Hor Fun - Memories of 6th Mile Market

Ok ... on certain Sundays in my childhood, dinner meant steaming white cardboard boxes lined with plastic and filled with slippery, charry, yummy hor fun! These flat white rice noodles were covered in an unctuous egg-white thickened seafood flecked sauce. Slithers of pork liver were unwelcome but essential to the taste and of course Dad would always insist on an extra portion of pickled green chillies (the hot variety)! Beef hor fun is a relatively recent variant for me but it is the best way to start when learning to cook this dish. Inspired by a receipt found on the 3 Hungry Tummies (really if you want to learn how to cook asian food, this website is mandatory!!) website, me and M whipped this up one lazy weekend. You will find the version I grew up with here.

Separating these noodles from their neatly wound pack is a bitch. Try and get the freshest version you can as this will make the task easier. Add a slurp of dark soya sauce and then char the noodles with a little oil in the wok. Try not to stir too vigorously as you do not want the noodles to break up.

Prepare all the raw ingredients beforehand. This is imperative for all wok cooking. DO NOT go down the Jamie white man Oliver et al track and run around bashing everything in sight as your ingredients slip from hot sizzle to a coal-blackened burn on the stove. (M take note!!) Cooking in the Asian kitchen is a zen experience.

Once you have satisfactorily charred your noodles, you are ready to prepare the sauce. Start with sealing the beef, and then you simply throw everything in the wok and in a matter of minutes, those noodles are on the plate greedily being chop-sticked into your mouth.

You know what ... there really is no excuse ... anyone can cook.