Recipe: Char Kuay Teow

Char kuay teow is a favourite hawker dish amongst Malaysians. It is apparently of Teochew origin, so must have come over with the immigrant Chinese some time in the late 19th century. It is a dish of flat rice noodles, stir-fried on a high heat with garlic, Chinese chives, eggs, beansprouts, prawns and blood cockles – these are a must for the char kuay teow purist. Sometime during the late 80s, lap cheong or Chinese sausage made an entry into the ingredients list and this is now common throughout Petaling Jaya and Kuala Lumpur (where I grew up). However, I also remember in the early days that little cubes of crispy pork fat were part of the make-up of the dish, these were little gems of delight.

In essence it is the Malaysian equivalent of the popular pad Thai from Thailand but it is not so sweet. The secret to a great char kway teow is cooking it on a very high heat – you need a really smoking wok to get the “wok hei” flavour, the charred smokiness that elevates this delicious dish.

Enough background and on to the cooking…

Ingredients (2 people)

Prep time: 15 mins
Cooking time: 7 mins

2 tbsp of dried shrimps or dried anchovies or tiny pork fat cubes
4 cloves of garlic finely minced
4-5 stalks of Chinese chives chopped into 2 inch lengths (if not available, wild garlic sliced finely would work)
300g flat rice noodles (ho fun – fresh or dried) – soaked in hot water to soften
a good glug of cooking oil (4-5 tbsp) – something flavourless like sunflower, canola, corn etc.
10-12 prawns – raw or cooked, inch sized shrimps are fine
2 eggs
2 handfuls of beansprouts – tailed
a generous dash of light soy sauce*
a generous dash of dark soy sauce*
a dash of finely ground white pepper
a tsp of sugar
Nice to have but impossible to find in the UK – blood cockles. Reasonable substitute might be shelled clams, mussels or the frozen oysters found in Chinese supermarkets.
Optional: Chinese sausage – soaked in hot water for an hour and sliced thinly
1-2 tbsp of a savoury chilli paste or savoury chilli sauce like Sriracha (you can make your own too – recipe for that some other day…)

All the less familiar items can be found in Chinese supermarkets. In Bristol, you can go to Wai Yee Hong (near IKEA), Wah Yan Hong (behind the Hippodrome), 168 Oriental (Little Chinatown and Park Street). In Bath, try Banthon in Weston.

*If you are gluten intolerant, just replace the soy sauces with gluten free tamari. Everything else is gluten free!

Notes on Preparation:

Whilst mainly a self-taught cook, some things were passed down to me by my parents and family amah, as well as learning from watching professional hawker stall holders and friends. Attention to the small details seem a bit OCD but for many Malaysians are a must.

1. Tailing beansprouts. My husband was somewhat taken aback (thinks I’m bonkers) to know that I pick the roots or ‘tails’ off beansprouts. Believe me, it’s a thing in Malaysia. This is what I mean:

See all the lovely ‘tailed’ beansprouts.

2. Next thing, remember to soak your rice noodles. If they are fresh, they only need soaking in hot (not boiling water) for a few minutes to loosen them but don’t let them soften too much as they will continue to soften in the wok. If you are using dried ho fun noodles, then use boiling water and soak a little longer – again don’t let them get too soft – just loose and pliable.

Fresh noodles before soaking

Noodles after soaking – they are still quite hard but pliable and separated out

3. If you are using Chinese sausage, soak it in boiling water for an hour, and then slice it thinly on a slant, about 2 mm thick.

Chinese sausage (lap cheong)

4. Shell, clean and devein the prawns if they are raw. You can leave the tails on. However, cooked prawns are perfectly fine.

5. Dried shrimps / anchovies or pork fat for flavouring the oil – the usual shrimps or anchovies are quite large, and you will need to remove them after using them to flavour the oil. You can always use the anchovies with nasi lemak, and the shrimp in a stirfry with vegetables if you don’t want to throw them away. I have also discovered some very fine small dried prawns in the Chinese supermarkets which can be left in the oil, as they add a nice subtle texture and flavour to the dish when it’s finished.

Regular dried shrimp

Fine dried shrimp

Anchovies

6. Make sure you have all the ingredients ready and to hand – once you start cooking, it’s super quick as the heat is so high, so you won’t want to be running around looking for things or chopping things up at the last minute.

