Char Kway Teow

This is a recipe for Singapore Char Kway Teow (炒粿條), a favourite local hawker delight. The name of the dish is Hokkein (Chinese dialect group) for stir-fried flat rice noodles. I personally love a small amount of yellow mee (local yellow egg noodles) to balance all that kway teow.

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The noodles are commonly fried with see hum (cockles), Chinese chives, lup cheong (Chinese preserved sausage) and fish cake. It is so sinful especially when fried with lard, but so good! To me, wokking it in high heat is the most important factor – not only does it impart more flavour, the char kway teow will also be less oily (not glistening in oil) when cooked.

Shelled cockles ("see hum")

Char Kway Teow is not complete without cockles (that’s my friend mochachocolatarita‘s beautiful artwork). The perks of cooking this at home is that I can treat myself to extra servings of cockles. You can buy whole cockles and shell them on your own. For a lazy cook like me, I bought shelled cockles from Sheng Siong supermarket. They may look scary in packaging with all that blood liquid, but it’s a total time-saver. And if you have leftover cockles, you can season them with some dark soy sauce for another quick dish.

Sauces for Char Kway Teow

These are the three sauces used in my char kway teow. From left to right, fish sauce (I usually use this particular fish sauce for local dishes, and Thai fish sauce for Thai dishes), dark soy sauce and kecap manis (Indonesian soy sauce) which is sweet, thick and syrupy.

Char Kway Teow Recipe

Singapore Char Kway Teow Recipe

Use high heat when stir-frying char kway teow. For halal and healthier choice, replace lard oil with olive or vegetable oil and omit the fried lard pieces. You may also add prawns and chye sim for a more sumptuous version.

Ingredients:

  • 1 tbsp lard oil (or olive/vegetable oil)
  • 1 tsp minced garlic
  • 1 tsp crispy fried lard cubes optional
  • 200 grams kway teow (rice flat noodles)
  • 30 grams yellow mee (yellow egg noodles) optional
  • 1/2 tbsp sambal chilli (either this or this) to taste
  • 1/2 lup cheong (Chinese preserved sausage) sliced thinly and diagonally
  • 40 grams fish cake sliced thinly
  • 80 grams bean sprouts
  • 3 stalks Chinese chives (koo chye) cut to 5 cm (2 inch) length
  • 2 heaped tbsp fresh cockle meat
  • 2 tbsp cockle juice
  • 1 egg lightly beaten

(A) Sauce (combine in a small bowl)

  • 1 tbsp dark soy sauce to taste
  • 1 1/2 tbsp kecap manis (sweet soy sauce) to taste
  • 1/2 tsp fish sauce to taste

Directions:

  1. Heat oil in wok. Stir fry garlic and crispy lard for a few seconds.
  2. Add kway teow, yellow mee, sambal chilli, lup cheong and fish cake. Pour (A) over the noodles and stir fry over high heat until the colour is even.
  3. Add bean sprouts and Chinese chives, stir fry briefly to mix everything, then pour beaten egg over the noodles. Stir fry until the egg is dry and evenly distributed.
  4. Add cockles and cockles juice, stir fry for a further 10 seconds and serve immediately.