Pancit

I love noodles of all descriptions and pancit bihon is one of my absolute favorites. I was craving it yesterday and then it occurred to me that I had never attempted to make it before. Well, I have Filipino friends in abundance so I took to Facebook to see if any of them could give me a place to start. I was really amused that a majority of the responders love pancit, no surprise, but they'd never learned to make it! It didn't help that most people don't really measure; there's just a lot of tasting, adjusting of seasoning and an overall feel. 

Three friends eventually provided pretty detailed recipes (thanks, Bao, Sheena and Bobby!), others provided much-needed words of wisdom (thanks, John, Christi, Kayla and Noa!). So, off I went.

Here's the cast!

We love Chinese peas so I decided they had to be included. I used a paring knife to remove the stem ends and strip the strings along the edge.

Lean pork was our protein of choice. I love shrimp in pancit but Chris is allergic. Whenever you do a stir fry, get all of your ingredients prepped and ready to go. I used to underestimate how quickly the process is and wound up frantically trying to chop the next ingredient while the stuff in the pan overcooked. In addition to the peas and pork, I used round onion, green onion, shredded cabbage and lemon.

I need to get a wok but until then, my smaller Dutch oven worked well. A little oil and then the pork strips with some salt and pepper. 

You don't want to overcook the pork; cook just till the pink goes away. Remove the meat from the pot.

I added another splash of oil since the pork didn't release much. Onions, the bottom part of the green onions and some crushed garlic cloves went in next.

When the onions were translucent, I added the peas. 

I don't like soggy peas. I cook them just until they are starting to get a bit tender and their pods start to blister a bit. Remove the veggies. You can put them in the same bowl the pork is hanging out in.

A quart of broth--chicken is the usual, but I had turkey. Why not? 

Don't forget to scrape all the browned bits off the bottom!

I added 2T. of shoyu. My advisors were split on seasonings. Most used shoyu, one did not. Someone else mentioned oyster sauce. I have to try different variations. Soon.

The recipe I was following used only a tablespoon of fish sauce. I had the Thai version rather than patis. Wonder how much of a difference that made?

I added a package of the bihon noodles and brought the pot up to a boil.

This part always makes me nervous; is there too much liquid? Will it get soggy?

I'm always amazed at how much moisture Asian noodles can handle without the dreaded soggy. I'm also amazed by how much noodles there turns out to be!

I had forgotten to cook the shredded cabbage with the other veggies so I tossed it with the pork and peas mixture and threw them all into the pot with the noodles. That did the trick!

A good squeeze of fresh lemon juice and a big shake of black pepper. Then I tasted it and immediately added about two more tablespoons of shoyu and another of the fish sauce.

A topping of the green onion tops and some lemon chunks alongside!

Lumpia courtesy of Costco. They were really good and cooked up very quickly.

Though the pancit could have benefitted from additional seasoning, it still was nicely flavored and we really enjoyed it! I will be revisiting this one again very soon!

Here's the promised link:

Foodland Pancit