Stir fried squid with rice noodles

After a surprisingly successful early morning visit to Ikea - oh, the excitement - we continued a few hundred yards up the A23 to the brilliant Oriental emporium WingYip. We filled our trolley with rice noodles, vegetables, utensils and jars of pickled stuff and a case of 24 Tsingtao beer (cost: £15 - hello!). We arrived home ready for lunch so I made us a quick stir-fry with the baby squid I picked up last night from Waitrose. Wing Yip also do mail-order. Oh yes.

Serves 4
I sizzled my red chilli in a separate little pan and added to the wok once I'd removed Scrap's portion. If you're not feeding kids, add it to the squid along with the garlic.

200g rice noodles
25g dried shrimps
200g cleaned and sliced baby squid
1 tbsp vegetable oil
2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
4 fresh kaffir lime leaves, shredded
2 red chillies, thinly sliced (see above)
400g bundle of Choi Sum, cut into 6 - 8 cm lengths and rinsed well
200g beansprouts
handful snipped Chinese chives or Thai basil leaves
soy sauce, black rice vinegar and sesame oil, to taste

Place the the noodles and shrimps in a large bowl and pour over a kettleful of boiling water. Leave for a few minutes until softened but not so soft as to start breaking.

Mix togther the oil, squid, garlic, lime leaves (and chillies). Heat a large wok until it's starting to smoke than add the squid mix and stir fry briskly for 2 minutes until it catches some colour. If the squid begins to release it's juices, then the pan is not hot enough so tip the squid into a bowl lined with kicthen paper - dry the wok with paper and heat it again until it's really smoking and return the squid for 1 minute so it can colour. Tip onto a plate and set aside.

Add the choi sum to the pan and cook for 2 minutes. Drain the noodles and shrimps and add to the pan along with the beansprouts and cook for 2 minutes. Stir in the herbs and cooked squid and season to taste. Serve piping hot.