How to make Chowmein

I slept late last night, wasting time on facebook like everyone. So woke up pretty late, around noon. Kapil had already left to get his new bike serviced, and hasn't returned yet. That left me and Rochak, and as we pondered over what to eat for a late brunch we realised that we had bought a pack of noodles about two weeks ago and it was time to use it.

A quick check of the fridge and a phone call home later, we decided to go shopping for all the ingredients. Half an hour later, armed with everything that was needed and much more, we (mostly me) set about our first attempt at making Chowmein. Here's a step by step guide for novices like us, rather like we used to be:

1. Put the noodles in a large pot and boil them. Be careful, you don't want to overcook them or they'll get too sticky to handle. Drain the remaining water and leave them out to cool. There was some problem with the kind of utensils we had, mostly because of their size. So after another phone call to mom, I thoroughly cleaned the slab of the kitchen and laid out the boiled noodles as shown.

Be ready to use your hands because this can't be done any other way. Take some oil and rub some on all of the spread out noodles so that they don't form lumps and are easier to cook.

2. The vegetable. I used half a cabbage, one onion, one carrot and one capsicum.

Before

After half an hour of tedious chopping and slicing, we are ready to start cooking (Rochak helped, perfectly peeled the carrot).

After

3. Heat some oil in the large pan which you plan to use. Put all the vegetables and saute till the onions look like they're done.

The other pan contains Manchurian, regular packaged stuff easily available in the market (mostly done by Rochak). Just put the powder in the packet in some water and boil till ready. I prefer heating a little water and then mixing the powder while stirring in a small bowl. Then transfer this into the pan with the rest of the water. This way you don't get any lumps.

4. Pick up the noodles and put them in too. I used only about half of what was laid out ob the slab. Use your hands again and try to untangle them as you put them instead of dumping it all at once. Mix it up.

5. The other ingredients required are soya sauce, chilli sauce, white vinegar and salt. Yep, that's about it.

Put 2-3 spoons of soya sauce, chilli sauce and salt according to taste (sprinkle the salt with your hands as the stuff in the pan is dry and won't mix properly if you just put it all with a spoon). Stir and mix until the color of the noodles changes to the brown you know it is. Put in 2 spoons of vinegar and stir. It's a pretty tiring job because it is so dry and stirring isn't as easy.

6. Voila! It's done.

Served hot with a gracious amount of Manchurian on top.

Needless to say it was delicious. Coupled with a glass of mix-fruit juice on the rocks, it was heavenly (especially after working so hard).

Testimonials:
Rochak - "Kya baaaaat hai! Maza aa gaya aaj to. Well done Ginny."

P.S. - If anyone decides to follow these instructions and finds them useful, please drop a comment. I'd just like to know :)
Thinking about posting the recipe for my slowly-becoming-famous Vegetable Pulao too.

High: But obvious.

Low: We thought there was a power cut since morning. Turns out we had a short circuit. Just got fixed.

Points: 200 points to me for a successful first attempt at making Chowmein.
100 points to mom for helpful instructions and letting me hang around in the kitchen when she used to make this stuff at home and I just couldn't wait to get my hands on it.
100 points to the guy who fixed the power.