Singapore Stir Fry Flat Rice Noodles or Char Kway Tiao (炒粿条面）

INTRODUCTION

My noodles series will not be complete without the common fried flat rice noodles or char kway tiao.. I believed all household will have its own recipe of fried kway tiao and what I am sharing today is the Singapore hawker centre version. I can’t claim that this is authentic but taste is close and in fact, variations are many too…

I have argued with wife about one of the main ingredients, cockles. I said that it is a must have ingredients but my wife said it is not necessary the case nowadays. Many stores have not used cockles due to the current health concern of associating Hepatitis A with the consumption of cockles. I have wanted to add this for this illustration but I cannot get hold of it in the market. Wife further convinced me not to put this as kids will not appreciate this seafood. Therefore, I will leave it for reader to decide whether or not it is a must to have cockles for this noodle dish.

Though the name is char kway tiao, in Singapore hawker centre, it is rather standard that it also comes with yellow noodles. Don’t ask me why, it seems that it is a standard. I have ever requested many times to different hawkers that I wanted only kway tiao, the hawker always rejected my request… I am always puzzled that why they need to insist in this type of combination. Is it not the way of stir frying this dish the same?

I came from Sarawak and our Char kway tiao do not really have any standard, but it is very much drier than Singapore and West Malaysia version. Here in Singapore, it is very “moist” and at time it is hard to eat with a pair of chopstick. I do not know if the “moistness” was from lots of oil used or they have added some water or too much eggs.. For this recipe, I have added 1-2 tablespoons of chicken stock it to make it moister like those sold in the hawker centre.

Unsure if the hawker centre still uses lard but traditionally, almost all the noodle dishes uses lard to enhance its fragrance. For purposes of this illustration, I have purposely prepared some lard and lard cubes to go with the dish. If you are interested in how to prepare lard cubes, you can refer to this post: Teochew Mee Pok And Fish Ball Noodles (潮州肉脞面，潮州鱼圆面）

WHAT IS REQUIRED

Servings: 4-5 adult servings

250 grams of flat rice noodles or kway tiao
150 grams of yellow noodles
100 grams of fresh prawns
50 grams of cockles (optional)
50 grams of fish cake, sliced thinly
3 Chinese sausages, sliced thinly
Handful of bean sprouts
Some Cai xin or Chinese garlic chives
2 tablespoons of lard cubes (optional)
1 tablespoon of minced garlic
3-4 tablespoons of lard of cooking oil
3-4 eggs

Seasonings

5 tablespoons of light soya sauce
2 tablespoons of fish sauce
2 tablespoons of oyster sauce
2 tablespoons of sweet caramelized sticky dark soya sauce
2 tablespoons of chicken stock or plain water
1 tablespoon of sugar
Dashes of white pepper

STEPS OF PREPARATION

Mix all the seasoning ingredients, stir until well mixed and set aside. The pre-mixing is optional if you are experienced enough to pour the sauces directly to the hot wok. Seasoning is very subjective and depends on individual taste buds. Feel free to add and minus the seasoning but the ratio shall be like the above suggested. To play safe, you can add these sauces gradually during the process of stir frying.

In a wok with the cooking oil and lard, sauté the minced garlic over high heat until slightly brownish. Add the fish cakes and prawns and stir fry for about 1 minute. Add the kway tiao and yellow noodles, followed by chives or cai xin stir fry until well mixed.

Push the char kway tiao to one side of the wok, had a bit more oil, crack the eggs and make it resemble scrambled egg and cook until the egg is half set (still a bit runny but colour turns whitish). Stir until well mixed. Add the pre-mixed sauces, dashes of white pepper, beansprouts, sliced Chinese sausage. Stir fry until well mixed. Best served hot as a noodle dish.

Notes

In general, no water shall be used for stir frying kway tiao or noodles. But it your noodles are too dry, feel free to add 1-2 tablespoons of water to facilitate the stir frying.

CONCLUSION

Home prepared hawker noodle dishes is not difficult. However, at time, the taste cannot be compared with what the hawker have prepared because of the kitchen gadgets and they are preparing in big scales. Now matter how big is our heat in home stoves, it will not be able to compared those big stoves used by the hawkers. Do prepare to let go certain expectations but it will definitely brings a sense of achievement to be able to prepare these dishes at home.

This recipe was included in Page 41-42 of the “One Pot Noodle E-book”. For more One Pot Noodle Dishes, you can have a copy of “Easy One Pot Noodles – A step by step guide” that was packed with 30 recipes, 60 pages at a reasonable convenience fee of USD5.00. The recipes covered various recipes from curry laksa, prawn noodles to fish head beehoon and etc. Of course not forgetting the well like Economy Bee hoon and Mee Rebus . You can purchase by clicking the link above.You can either pay using Pay Pal or Credit card account. Please ensure that you have an PDF reader like Acrobat or iBooks in your mobile phone or iPad if you intended to read it in your ipad or mobile phone. Should there be any problems of purchasing, feel free to contact me at kengls@singnet.com.sg and separate arrangement can be made.

Hope you like the post today. Cheers and have a nice day.

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