a saucepan.  Add the dried rice vermicelli noodles into the boiling water for 3-4 minutes.  Give the noodles a stir to loosen them up for every minute. Stop cooking until tender.  Do not overcook the noodles, otherwise they will become mushy.
3.	Place ice cubes into a bowl of water, add the cooked rice vermicelli noodles.  Stir to loosen them up and let it cool down.  Use a colander to drain them once.  Transfer the noodles to two serving bowls.
4.	Boil 1L of water in a pot over medium heat, add in ginger, Chinese leaf and dried shrimp and boil for 15 minutes.
5.	Reduce heat to medium-low, add mussel meat, chicken and Tianjin preserved vegetables and boil for 5 minutes.
6.	Season with salt and add sesame oil.  To serve, divide the cooked mixture between bowls and scatter over spring onion and coriander.

	Tips:
1.	Since this dish is in a soup, add the noodles just before serving.  Monitor closely to make sure they don’t over-cook.
2.	If the noodles will be used in a stir-fry dish, they should be under-cooked a bit. They will absorb the sauce and become more moisture.  Then they will be more tendered in the stir fry. If the noodles are perfectly cooked from the very beginning, they will turn to mush in the stir fry.
3.	The Tianjin preserved vegetables is quite salty.  It is still a bit salty after cleaning.  Then do not add too much salt into the soup.