Bake Tales: Fried kuay teow

Till a few years ago, every time I returned from Singapore, my luggage would be filled, not with clothes, but with cooking and baking ingredients. Bread flour, sauces, curry pastes, dried herbs, spices...And I used to hoard them, pulling them out when we wanted a taste of home.

Thankfully, many of these condiments and sauces are now easily available at Chennai. Even pak choy. The other day, I had gone to one of the Kovai Payamudir shops and was quite surprised to see a pile of pak choy. I was picking out one when a lady asked me what it was. Before I could reply, one of the salesmen answered, "Chow chow." So I told him it was pak choy. There ensued a discussion between him and a salesgirl and finally they agreed it was pak choy! Then the lady wanted to know how it was cooked- they told her to make it like a poriyal- chop it up finely and cook it with grated coconut! Oh well!

With my precious pak choy in hand, I went to the shop next door and got a pack of cotton tofu and rice sticks. It had been some time since I made kuay teow.

Pak choy( pic courtesy bbcgoodfood.com)

Rice sticks (pic courtesy www.thaitable.com)

Cotton tofu (pic courtesy justhungry.com)

I wanted to make a "mixed" kuay teow with chicken, prawns and squid. And Chinese sausages and shrimp paste. I couldn't get bean sprouts which are so essential in a dish like this so the pak choy had to do. Also, an onion, some garlic, dark soya sauce, chillies, oyster sauce, spring onions and a couple of eggs. And the tofu.

Here's the recipe:

Fried kuay teow

Ingredients
500 gm flat rice noodles
300 gm boneless chicken, sliced
150 gm prawns, peeled and deveined
150 gm squid, sliced
1 Chinese sausage, sliced (opt)
200 gm tofu
1 onion, sliced
6 cloves garlic
4 red chillies
2 teaspoons shrimp paste (opt)
1 pak choy, separate leaves and stems and slice stems long
2 tablespoons dark soya sauce
2 tablespoons oyster sauce
4 spring onion stalks, chopped, reserve a few for garnish
2 eggs made into an omelette and sliced
Oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Method
Marinate the chicken, prawns and squid separately in a teaspoon of dark soya sauce and pepper.
In a blender, process the chillies, garlic and shrimp paste with very little water into a fine paste.
Slice tofu into cubes, wash and pat dry with kitchen paper.
Deep fry in a wok till golden, keep aside.
Soak the rice noodles in a big pan of water for about 20 mins.
Drain through a colander. bring a big pot of water to the boil, put the noodle in it for about a minute then drain through a colander.
In 4 tablespoons oil, fry the ground paste. Add in the sliced Chinese sausage and onion, saute for a couple of minutes.