Fried Flat Rice Noodles (Char Kway Teow)

Fried Flat Rice Noodles (Char Kway Teow)

Written by on in Noodles and Rice
Fried Flat Rice Noodles - 'Char Kway Teow'
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Fried Flat Rice Noodles - 'Char Kway Teow'

Recipe by chaozhousistersCourse: MainCuisine: Chinese, Teochew, Chaozhou, ChiuchowDifficulty: Medium
Servings

3

servings
Prep time

20

minutes
Cooking time

20

minutes

Fried rice noodles or 'Char Kway Teow', is one of our favourite dishes from our hometown, Shantou. The base is a bed of steaming flat rice noodles ('Kway Teow'), paired with stir-fried beef, chinese broccoli, and tomatoes and then topped with savoury peanut satay sauce. There are many other variations of this dish that can be found in Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia, but we would like to share the authentic 'Char Kway Teow' that you would find from Shantou. Beef is usually the main protein that we use in this dish, however, feel free to substitute with the protein of your choice to accommodate your dietary restrictions.

Grocery Shopping Tips
Picking the freshest and best of the best ingredients is important to making a delicious meal. Chaozhou people are all about the freshness of their ingredients. The beef that we use for our beef hotpot is usually killed only 2 hours before serving!! Ya, we are pretty serious about that freshness!

For 'Fried Flat Rice Noodles - Char Kway Teow', there are also a few things you need to look out for when buying your ingredients.

1. Beef
When we are feeling fancy, we grab a "Beef Ribeye" for the meat in the Kway Teow Noodle Soup. You would want to have a nice deep colour in your beef with good marbleization. With a nice cut of meat, even if you screw up slicing it, it will compensate and still have a nice tender texture.

Remember to always slice the meat as thin as possible so you don't have to cook it for too long. This will make sure that it comes out tender. As well, remember to slice against the grain of the meat.

2. Flat Rice Noodles (Kway Teow)
When you are picking the rice noodles or Kway Teow, try to pick the ones that are the most tender and bouncy. These rice noodles don't last for a very long time at all and when left out for a long time, they tend to get stiff. So picking the softer package usually means selecting the fresher noodles and this also makes nice chewy and elastic noodles. There are thin rice noodles as well as thick rice noodles. Which one you choose depends on your preference.
rice noodles gui diao
Thin Rice Noodles


Thick Rice Noodles

3. Satay Sauce
It has been near impossible to find an authentic satay sauce that is mainly peanut based like the ones we have in Shantou. We do have another recipe which is just focused on making satay sauce, but it does take a bit of time and effort, and doesn't last very long since we don't put in preservatives. Over the years, we have learnt to adapt our recipes to not include the satay sauce and mimic the flavours closely with soy sauce and peanuts sauce. All this to say, if you don't have satay sauce, feel free to skip it.

Ingredients

  • Noodles

  • 3 medium-sized tomatoes (around 380g)

  • 350g boneless beef rib eye

  • 1 pack of fresh flat rice noodles (around 600g)

  • 300g gailan/Chinese broccoli

  • 1.5 tbsp of sugar

  • Sauce

  • 2 tbsp satay (possible to skip if you don't have it)

  • 1/2 tbsp soy sauce

  • 2 tsp sesame oil

  • 1 1/2 tbsp peanut butter

  • Chili (optional - to taste)

Directions

  • Sauce
  • Combine all the ingredients for the sauce in a medium-sized bowl and leave it aside for use later.
  • Noodles:
    Prepare ingredients
  • Wash and dice the tomatoes into cubes. Set the cubed tomatoes aside.
  • Wash the gailan and separate the leaves from the stem.
  • Chop the gailan stems into diagonal pieces as shown below. Then chop the leaves into around 5cm pieces. Set the chopped gailan aside.chinese-broccoli-diced
  • Take the beef rib eye and cut it into thin slices (as seen below). Remember to slice against the grain. beef-sliced
  • Put the beef into the bowl with the sauce and mix it together.
  • Remove the noodles from the package and run it under cold water to separate the noodle strands. If fresh rice noodles cannot be found, dry pho noodles can be used as a substitute by soaking it in water beforehand. Rinse and strain before using.noodles in pot
  • Cook
  • Boil water in a pot (around 3 cups) and add a pinch of salt and 1 tsp of oil.
  • Once the water boils, add the gailan into the pot and wait for the water to start boiling again to remove (around 3 minutes). When adding the gailan to the water, add the stems first as they take longer to cook.
  • Heat 1 tsp of oil in a wok and fry the tomatoes on high. Add around 1tbsp of water, 1.5 tbsp of sugar and a pinch of salt.
  • Cook the tomatoes until they are slightly mushy and remove from the heat (as seen below). Clean the wok to cook the rest of the dish.
  • Heat 2 tsp of oil on high in the wok and add the beef into the wok when the oil is hot. Fry the beef until most of it is cooked through. Be careful not to burn the beef by continuously stirring as the sauce burns easily.
  • Assemble
  • Add the noodles into the wok and mix it with the beef.
  • Add the tomatoes and the gailan into the wok and mix everything together for around 5 minutes for the noodles to cook.
  • Remove from the heat and the noodles are ready to serve. Enjoy!Fried Flat Rice Noodles (Char Kway Teow)

Notes