The Pinoy Pancit (Noodles)

It's been a while since that last post. A lot of things had happened already, a lot of stories awaits to be told. But we'll get to that as time goes on as I intend to be back for good. I'd like to start my coming back with my recipe of the Pinoy traditional snack "pancit" or noodles, a personal favorite. I'd like to share to you this Filipino tradition of cooking pancit.

Ingredients:
Pancit canton, thick noodles, dry (450 g)
Vermicelli (450 g)
Chicken meat (250 g)
Chicken liver (250 g)
Carrots
Chayote
Cabbage
Baguio beans
Bellpepper
Chicken stock

Soy sauce, 1/2 cup
Oyster sauce, 1/4 cup
Pepper, finely ground
Garlic, sliced, 1 teaspoon

Preparation:
Cut veggies into thick strips. Boil chicken, set aside stock. You may use commercially available chicken stock if you wish. Tear the chicken meat apart into thick strips and slice chicken liver.

How to cook:
Saute garlic until brown. Add chicken meat and liver. When liver is cooked, add soy sauce and oyster sauce. Add carrots and chayote. Saute in high heat. Pour chicken stock. Quickly add the beans when the mixture comes to a boil. Add the other vegetable and ground pepper. Cook the veggies very quickly, and drain the vegetables and meat out of the pan and set aside.

Using the stock used to cook the meat and veggies, cook the thick noodles and vermicelli until the latter is done and becomes transparent. You can add more stock or water and adjust the taste to your liking using more soy sauce and oyster sauce prior to adding the noodles. Make sure that the noodles are submerged in the stock so that the noodles would not get burned or be too dry when it is cooked. Cook until all the liquid is absorbed by the noodles. Add pepper to taste. Mix cooked noodles and veggies and serve hot. Enjoy!

Tip:
I have seen people soak the noodles (especially bihon) in water prior to cooking. I don't do this and instead I let the noodles be cooked in the chicken stock so that the taste of the stock gets absorbed in the noodles. Also, try not to overcook the veggies. If you reheat the Pancit and the veggies are crunchy and chewy still, then you can say that you've cooked it just right. Also, the chicken stock is one ingredient that makes the recipe succeed so do not substitute this with plain water.