I’d forget about the thickeners and wine and all that hoipoloi, and just stirfry the noodles, garlic/ginger, and chicken and vegetables with a bit of oyster sauce and soy sauce to coat… cook it out some to evaporate the water.
I think a lot of people approach them the wrong way.
They’re really not meant to be pasta. I mean, they can have the shape, but that’s about as far as the similarity goes. Whenever I had them in Japan they were a side dish or an ingredient in something else (sukiyaki, etc). I never saw anyone do the “sit down and eat half a pound of shirataki” thing that seems to be the thought process people here seem to have.
(disclaimer: I’ve never had “tofu shirataki” before. I think it may have been created for the American market. I can imagine how the addition of tofu might make them a bit more noodly.)
Shirataki isn’t made from tofu, although the web claims that sometimes it’s packaged *with *tofu, and sometimes it’s packaged with seaweed. I’ve only ever seen plain shirataki, with nothing else added. It’s made from a plant called konjac, sometimes called Devil’s Yam or Elephant Yam or any one of a number of other names. (It’s not, in fact, a “yam” as we know it, and it’s generally considered appropriate for the Paleo diet, although it’s not on the Original List.) Considering the crazy rules-busting “noodles” you can make from it, I think my favorite name for the plant is “Voodoo Lily”!
That sounds like a very strange Lo Mein recipe to me. Wine? Chardonay? Hmmm…I’ve never seen my local Chinese Open Kitchen guys slinging wine back there. Garlic, ginger (but just a skosh), chicken broth (just a few tablespoons), oyster sauce and soy sauce…that’s pretty much it, for Lo Mein. Some places add a spoonful of sugar, which helps with the browning. To thicken, if needed (Lo Mein shouldn’t be very “saucy”), just corn starch and water. You’ll need less than a tablespoon of corn starch for this, so just use it.
Lo Mein isn’t gourmet food, it’s food cart food. Wonderful, quick, easy to prepare and eat while standing food cart food.