Braised seafood and vegetable noodles

For the days I provide the company's lunch, I try to have a different protein and cuisine each day. Today was a seafood dish from Asia; simple but delivers your vegetables, starch, and protein in one bowl. 

Braised Seafood and Vegetable Noodles

Recipe from Cooking Light

Cooking time: 30 minutes

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

2 tsp cornstarch

2 tsp sake or dry sherry

1/2 lb skinless halibut fillets, cut into 1 inch pieces

1/4 lb medium shrimp, peeled and deveined

1/2 cup chicken broth

2 tbsp sake or dry sherry

2 tbsp oyster sauce

1 tsp cornstarch

1/4 tsp white pepper

2 quarts water

3 baby bok choy, quartered lengthwise

8 ounces fresh lo mein noodles or udon noodles (thick, round fresh Japanese wheat noodles)

1 tbsp vegetable oil

1/2 cup thinly sliced carrot

1/4 cup thinly sliced green onions

1/2 cup canned straw mushrooms, drained

1/3 cup snow peas, cut in half diagonally

6 canned whole baby corn, cut in half diagonally

Directions

1. Combine first 4 ingredients in a medium bowl, tossing to coat, and let mixture stand 10 minutes. 
2. Combine broth and next 4 ingredients (through pepper), stirring with a whisk; set aside.
3. Bring 2 quarts water to a boil in a large saucepan. Add bok choy; cook 3 minutes or until crisp-tender. Remove bok choy from water with a slotted spoon; keep warm. Add noodles to boiling water; cook according to package directions, omitting salt and fat. Drain the noodles. Arrange noodles and bok choy on a serving platter; cover and keep warm.
4. Heat oil in a wok or large non-stick skillet over medium-high heat. Add fish mixture, carrot, and onion; stir-fry 3 minutes or until shrimp are done and fish flakes easily when tested with a fork. Add broth mixture, mushrooms, snow peas, and corn; bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Cook 2 minutes or until sauce is slightly thick. Spoon over noodles and bok choy. 

Nutritional Analysis:
per serving  (1 cup noodles, 3 bok choy quarters, 3/4 cup seafood mixture): 348 calories, 6.4g fat (0.8g saturated, 2.8g polyunsaturated, 1.4g monounsaturated), 43.9g carbohydrates, 2.6g fiber, 24.6g protein

**Helpful tips and common mistakes

One thing I really liked about this dish is the little amount of prep work. Usually for Asian sautes and stir-fry, there are a lot of ingredients involved, which means a lot of prep work. Since you use canned mushrooms and baby corn, there isn't much you have to prepare for the fresh ingredients. 

If you bought untrimmed snow peas, remember to trim them. All you have to do is use your finger to snap off the small top part of the peas and pull it down toward the side that is straight. You want to remove this tough "string" which can be unpleasant to eat. 

For this recipe I chose to only use shrimp instead of shrimp and fish, increasing the amount of shrimp to 3/4 lb. Make sure to drain the liquid from your canned goods. 

Although the recipe says to blanch the bok choy, I chose to cook it with the other seafood and vegetables. It won't be crisp this way, but it will absorb the flavors better. You want to start cooking with the items that take the longest, the bok choy and the carrots, with your aromatics, the green onions. After about 2 minutes, I added the shrimp. The shrimp cooks rather quickly and is going to continue cooking in the braising liquid so I cooked it only until it just turned light pink. Over cooked shrimp is worse than no shrimp. 

For the braising liquid, I replaced the white pepper with black pepper instead. Let your liquid boil and thicken to cook out the cornstarch.

I kept my vegetables and seafood warm while I prepared the noodles, since the noodles only take about 1 minute to cook, and I didn't want them to get soggy, overcooked, or stuck together. Have a pot of boiling water ready on hand. Instead of lo mein noodles, I used fresh yaki-soba. These along with udon noodles, can be heated in hot water for 1 minute. Drain and serve the seafood and vegetables on top.

To take an extra step, I made extra braising liquid and cooked it until it was thick. I ladled the sauce on top of the noodles , than topped it with the seafood and vegetables. 

Wow did people love this dish! It's slightly sweet and salty from the oyster sauce and provides everything you need in a balanced meal. At least a quarter of the people came up for seconds (some even thirds). Switch up the shrimp and fish for beef, chicken, or even tofu and the results will be equally as tasty.