Char Kwe Tiaw

Cooking char kwe tiaw or fried kwe tiaw is not difficult and yet this is my first try. We do not cook this dish very often. And whenever we need to cook it, my husband will be the one who cooks it. I do not know why I did not bother to try to cook this dish in the past. Well, that attitude changed when I saw a picture of fried kwe tiaw from a friend in Facebook. It looked so delicious that I was determined to cook it. So I asked for the recipe and here it is,



Does it look like the char kwe tiaw you buy from a street vendor?
For those who do not know what char kwe tiaw is, this is a brief information from Wikipedia,

Char kway teow, literally translated as "stir-fried rice cake strips", is a popular noodle dish in Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei and Singapore.
It is made from flat rice noodles (河粉 hé fěn in Mandarin Chinese) of approximately 1 cm, stir-fried over very high heat with light and dark soy sauce, chilli, a small quantity of belachan, whole prawns, deshelled cockles, bean sprouts and chopped Chinese chives. The dish may commonly be stir-fried with egg, slices of Chinese sausage and fishcake and less commonly with other ingredients. Char kway teow is traditionally stir-fried in pork fat, with crisp croutons of pork lard, and commonly served on a piece of banana leaf on a plate.

In Indonesia, we omitted the belachan (shrimp paste) and cockles. We also use mostly beef or chicken meat since the majority of Indonesians are muslims.
And for those who wondered, why the name of this dish is char kway teow and not char kwe tiaw like in my picture. No, it is not a mistake, I just used an Indonesian pronunciation to write it. In Indonesia, we called this dish kwe tiaw goreng.

Let me tell you something about this dish. It is a flexible dish, you do not have to follow the recipe exactly. If you do not have bean sprouts or chives, you can improvise it with cabbage and carrots. I do not advise you to put broccoli or cauliflower since they are to big to chew. The vegetables have to be shredded and if possible cut the same size as the noodles. For the meat, you can use slices of beef, chicken, pork or even deli turkey.

The recipe for Char Kwe Tiaw/Char Kway Teow/Kwe Tiaw Goreng, modify from Lily's Wai recipe ( I lost my friend's recipe)

Ingredients :

1 packet of kwe tiaw (see picture above). In the US, these noodles are sold as dried noodles.
1 tsp chopped garlic
3 tbsp cooking oil
3 pcs of shrimps, cut into 2 parts
enough slices of beef/chicken meat
a handful of bean sprouts
3 sprigs of chives, cut into 2 inch lengths
or
shredded cabbage or carrot
cut bok choy
2 egg

Seasoning:

1 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tbsp of kecap manis (sweet soy sauce)
Pepper and salt to taste
you can also add in oyster sauce

Directions:

Cooked the kwe tiaw in a boiling water (add a little salt and oil to prevent the noodles to stick to each other) until they are cooked through about 7-8 minutes, rinse with cold running water.
Heat the deep frying pan with 3 tbsp oil and fry the meat until fragrant, then add l tsp of chopped garlic. Add the shrimps and fry until cooked.

Add in the vegetables and stir well. Push all the fried ingredients to one side and add in the kwe tiaw. Stir-fry the kwe tiaw and add seasoning and sprinkle with a little water to mix. Then spread all the ingredients around the wok and create an empty space in the centre, then crack the two eggs into it and add a little more oil. Cover the egg with all the ingredients and stir-fry evenly. Do not overcook.

Serve warm with pickle cucumbers and hot tea.