Char Kway Teow (Chinese Stir Fry Rice Noodles)

Welcome to Day 3, the final day, of our three part Malaysian Food Series! Check out Day 1, Hainanese Chicken Rice and Day 2, Spicy Water Spinach (Kangkung Belacan).

Char Kway Teow, which stands for "stir fried rice flat noodles" is a very popular street food in Malaysia. It consists of these flat rice noodles stir fried in a very hot work with prawns, cockles, greens, bean sprouts, and eggs with dark soy sauce and spices!

Historically, fishermen and farmers would sell this savory, flavorful dish at night in hawker stands to supplement their daytime incomes. Traditionally, you stir fry the dish in pork fat, which makes it quite a rich dish (though I'm sure it's really really good!)

These days, most people have switched to using vegetable oil. Many versions include a fried egg as well, which adds back some of the flavor lost from the lard.

If you have all your ingredients ready to go for this dish, it actually doesn't take too long to cook. The frying step has to be quick and done in a really hot wok! You want there to be a char with the noodles - that's what makes this dish stand out!

I ended up buying sheets of rice noodles because I could not find pre-cut ones. I was able to find mine in Boston's Chinatown at Sun Sun Market, though you can probably find it in a lot of places. Cut noodles into ½ inch strips.

The rest is pretty easy. If you are experienced with the recipe and all your ingredients are ready to go, you should be able to cook this up reasonably quickly. In our case, since it was our first time and we didn't really know what we were doing, we took a little longer than normal.

We eventually felt like we had to take the shrimp out otherwise they would overcook. So, if you want to be safe, you can take the shrimp out too after you think they are done. Overcooked shrimp is rubbery, hard, and, frankly, can ruin the dish.

This dish is really like a normal stir fry, so it's not too hard. It's important to have a really hot wok or skillet (cast iron would be great!). In our case, I think our wok was not quite not enough, and thus we didn't get as much char as we would have liked.

The flavors were all there though, and my Singaporean friend blessed and approved the recipe. 🙂

Giveaway!

Flavors of Malaysia: A Journey Through Time, Tastes, and Traditions
This Malaysian series was inspired by a free review copy I got of Flavors of Malaysia by Susheela Raghavan. You can read a more detailed account of my thoughts regarding the book here. The publisher has been kind enough to provide me with THREE books to give away! I will be giving one away per day during this series - one for each dish I cook from the book!

The other two Giveaways are at the Hainanese Chicken Rice post (ends Wednesday, March 2, 2011!) and the Spicy Water Spinach (Kangkung Belacan) post (ends Thursday, March 3, 2011!).

For this giveaway, comment below and tell me your favorite Asian noodle dish!

Man, this is too hard for me. I love glass noodles (like Korean Chap Chae) and rice noodles (like Char Kway Teow or Thai Drunken/Crazy Noodles). Finally, I LOVE glutinous rice cakes (like Chao Nian Gao 炒年糕) and, of course, hand-pulled noodles!

Giveaway ends Friday, March 4, 2011 at midnight! I reserve the right to pick another winner if I pick the same winner twice during this three-part giveaway series.

Char Kway Tweo

from Flavors of Malaysia: A Journey Through Time, Tastes, and Traditions

Ingredients

2-3 T cooking oil

1 T crusehd garlic cloves

8 oz (about 1 cup) shelled and deveined shrimp or thinly sliced chicken

2 T double black, thick, or sweet soy sauce

2 T regular soy sauce

1 teaspoon finely pounded white peppercorns, or ½ teaspoon finely ground white pepper

½ to ¾ teaspoon white granulated sugar (use less if using thick or sweet soy sauce)

6 to 8 ounces Chinese flowering cabbage (choy sum) or Chinese cabbage (bok choy), or Chinese Mustard Greens (gai choy), stalks and leaves separated and washed to remove dirt

14 ounces fresh, flat rice noodles, already cut or cut into ½ -inch wide strips, rinsed in water

2 eggs, beaten

1 ½ cups (4 ½ ounces) bean sprouts, rinsed or blanched

Spice Paste

6 whole dried red chilies, steeped in hot water for 5-8 minutes and then deseeded; or 1 to 1 ½ T of cili boh or ½ to ¾ T bottled sambal oelek

Optional: 1 ½ to 2 teaspoon dried shrimp paste (belacan) toasted at 400 ° F for 15 minutes; or whole dried shrimp, soaked in hot water for 5-8 minutes until soft, then drained

¼ cup water

*for pictures of sambal oelek and belacan, check out the water spinach post

Garnish

⅓ cup sliced Chinese chives or spring onions

1 or 2 fresh red chilies, sliced

1. Process Spice Paste ingredients to a smooth paste and set aside

2. Heat 1 T oil in a wok or skillet and saute garlic for about ½ to 1 minute, till light brown and fragrant. Add Spice Paste and remaining oil and saute for about 4 to 5 minutes, till fragrant (adding more oil if necessary)

3. Add shrimp or chicken and stir-fry for about 3 minutes for shrimp or 6 minutes for chicken, till cooked.

4. Stir in soy sauces, white, sugar, and Chinese cabbage stalks, and stir for about 1 to 2 minutes. Add noodles and coat well with sauce for about 2 minute. Add Chinese cabbage leaves, cover, and cook for about 1 minute, till greens start to wilt.

5. Uncover, push noodles towards edge of skillet/wok, add a little oil in center, add beaten egg and let set 1 to 2 minutes, then lightly scramble the egg till cooked and blend with noodles so egg coats noodles.

6. Toss in the bean sprouts, blend well and stir fro another minute or two. (Don't overcook, as noodles will get mushy if cooked too long)

7. Garnish with Chinese chives and chilies and serve hot

Enjoy!

Disclaimer

Time to time I receive free products, meals, etc. as a food blogger. I do not receive any payment for blog posts/reviews nor am I required to write a post when I receive free products, meals, etc. The views expressed in this post are completely my own. I was given a free review copy of the book.

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