Chinese chives (available in most Chinese supermarkets)

Prepped beansprouts, garlic and chives

Method:
1. Heat up the wok on a high heat, add a good glug of cooking oil. When the oil looks like it’s smoking, it’s ready. If you are using tiny cubes of pork fat, heat up the oil on a medium heat and fry the pork fat as it takes a little while to crisp up, then whack the heat up. Add lap cheong at this stage if you are using, fry till nearly crisp, then remove and put to one side.

Quite a lot of oil – necessary to stop noodles from sticking

Oil is starting to smoke. I prefer a gas hob, but it works surprisingly well on this electric cooker.

2. Add the dried prawns / anchovies and fry until they brown and become crispy to give flavour to the oil. If you are using larger ones, discard from the oil. If you are using the fine shrimps, leave them in and cook until crispy.

3. Add the garlic, and fry till it browns slightly. If it cooks too quickly, remove the wok from the heat and continue to fry.

4. Put the wok back on the heat and add the garlic chives. Mix thoroughly until they soften and wilt slightly.

5. Add the ho fun noodles and toss thoroughly.
6. Add the two soy sauces and sugar and mix in thoroughly.

Fry the garlic, then the chives

Ho fun noodles added

Soy sauces and sugar added

7. Push the noodles to one side, and crack the eggs into the wok in the space you have made. Move the wok so that the egg is directly above the heat, and the noodles are slightly removed from the heat. Stir the eggs to break the yolks and then allow them to cook underneath before flipping to cook on the other side. Then when cooked and firm, break up the egg ‘omelette’ and mix with the noodles. Don’t mix it too soon or the egg will scramble and get mixed into the noodles too much.

8. Add the prawns (and blood cockles/mussels etc if using). If raw, again, push the noodles to one side, and allow the prawns to cook thoroughly, flipping them over to ensure they are pink and cooked. If using cooked prawns, just mix thoroughly with the noodles until they are hot and coated with the flavours. Re-add the lap cheong if using, at this stage.

Add eggs to the side on direct heat

Add prawns, don’t allow egg to scramble

Mix in thoroughly

9. If using, add chilli paste to taste (I like it spicy so I put in a load) and mix well.
10. Chuck in the beansprouts and toss / mix well – they don’t need long – 20 seconds or so. Sprinkle liberally with white pepper and mix it in. That’s it – you’re ready to scoff!

Add beansprouts

Mix well for the last time

Scoff!

The end…

Hope you liked this recipe and have fun trying it out. It’s really simple – just make sure the wok is smoking hot, and if it gets too hot and things start to burn, just remove from the heat for a few seconds. You want to have a slightly charred flavour, so don’t worry about slight burning.

Bon appetit! If you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.

Malaysian Pop-up Street Food Weekend

Ais Kacang

Preparations are ramping up for this weekend’s event with Wild Serai in Ewer Street, Southwark on 11-12 July 2015.

We have been busy perfecting our recipes for local handmade iced desserts and typical hot Malaysian coffee and teh tarik. Just covering all the bases with the weather!

We’re excited about our fresh coconut milk which will be used in the desserts made with our specially imported machine. It’s hard work but makes such a difference to the flavour. With homemade pandan infused noodles for the traditional cendol and ais kacang desserts, and sweet palm sugar syrup, it makes a delicious refreshing treat on a hot summer’s day.

 

Killer coconut grating machine

We did it!

We had a fantastic day. The rain came briefly to drizzle lightly upon us but didn’t dampen our spirits or those of the crowds of lovely people who came to visit and fill their bellies. Keep following us to find out news of our next pop-up Asian market. Thank you to our great partners SEA Arts Fest and Bangkok Kitchen; lovely vendors A Grape Night In, Azi’s Kitchen, Bunta, Pepe’s Kitchen, Pitstop Cafe, Rangoon Sisters and Woolfson and Tay; the fabulous 5 Foot Way team who bust a gut to keep things running smoothly with happy faces; and, of course, the brilliant hordes who came to support and taste all the great food.

Pictures and other news to follow soon.

Community and Making It On Your Own

Putting this market together has been one heck of a journey. There has been so much to do and think about in order to make it happen and try to make it a success. Sadly, it’s meant I’ve not really been able to blog about it as much as I’d have liked to.

However, one thing that has really struck me is how despite sometimes feeling like you’re on your own with the long hours spent planning and publicising, sorting out equipment and facililties, persuading our amazing stalls to come on this journey, marketing and meeting, printing and leafletting; the truth is that in a few months I’ve grown a network of amazing partners and friends who have been incredibly supportive and helpful in providing their experience, knowledge and wisdom, trust in the idea and project, enthusiasm, hands-on practicality and good humour.

