Tag Archives: stir fried noodles

Char Kway Teow (Fried Noodles) is one of the ultimate Malaysian hawker dishes.

When I was holidaying in Malaysia in August, I ate Char Kway Teow nearly every day, mostly for supper at 10pm. I’d wander out from wherever we were staying in search of food and within a few blocks, would usually find a hawker making this dish at a street stall. I’d take it back to our hotel room and Mr Hungry Australian and I would fall upon it as if we hadn’t eaten in days.

Now that I’m back in Adelaide the only place within walking distance where I could find a Char Kway Teow at 10pm at night would be my parent’s house. My Dad even cooks a Char Kway Teow that is pretty close to the real thing. The only problem is that while he cooks supper most nights there’s no guarantee that he’ll be making Char Kway Teow when I need my fix. He’s a little unreliable that way.

So I made him give me his recipe so that I could cook it myself when the next Char Kway Teow craving struck.

There are a couple of things you have to remember when making this dish. Firstly, you must have all the ingredients ready to go – you cannot start cooking this dish and then let it cook away while you frantically try to wash and chop up the next ingredient to go in. Disaster will ensue. Secondly, as with all stir fry cooking, speed is the key. You want everything in and out of the pan as quickly as possible otherwise the noodles will become gluggy and the whole dish will collapse. Do not overcook this dish. I repeat: do not overcook this dish.

Cook it right and you’ll be rewarded with a plate of noodles that will make you sigh with sheer gastronomic pleasure.

(Beady eyed readers may notice one irregularity in the photographs of the raw ingredients: I was out of fish cakes when I made this dish so substituted with fish balls. It worked out fine.)

INGREDIENTS

METHOD

Preheat work and add 1 tablespoon vegetable oil. Add half the garlic and fry with the prawns, Chinese sausage and fishcake. Remove from wok and set aside.

Add another tablespoon of oil and throw in the rest of the garlic and rice noodles. Add soya sauces and stir until slightly burnt/brown.

Then add cooked prawns, Chinese sausage and fishcakes and mix to combine.

Throw in beansprouts and stir through.

Make a well at the bottom of the wok and add another teaspoon of oil. Crack the eggs directly into the well.

Use your spatula to break up the eggs/yolk, and add a dash of dark soy sauce and a shake of white pepper into the yolks.

Cover eggs with the noodles and let it cook for a minute.

Add sugar and then mix the cooked egg evenly through the noodles. Add a touch of Vietnamese chilli sauce if desired. Do not overcook. Serve immediately.

We’ve been cooking a lot of stir fries lately – they’re easy and quick to prepare, you can use whatever you have in the fridge, you only need one cooking pan and dinner is on the table within minutes.

It’s convenience food but way better than anything you could heat up out of a box.

You could substitute the chicken with prawns, beef fillet, firm tofu cut into squares or fried tofu puffs.

INGREDIENTS

400 grams chicken thighs, trimmed, and cut into small pieces.
100 grams cauliflower, cut into florets
100 grams green beans, trimmed and cut into pieces
100 grams cabbage, shredded
1 onion, peeled and diced
1 clove garlic, peeled and minced
1/2 teaspoon minced ginger (optional)
2 tablespoons light soy sauce, plus 3-4 tablespoons extra for serving
1 tablespoon Shaoxing wine
Few drops sesame oil (optional)
1 tablespoon corn flour
1 packet noodles suitable for stir frying e.g. hokkien or flat rice (kway teow) noodles, prepared as per packet instructions.
2 Birds Eyes chillis

METHOD

Marinate chicken in soy sauce, Shaoxing wine, sesame oil, black pepper and cornflour for at least half an hour or overnight in the fridge.

Make dipping sauce by chopping up chillis and adding to 3 tablespoons light soy sauce.

Heat up a wok or large fry pan. Add one tablespoon of vegetable oil and fry garlic, ginger and onion over low heat for a couple of minutes, stirring occasionally.

Brown chicken, stirring occassionally, then add beans, cauliflower and cabbage. Stir to combine. Put lid on and turn down heat. Let cook for a couple of minutes.

Take lid off pan and set lid aside. Add noodles to pan, stirring vigorously to combine for a couple of minutes until the noodles are heated through and browning nicely.

Serve immediately with dipping sauce. I like adding the chillis directly to my plate as per the photos but you can just dash a few drops of the now hot soya sauce over your noodles for a less explosive experience.