Char kway teow

Try this Malaysian street food classic, well known in Adam Liaw's city of birth, Penang. A fresh rice noodle stir-fried dish is tossed in a very hot wok (to get the best wok hei!) with a dark soy sauce mixture, garlic chives and bean sprouts for freshness, while juicy prawns and sliced lap cheong add flavour and texture.

• serves

  5

• prep

  20 minutes

• cook

  15 minutes

• difficulty

  Easy

Series. Cooking. Rated PG.

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Ingredients

• 1 kg flat, white fresh rice noodles (around 1.5 cm width), separated
• 200 g (about 15 medium) prawns, peeled, deveined, butterflied
• 180 g fried fishcake, sliced 3 mm thick
• 2 lap cheong (Chinese sausage), sliced on a sharp diagonal
• 1 bunch (about 100 g) garlic chives, cut into 5 cm lengths (20 g per serve)
• 200 g bean sprouts (40 g per serve)
• 4 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
• ½ cup lard or vegetable oil, plus extra if needed
• Ground white pepper
• 5 eggs
• Banana leaf, to serve (optional)
• Sambal belacan, to serve (see Note)

For the char kway teow sauce

• 2 tsp caster sugar
• 1 tbsp fish sauce
• 1 tbsp oyster sauce
• 3 tbsp soy sauce
• 2 tbsp dark soy sauce

Instructions

1. In a medium bowl, combine the ingredients for the sauce, stirring well to dissolve the sugar. Evenly divide the ingredients for each single serve – 200 g rice noodles, 3 prawns, 5 slices of fishcake, 5 slices of lap cheong, 20 g garlic chives and 40 g beansprouts.
2. Heat a large wok or frying pan over high heat and add 2 tbsp lard (or oil) and the prawns, fishcake, lap cheong and garlic for a single serving. Toss for about 30 seconds until the prawns are just starting to change colour. Add 200 g noodles for a single serving and toss to fry for about a minute. Add about 1½ tbsp of the prepared sauce around the outside of the wok. Toss the noodles through the sauce to combine and fry for a further 30 seconds until the sauce starts to caramelise.
3. Move the noodles to one side of the wok, add a little extra lard to the open side of the wok and crack an egg into the open side. Scramble the egg for about 30 seconds until it is nearly set, then add the garlic chives and beansprouts for a single serve and toss everything together for about 30 seconds. Season with a little white pepper.
4. Cut a square of banana leaf and wave it over the flame to soften slightly. Serve the char kway teow on the banana leaf with a little sambal belacan on the side. Repeat for remaining serves.

Note

Get Adam Liaw's sambal belacan recipe here.

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Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.