Beef With Fried Noodles

750 g lean boneless beef, sliced into matchstick strips
500 g noodles or spaghetti
5 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 garlic clove, crushed
3 spring onions, cut into 2.5 cm segments
100 g shredded cabbage
30 g bamboo shoots
½ teaspoon salt
3 dried Chinese mushrooms, soaked in warm water for 30 minutes, then drained and sliced into strips or shreds
2 ½ tablespoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon sugar
2 tablespoons dry sherry
2 tablespoons chopped fresh shelled shrimps

Boil the noodles until soft. Drain and rinse under cold running water to prevent stickiness.

Heat 1 tablespon of oil in a large frying pan. Add the garlic, onions, cabbage, bamboo shoots and half the salt, and stir-fry for 2 minutes over high heat. Remove and put aside.

Add 2 tablespoons of oil to the same pan. When very hot, add the meat and mushrooms and stir fry over high heat for 1 minute. Add the soy sauce and sugar, and half the sherry, then stir fry for a further minute. Remove with a slotted spoon and put aside.

Add the remaining oil to the pan, and then the noodles and the shrimps to be stir-fried with the gravy and oil left in the pan from previous fryings. When the noodles are heated through and browned all over with gravy and oil, add the remaining salt, half the meat and half the cooked vegetables that were put aside. After a further minute of slow stir-frying, dish on to a warmed serving platter.

Now return the remainder of the vegetables and meat to the same pan together with the rest of the sherry. After a few sizzling turns over high heat, spoon the mixed contents of the pan as garnish over the noodles and serve. To connoisseurs of chow mein, the gravy-flavored noodles are even more delicious than the meat.