This is a blog post on how to make Char Kuey Teow at home from scratch. As Malaysian many of us living abroad are passionate about perfecting the art of making Char Kuey Teow at home. It is a street food commonly sold in hawkers’ stalls in open markets and food courts. In Malaysia, it is easily bought anywhere, especially in cities. In the UK it is much harder as one has to travel to big cities like London in order to find a decent place to eat this street food dish. Now that with covid around many of us resort of cooking at home instead.
The secret in cooking is to get the ‘Wok Hei’ which is called in Cantonese which simply means the high heat that creates the smokey flavor. This can only be obtained from the cooling type of burner that is commonly used in Chinese restaurants. In order to replicate this, I used to use Smokey liquid flavoring from Waitrose but not nowadays as they don’t stock it anymore.
I use dried flat rice noodle that is available from supermarkets in the UK. But feel free to use fresh noodles or hor fun noodles. To make fried pork scratching either buy pork skin from butchers or trim off the skin from pork belly. Don’t need much to make pork scratching as it’s quite high in calories, a little goes a long way.
I have put blood cockles in the ingredients list but feel free to omit if can’t find or don’t eat.
Recipe Char Kuey Teow
300 grams soaked or fresh flat folded rice noodles (hor fun)
2 tbsp cooking oil
3-5 stalks of spring onion or 1 medium onion mince
3-4 cloves of garlic
100 grams pork skin to make pork scratching thinly slice
2-3 eggs scrambled
200 grams bean sprout
100 grams Chinese chives
180 grams raw prawns or fish cake
2 sticks of lap cheong (Chinese air dried sausages)
100 grams blood cockles (siham) optional
2 tbsp Cheong Chan Karamel sauce or Habhal/ ABC sweet dark sauce
Optional chili boh for added spicy taste
Equipment to cook – preferably a wok if not a pot or frying pan enough to hold the ingredients.
Method
Prepare the ingredients as this is a quick stir fry method over high heat in a wok. Fry the pork skin to release the oils and till fragrant. Scramble the eggs. Cut and chop the rest ingredients like onion, garlic, Chinese chives, lap cheong and fish cake. Wash and prepare the blood cockles if adding them to Char Kuey Teow.
Once ingredients are prepared and ready to go. Heat up the wok to very high heat. Then fry the spring onions and garlic till fragrant. Then add the rice noodles, prawns, and dark Karamel sauce fry till the prawns start to go pink then add the vegetables. When the vegetables start to wilt add the scrambled eggs. Stir well till it’s cooked thoroughly. Serve warm with some pork scratchings and chili boh for some spicy kick.
