This is a favourite in our household, tastes just like a take away, pretty simple to make and doesn't take that long either.

The recipe comes from a Chinese cookbook. When you first look at the ingredient list it looks a bit daunting, but when you break it down you only have three main ingredients the others just construct the flavour and are thrown in together. This is speed cooking so you need to be prepared. Don't think you'll have time to prepare the ingredients whilst cooking, they need to be ready to go into the pan. You can however prepare the ingredients earlier in the day to save time at meal time.

Ingredients to make pork chow mein (serves two adults plus a little spare)

• 2 pork chops
• handful of green beans
• 2 spring onions - chopped
• enough noodles for two people (I use 3 fine egg noodle nests which are 50g each when dry)
• 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil
• 2 tablespoons of light soy sauce
• 1 table spoon of dry sherry
• pinch of salt and sugar
• a few grinds of black pepper
• splash of sesame oil

How to make the chow mein

The pork chops need to be partially cooked before they are stir fried. Put a frying pan with a touch on a medium to high heat. Put the chops in and cook for a minute or two each side. Take them out of the pan and onto a chopping board to cool. When cool cut off the fat and slice into thin strips. The meat will still be pink and raw in the middle, don't worry because they'll be cooked again later.

Prepare the green beans so if they need boiling to cook them first this needs to be done. If they come in a tin these are normally soft already, but you will need to check otherwise they'll be tough and rubbery. These are then chopped so a smaller size, maybe in half or a third of their original size.

The noodles need to be cooked, unless you are using straight to wok noodles. When you cooked the drizzle a bit of olive oil and mix them around a bit to stop them sticking together.

Chop your sping onions pretty fine, and get your oils, soy sauce, sherry  and seasoning ready and open. Now it's time to stir fry.

I use a non-stick deep frying pan because my wok sticks all the time and I don't know what to do to stop it sticking. I will be looking into whether it needs seasoning so you may see an article relating to this later. Put a serving plate/dish in a low oven (around 90 degrees) to keep everything warm.

Heat two tablespoons of oil in the frying pan and get it hot. Once hot add the noodles and a tablespoon of soy sauce (add more if you fancy). Stir fry until hot and tip into your warm serving dish and pop back into the oven.

Heat the rest of the veg oil, when hot add the sliced pork and beans with the rest of the soy sauce. Stir fry for 2-3 mins then add the dry sherry, half the spring onions, pinch of salt and sugar plus a grind or two of pepper. Stir fry for a further 2-3 mins making sure the pork is now cooked through (it is no longer pink in the middle). Once done add to your serving dish, add the rest of the spring onions and sprinkle a little sesame oil over it and that's that, you can serve. If you are going to make a fried rice dish with it then you can keep the chow mein warm in the oven until you are ready.

Egg fried rice recipe will be added soon!

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