Shanghai Noodles with Prawns

Flavourful Shanghai stir fry noodles with king prawns, shitake mushroom, and colourful vegetables in a sweet and savoury sauce. So delicious and easy to prepare in just 20 mins. Perfect as a quick lunch or light dinner.

If we're asked to name a few Chinese foods, the first things that would pop up on our minds would be noodles and dumplings for most of us. Since they're very common and can easily be found when you walk along the streets of Chinatown. This Shanghai noodle is one of those China's popular noodles dishes and easy to be cooked at home as well.

What is Shanghai Noodles?

These noodles are round, thick, and simply made by using wheat flour and water only. The thickness of the noodles is the only differnce from other wheat noodles.

Traditionally, Chinese people cook Shanghai noodles with pork or beef but you can either cook it with seafood, chicken, or any tender meat of your choice by cutting them into thin, similar sizes. If you had too much meat and wanting some seafood, you can cook these shanghai noodles with prawns, cuttlefish, squid, or a mixture of them. Shanghai noodles are very easy to cook with a wide variety of choices for the ingredients. The most important part is preparing the stir-fry sauce to make these noodles exquisite. You'll find the easiest way to make this special sauce in this recipe.

Ingredients:

• Noodles: Shanghai noodles are thick and chewy wheat noodles very similar to Japanese udon noodles. These noodles can be found in most Chinese and Asian grocery stores in your area. If you can't find one, you can use Japanese udon noodles as a substitute.
• Vegetables: Cabbage, bell pepper, spring onions are used in this dish but if you can add extra vegetables such as carrots, onions,s or baby corn Its all depends on your creation. Traditionally, This noodle cook with shiitake mushroom that goes well with other ingredients of this dish. If you are not familiar with mushrooms, feel free to omit the mushroom.
• Protein: I cook shanghai noodles with king prawn. Black tiger or raw king prawn is ideal to use in this recipe but it can be substituted with chicken or beef or Tofu. If you would like to go this dish with beef, I recommend using a good quality cut of beef steaks such as tenderloin or rib eye.
• Sauce: Sauce is the key of every stir fry dish. Soy sauce (light and dark) oyster sauce, shaoxine wine, sesame oil and sugar are mixed together to make sweet and savoury sauce.
  Is there any substitue for shaoxine wine? You can use rice wine, dry cherry wine or mirin.

How to make Shanghai noodles:

Soak the dry shiitake mushroom into warm water for 30 mins, squeeze the excess water out and cut into thin slices. ( If you don't have dry shiitake mushroom, you can substitute with fresh shiitake mushroom or any white mushroom. )

Cut the cabbage and bell pepper into thin slices. Roughly chop the garlic cloves. Cut the spring onions into 1" pieces.

Combine all the ingredients for noodle sauce: soy sauce(dark and light) shaoxine wine, oyster sauce, sesame oil in a mixing bowl and set aside. 

To soften and loosen the noodles, blanch in the boiling water to 1-2 mins. Drain it and set aside. (Cook noodles by the packet instructions. I've used fresh Shanghai noodles in this recipe.

Heat the pan to medium high heat, drizzle two tablespoon of oil, add the chopped garlic and stir for a few seconds.

Then add the king prawns, season the prawns with salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste. Turn sides and cook until the prawns are almost cooked.

Add shiitake mushroom slices, followed by the cabbage and bell pepper slices and continue stir fry for 1 min.

Then add the noodles and pour the sauce in. Continue stir fry with medium high heat for 2-3 mins till the noodles are glossy and  sauce is absorbed.

Add the chopped spring onions and mix well to combine with all ingredients. Transfer to a serving plate.  

Delicious Shanghai Noodles are ready. Serve immediately! Enjoy!

More delicious noodles recipe you can try

• Beef Chow Fun ( Quick stir fry hor fun (rice noodles) with beef. )
• Chicken Broccoli Noodles ( Perfect weeknight dinner! )
• Hoisin Beef Noodle ( Spicy stir fry noodles with hoisin flavour stir fry sauce. )
• Cumin Beef ( Cumin flavored steak )
• Spicy Chicken Pasta (Easy chicken pasta with a kick of chilli)
• Spicy Dan Dan Noodles (Sichuan Spicy Noodles)

If you enjoy our recipe, please leave a comment and give us a rating! If you've tried this recipe, tag me on social medias, I would love to see your creations! Follow me on social medias Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest for latest updates.

📖 Recipe