Early on, I had approached one of our partners, BanhMi11, to take part in the market. I had seen them a couple of years ago on television in Nigel Slater’s cooking show about contrasting and complementary flavours, making delicious grilled fish summer rolls and at the time had sat up and taken interest. I was enthused to see two Vietnamese women creating authentic SE Asian food from their home country and family experience on prime time television. Nigel didn’t give many clues as to who they were – just mentioning that they were from a market in East London. This set me on a mission to track them down and sample their food.

The street food scene was already burgeoning in markets at the time but this was probably about the start of the great pop-up markets like Kerb, StockMKT and Street Feast; and in general East Asian food stalls were not widely represented. From trusty Google, I managed to work out that they were probably one of two stalls in Broadway Market selling Vietnamese food; and my money was on BanhMi11, judging from their website. It was interesting to read their story – two friends with day jobs, who had given these up to follow their passion for the food of Vietnam. I visited the market and, on a cold rainy winter’s afternoon, sat in our parked car with a steaming cardboard container of their 3-day cooked beef pho, savouring the light flavoursome stock, delicious herby beef and noodles and blow your head off fresh-cut bird’s eye chillis.

But East London was so very far away…

Nonetheless, I visited when I could and watched their progress, as they grew and expanded – running deliveries to Canary Wharf, setting up their dining club and opening more stalls. Then, when my office relocated to Soho, I found one day from their website that they were opening a new stall on Berwick Street in the lively week day market. How excited was I? Hopping and skipping excited I can tell you.

On their first week I was there 3 times in the same week. Their banh mi, French baguettes filled with incredible meats or tofu cooked to their own delicious recipes, were always the most popular and there was often a long queue. For me, though, I loved the Imperial Pork BBQ on Vietnamese bun noodle salad or the delicious heady beef pho with lashing of fresh chilli.

When my office moved again, I was so disheartened and said to the friendly stall manager that if I could find a spot down in Southwark for them would they come? She said – find us a spot and we’ll see what we can do.

Fast forward 9 months…

In my new setting, I’d spent my time wandering around the local area, looking for new places to eat that satisfy my cravings for the food from home and other parts of SE Asia; but also trying to find ways to entice restaurants and street stalls down to this neck of the woods. This part of Southwark/Bankside sits in between two busy hubs – the London bridge area and Waterloo/Southbank areas, with lots of tourists nearer the river around the Tate Modern and Shakespeare’s Globe. Yet, the businesses which are moving in aplenty, and the local resident communities are poorly served for independent local eateries and shops.

Fortunately, things are changing and there are some gems that have been around a long while, like Pickles caff on Great Suffolk Street, or relative newcomers, my local favourites Woolfson & Tay and Bangkok Kitchen. When I took the challenge to put this market together, BanhMi11 were amongst the first I contacted hoping they would be able to join us. Since I’d seen them last, they’d opened two shops and become stars of the street food scene, demonstrating in huge shows like the recent Foodie festival at Battersea Park. So, it was a long shot…

They were incredibly supportive, saying they’d like to help however they could but they were hoping to move into a new direction, exploring ideas in events that would explore different concepts or the role food, the preparation and eating of it, plays in Eastern culture. Would I be interested in an event like that? This intrigued me as, being Malaysian, our food culture is very much centred around communal eating and sharing of dishes. We sit around the table, sharing the same food and many foods like dumplings or summer rolls are prepared together, with everyone sharing the workload. Steamboat is a great favourite of mine, where we sit together at the table, plunging all manner of delicious meats, seafood, vegetable and noodles into steaming hot broth to cook and then devour it all, drinking the flavoursome soup at the end of the meal.

I am thrilled therefore that they are going to be at 5 Foot Way’s first market, talking about their fond experiences of Vietnamese culture and food, drawing upon the recipes in their first and new cookbook, The Vietnamese Market Cookbook, to draw us into that experience of shared communal eating. In this extraordinary event, diners will get to try their hand at making delicious summer rolls together, guided by Van and Anh, the friends who founded the company, and enjoy that communal sense of sharing whilst still making it on their own.

This has been a great journey and I’m looking forward to a spectacular day and event.

UPDATE: THIS EVENT HAS BEEN CANCELLED. Unfortunately, due to unforeseen circumstances, BanhMi11 have had to cancel this event. Apologies for any inconvenience caused and we hope you will enjoy the rest of the market.