With the addition of exotic Indian curry, the ever popular Filipino pancit takes on a new form called pancit curry. Not that we don’t have enough pancit, believe me, there’s a lot. But adding curry gives the pancit a whole new dimension.
What is Curry?
Curry is the powdered blend of cloves, cardamon, ginger, nutmeg, fennel, caraway, ajowan seeds, dried basil, mustard seeds, mace, poppy seeds, sesame seeds, saffron or cinnamon. Created by the British colonists in India, it has spread all over other regions in Asia like Pakistan, Bangladesh, Thailand and Indonesia. Depending on the region, certain ingredients were substituted which resulted in even more kinds of curries. Red ones, yellow ones, and green ones.
Curry also refers to dishes that has “curry sauce”. The term curry is most likely coined by the British from the Indian word “kari” which means sauce.
Curry and Pancit, why not?
For starters, I love curry. And if you love curry too, this recipe will totally amaze you. The curry infused rice noodles goes well with the shrimp and vegetables of the pancit.
I am not a big fan of spicy food, so this is a tamed down version of the usual rice noodles you can find in Singaporean or Chinese restaurants. Sweet mini peppers were used as a substituted for dried chili peppers.
I used chayote instead of Napa cabbage and totally omitted scrambled eggs.
At any rate, the good thing of preparing a dish yourself is the control over what ingredients and how much of it you want to put in.
Curry Pancit (Rice Noodles with Curry)
Ingredients
- Rice stick noodles
- 1 Chayote (Sayote) sliced into strips
- 2 tbsp cooking oil
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- Onion sliced into strips
- 3 mini sweet peppers sliced into strips
- Shrimp skinned, de-veined
- Bean sprouts
- Scallions cut into 1-inch lengths
- 1 tbsp curry powder
- 3 tablespoon soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
- 1 cup water
Instructions
Prepare the noodles
- Soak the rice noodles in cold water for 30 minutes.
- Once done, the noodles have already absorbed enough water. Loosely separate the strands by pulling them apart.
Wash and dry all the vegetables.
- Peel the chayote (sayote). Remove the seed located in the center. Cut lengthwise into strips. See Notes below.
- Remove the stems, core and seeds of the sweet peppers. Cut lengthwise and slice into strips
- Peel the onion, slice off both ends and cut in half lengthwise. Turn over on flat side and cut into thin strips.
- Lay the scallions on the cutting board and chop into pieces about two inches long. Discard the root end.
- Peel the garlic and mince.
- Wash the bean sprouts.
- Remove the heads and shell of the shrimp, de-vein.
Cook the vegetables and shrimp.
- Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a pan or wok over medium-high heat.
- Add the garlic and onion and stir-fry until light brown.
- Add the sweet peppers and sayote. Season with salt and pepper.
- Add the shrimp and cook until flesh is totally orange.
- Add water, soy sauce, oyster sauce and sesame oil. Mix well.
- When the sayote is tender, remove the shrimp and vegetables from the pan and set aside.
- Add the curry powder to the liquid and stir in the rice noodles. Mix throughly until the liquid is absorbed completely by the noodles.
Finish and serve the dish
- Stir in the bean sprouts, cooked shrimp, sayote and sweet peppers.
- Garnish with scallions.
Leave a Reply