Chard Kway Teow just sounds like such a fun idea that I decided to work a bunch of chard leaves in this stir fry with noodles, prawns, eggs and beansprouts. A quick tip when stir-frying: keep all your ingredients handy once you start the actual cooking process, because you must work quickly.
Chard Kway Teow
yield 2-3
If you didn’t know it already, chard is great when stir-fried, but add rice noodles, prawns and beansprouts in the mix and you have yourself a riff on a Singaporean street food staple.
Ingredients
Flat rice noodles 200g dried (the same variety you’d use for pad Thai)
Vegetable oil 4 tablespoons
Prawns 150g, rinsed and deveined
Garlic 6 cloves, finely chopped
Ginger 1 “ piece, finely chopped
Chicken stock cube 1 (preferably Maggi)
Chinese cabbage 100g, shredded
Swiss chard or rainbow chard 1 cup, chopped, any hairy stems removed
Spring onions 2 tablespoons
Beansprouts 100g
Eggs 2
Light soy sauce 2 tbsp
Dark soy sauce 2 tbsp
Oyster sauce 2 tbsp
Kecap manis 2 1/2 tbsp
MSG a dash
Lime wedges
Crushed roasted peanuts
Instructions
Begin by soaking the noodles in hot boiling water. Give it up till 8-9 minutes to soak. The noodles should not be cooked all the way and should still have a significant bite to it because you’re going to be finishing this in the wok where it will cook further. Rinse the noodles in cold water and set them aside.
Get some hot water ready on the side. Keep the sauces, greens, prawns and sprouts ready as well since you won’t have time.
Heat a wok over high heat and when it’s very very hot, add 2 out of 4 tbsp of vegetable oil and add the ginger and garlic and stir fry till golden. Crumble in the stock cube and add a ladle or two of the hot water to dissolve the stock cube and let the water dry out a bit before you add the next ingredient.
Once the pan is hot again, add the cabbage, and the greens and 1/2 of the bean sprouts and stir fry everything until just wilted. Add all the sauces and toss everything together for a minute. Add a splash of water if you feel anything might burn, but only if necessary and working quickly.
Stir fry everything for 10-15 seconds before adding the prawns and toss for 10-15 seconds again. Add the reserved oil on the side of the pan and add the eggs where the oil is. Let the eggs cook for a few seconds before continuing to mix and combine everything together until the eggs are just looking fluffy.
Add the rice noodles quickly with a dash of MSG and stir to combine. Add the reserved bean sprouts and toss a final time for a minute and serve immediately with wedges of lime and crushed roasted peanuts on top.
If you’re a satay fiend, you’re going to love this take on Satay Bee Hoon, which is basically rice vermicelli noodles or thick rice noodles and greens with a protein of your choice, stir fried with a chilli paste and then finished with satay sauce on top.
Satay Bee Hoon
yield 2-3
Bee hoon refers to rice vermicelli noodles, but since I had just the thick rice noodles, I decided to go with that. The recipe has several components you’d have to make in advance, but it’s SO worth it at the end.
Ingredients
Sambal belacan 2 1/2 tbsp from this recipe (you can also use soaked, refreshed dried Kashmiri chillies instead of fresh chillies as specified by the recipe here)
Satay sauce from this recipe (make full quantity)
Rice vermicelli or thick rice noodles 180g dried thick or 250g vermicelli
Baby pak choy 2 small or 1 big
Vegetable oil 4 tbsp
Dried red chillies 4, Kashmiri works, torn
Garlic 3 cloves, finely chopped
Ginger 2 cm piece, finely chopped
Chicken breasts, boneless skinless 2 fillets, cut into chunks
Cornflour 2-3 tablespoons
Light soy sauce 1 1/2 tbsp
MSG a dash
XO sauce to serve from this recipe
Instructions
You should start on the satay sauce first as this would take the most time. After you have added the peanuts and the coconut milk to the satay mix, continue to cook over low heat till the satay sauce takes on a nice brownish colour, stirring every few minutes. This will be the satay sauce you pour over.
For the sambal, once you have achieved a thick-ish sambal belacan, let it cool for a few minutes.
Blanch the rice vermicelli for a minute or two until softened/soak the thick rice noodles for 8-9 minutes to soak in boiling hot water and drain. Run the noodles under cold running water and add a spoon of vegetable oil to it.
Add the cornflour and dark soy sauce to the chicken, stir and let it sit.
In a wok over high heat, add 2 tbsp vegetable oil. Once the oil is hot, add the garlic and ginger and stir fry till golden. Add the dried chillies and stir fry for a few seconds before adding the chicken pieces and stir fry again for a minute. Add the any remaining vegetable oil followed by the sambal belacan and stir fry for a few seconds to activate the paste, followed by the rice noodles and immediately lower the heat, else the rice noodles will stick . Add a splash or two of water followed by a dash of MSG and toss the noodles mixing several times till the rice noodles have cooked through completely. Add a touch more water if needed. Transfer to a serving dish. Blanch the pak choi briefly till still crunchy. Drain and transfer to the top of the noodles.
Pour over the satay sauce and serve with some XO sauce on the side for serving.
This one’s a quick marinade recipe I came up with a few days ago to replicate the char siu taste as speedily as I could. To test the marinade out, I wrapped some prawns in bacon and it tasted out-of-this-world good. While I’ve baked these, you could choose to fry them or grill them on a skewer as well.
Cheat Char Siu Bacon Wrapped Prawns
yield 16 pieces
A quick appetiser idea, the cheat char siu sauce is also great on white meat, as well as with fish. Cauliflower would also be a great vehicle for this cheat char siu sauce.
Ingredients
Prawns 16 pieces
Bacon 8 slices streaky bacon, cut into half
Char siu glaze
Hoisin sauce 3 tbsp
Tomato ketchup 1 1/2 tbsp
Soy sauce 2 tsp (preferably Kikkoman)
Kecap manis 2 tsp (ABC Brand)
Sriracha 2 tbsp
Instructions
Mix the ingredients for the char siu glaze together.
Wrap each piece of bacon around the prawn and secure with a toothpick.
Brush the char sir glaze over the bacon-wrapped prawns.
Bake in the oven at 200 degrees celsius for 15-20 minutes. Brush more glaze over if necessary halfway through baking. Serve hot.