Char Kway Teow Wok-Fried Rice Noodles Recipe

Servings: 2–3 | Prep time: 30 mins | Skill level: 1 (Easy)

Ingredients

– 2 tbsp light soy sauce
– 1 tbsp thick dark soy sauce
– 2 tbsp vegetable oil
– 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
– 1 lap cheong (Chinese sausage), thinly sliced
– 6 raw prawns, peeled and de-veined
– 100g fish cake, sliced (see tip below)
– 400g fresh flat rice noodles
– 1 tsp ground white pepper
– 1 tsp vinegared chilli sauce (optional)
– 1 tbsp lard crisps
– 1 egg
– Handful of bean sprouts
– Handful of garlic chives, cut into five centimetre lengths

Method

1. Combine light soy and thick dark soy sauces with two tablespoons of water and mix well.

2. In a wok, heat vegetable oil over a high heat, then add garlic and lap cheong and stir-fry for a minute. Add prawns and fish cake slices and stir-fry for a further minute until the prawns are cooked.

3. Add rice noodles, season with the soy sauce mixture, white pepper and chilli sauce, if using, and stirfry until noodles are charred and well coated in the sauce.

4. Push the rice noodles to one side to make a clear space in the wok, then add lard crisps and crack the egg into the resulting oil. Breaking up the egg, stir to cover it with noodles and let it cook for 10 to 15 seconds before you start stir-frying again.

5. Lastly, add bean sprouts and garlic chives, turn the heat off, give everything in the wok a toss to combine, and then tip out onto a serving plate. Serve immediately.

TIP: fish cake is available ready-made from most Asian grocery stores. It is a traditional ingredient in Chinese cooking, made by blending fish meat into a paste before being steamed. Make lard crisps by rendering small pieces of pork back fat, frying gently until crisp — you can leave them out, but they make a lot of difference to the taste.

An updated version of the popular Great Australian Cookbook will be released just in time for Christmas featuring 165 recipes from more than 100 food identities including some Adelaide favourites such as Jock Zonfrillo, Maggie Beer, Scott Huggins (Magill Estate), Emma McCaskill (The Pot by Emma McCaskill) and Cheong Liew (ex-The Grange).