Fuss-free cooking for one with noodles

I often have to cook for myself alone. And you won't see me boiling instant noodles most of the time. Neither am I expert in making enough variations of salads. Plus I love hot lunches. So noodles and rice feature frequently in my lone meals.

It's definitely boring to cook and eat alone, and worst part is the washing after. So rule number 1: minimal utensils, just one pan/pot will do. So I tend to avoid pasta (which requires one pan for boiling pasta and one pan for cooking the sauce/ingredients).

Saving grace is that Asian noodles come in a variety of shapes, styles and tastes. And many noodles, like fresh egg yellow noodles, fresh white flat kuay teow, and dry ones like tang hoon, bee hoon just require soaking for a few minutes at most.

The ingredients that go into the noodle dish are just as versatile as the dish itself. I usually mix and match 3-4 items from my fridge and pantry. Meat wise, I go for frozen prawns (fast to defrost), minced pork (to make tasty pork balls for soup) or frozen fish balls. For vegetables, carrots and cabbage are favourites, as they are usually the longest lasting vegetable in my fridge, being able to keep for 2 weeks and never seem to be able to finish them. Bok choy, bean sprouts and other greens are used as well. Then, there's onions, garlic, tomatoes, mushrooms that I always have stock for. Just rotate the permutations and I have something different each day.

I also rotate the use of different gravies, sauces and soups -- oyster sauce, black bean sauce, dark soya sauce, chicken stock soup, black pepper style, sambal chilli, sweet sauce....

Picture above is my maiden attempt at Mee Goreng (fried noodles). May not look the best, but still quite tasty. Had bought a 500g pack of fresh yellow noodles, cooked over 3 times, from Chicken Stock Soup Noodles with vegetables and egg, to Black Hokkien Fried Noodles with Gravy, to Mee Goreng style with sambal chilli.

Here's my variation of Mee Goreng, with recipe adapted from Nancy Seng's "Indonesian Kitchen", tweaked also according to the ingredients I had at the time of cooking it.

Mee Goreng
Serves one

About 100g yellow noodles (as a rough guide, one and half handful serves one person)
1 cabbage leaves, thick shreds
2-3 prawns, halved lengthwise
3-4 pieces of surimi slices (seafood sticks)
1 small cup of chicken stock
sweet soy sauce (kecap manis)
salt
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 shallot, chopped
1 teaspoon sambal chilli

Rinse and drain the noodles with hot water. Rinse again with cold water. This helps to prevent the noodles from becoming gluey when you cook them.

Heat cooking oil and sauté garlic, shallots and sambal chilli until fragrant. Add half the chicken stock, allowing to boil. Add the cabbage and cook until soften. Add the rest of the ingredients and stir fry until well-mixed.

Toss the noodles and fry evenly. Add the rest of the chicken stock, sweet soy sauce and salt, quantity according to taste. Mix well.

Dish out and garnish with fried shallots.