Pancit

Pancit

January 14, 2017

• 1 package (14 oz) Famous Buddah brand rice stick noodles
• ½ package (8 oz) Tropics Bihon cornstarch stick noodles
• Enough water to soak rice and cornstarch stick noodles
• Two or three handfuls of Excellent flour stick pancit canton noodles
• 4 cups water
• 1 tablespoon smoked paprika
• 1 tablespoon Better than Bouillon chicken base
• 1 onion, diced
• 2 teaspoons minced ginger
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• Salt
• Black Pepper
• 2 chicken thighs, cut into thin strips
• 2 handfuls Trader Joe’s shredded cabbage
• 1 handful Trader Joe’s shredded carrots
• ¼ cup soy sauce, plus more if needed
• ¼ cup fish sauce, plus more if needed
• Sliced green onions for garnish
• Sliced hard-cooked eggs for garnish
• Lemon wedges for garnish

Place stick noodles into a large bowl and submerge them in water for about 20 minutes or longer to soften.

Heat up four cups of water and stir in the chicken base and smoked paprika. Stir until the chicken base dissolves. Add ¼ cup soy sauce and ¼ cup fish sauce.

In a large pot saute the onion until translucent and then add the garlic and ginger. Season with salt and pepper. Add the chicken strips and stir occasionally.

While the meat is cooking drain the water from the stick noodles. Cut up the noodles using scissors to make the noodles roughly 3” to 4” in length.

When the chicken is cooked pour the seasoned water into the pot. Add the cabbage and carrots.

Add a few handfuls of the canton noodles to the pot and submerge them so they can cook slightly. Add the stick noodles to the pot and fold the noodles over themselves so that they can absorb the liquid in the pot and the meat and vegetables can get mixed in.

Taste the noodles occasionally and add more soy sauce and fish sauce if needed. Keep folding the noodles until all the liquid in the pot has been absorbed.

Serve the pancit garnished with green onions, egg, and lemon wedges.

Notes

My grandmother used to make this for our family for each of our birthdays. She showed me how to make it once, but it was not easy to take notes since she did not use precise measurements and she sometimes made different variations depending on the ingredients that she had on hand. I regret not trying to make pancit while she was still alive. It would have helped to have her knowledge and I wish she could taste what I had made so that I could try to make it more like hers. Instead I prayed that she could somehow guide me to make the special dish of hers that my family loves.

This was my first attempt and I have a lot to improve!

The stick noodles made with cornstarch and water were a lot softer than the stick noodles made with rice and water. I was worried as I was cutting the noodles that the rice noodles wouldn’t soften more after cooking. I can’t remember how long the pieces are supposed to be once you cut them, but mine were roughly 3” to 4” in length.  

Granny used achiote (annatto) seeds to dye / flavor the water she used in pancit. I had mistakenly thought she had used paprika and so I used paprika… Regular paprika rather than smoked would have done a better job in this experiment. The color of the noodles looked right, but there was hint of smoked flavor. I was not able to find achiote seeds anyway.

After I served the pancit to my family I learned that Granny’s pancit is not supposed to be made with ginger. I will omit the ginger next time.

I used store-bought shredded cabbage and carrots to save on prep time. The shredded cabbage from Trader Joe’s is shredded into smaller pieces than the size Granny would use. I am not sure if my family initially noticed that I had added cabbage because the small pieces had wilted and blended in well with the noodles. To make this dish more authentic I should shred the cabbage myself.

Granny uses shrimp when she can, but I did not use shrimp in this batch.

Overall the pancit could have used more meat. I was struggling to make everything fit into the largest pot I had and so my quantities of the ingredients all need to be adjusted. The only thing I seemed to get right was using the right amount of liquid for the quantity of noodles that I had used.