Amy Poon’s recipes for Chinese home favourites: spring onion and ginger noodles, and braised pumpkin with pork

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It’s good to keep things simple, and I am on a mission to demonstrate just how simple Chinese cooking can be, particularly the kind of food that Chinese families eat at home. We don’t, typically, gather around the kitchen table to pleat dumplings together – Crazy Rich Asians is no more a representation of how we cook than Notting Hill is of Notting Hill! The secret to much of our cooking is in the prep. Thereafter, most dishes come together very quickly and are surprisingly easy – at least the ones I cook are – so I invite you to surprise yourselves with these warming, comforting dishes.

Ginger and spring onion oil noodles (pictured above)

This is a kitchen staple, a Chinese version of aglio e olio that requires only eight easy-to-find ingredients, most of which you may already have in your cupboard. Spring onion oil doesn’t traditionally include ginger, but here I have merged two classics to combine some of my favourite flavours.

Prep 5 min
Cook 10 min
Serves 2

3-4 spring onions
3-4 slices fresh ginger, peeled
2 tbsp neutral cooking oil – I use sunflower
1 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tbsp dark soy sauce
½-1 tsp sugar, to taste
160g noodles – egg, wheat or even tagliolini!
½ tsp toasted sesame oil

Wash and dry the spring onions, trim off the roots, then cut into even lengths – I usually cut each onion into three or four pieces. Cut each piece lengthways into quarters, so you now have strips of spring onion. Cut the sliced ginger into thin strips.

Put a wok or large frying pan on a low-medium heat. Add the oil, spring onions and ginger, and fry gently, stirring, for about seven minutes, until the onions turn golden brown. Lift out the onions and ginger with a slotted spoon and set aside, leaving the now fragrant oil in the pan.

Lower the heat, then add the light soy sauce, dark soy sauce and sugar, to taste, to the hot oil in the pan – note that it will bubble a bit.

Cook the noodles in a large pan of boiling water, according to the packet instructions, then drain and transfer them immediately to the soy sauce pan. Pour in the sesame oil, then toss to coat the noodles evenly.

Serve either as a sharing plate or in two bowls, garnished with the fried spring onions and ginger.

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