Char Kway Teow

Oh, dear readers, I do apologise for my pregnant absence. It was a horrid history of anthropological theory essay which rudely theived me from you for eight whole days. Torturous, really it was. I remember thinking, during one of my lowest points, that the only midly positive thing about the entire essay writing experience was the pleasantly musty smell of an old Radcliffe-Brown book I was using. It reminded me of my friend Ebony, and how she thinks old books smell like custard powder, and then I found myself wishing that said book would turn into custard, along with my computer, my essay, the history of anthropological theory, and, indeed, the whole world, smothering me in creaming sweet goodness and alowing me to escape the inpenetrable hell of essay writing.

Fortunately for you, however, I emerged unscathed, and unsmothered (if you discount the shocking quality of the essay I submitted and the psychological turmoil my result is certain to cause me), to share with you my noodle recipie number two, which, sadly, doesn't contain custard (if that's where you thought i was going with this, I apologise, profusely).

Weekly Noodles, Part Two: Char Kway Teow.

This recipie is incredibly good, incredibly cheap, and ultimately quite unhealthy on its own. I suggest you serve it with green veg or similar. I made it last night from some house-sharing friends of mine and a few of their girlfriends (also very treasured friends), and it was gobbled up so quickly I forgot to take a photograph. Eek! Being a visual person myself, and understanding the importance of imagery to enspire cookery, I fleeced this one off the world wide web (it's amazing what you can find out there.):

Yeah, not the most presentable of dishes anyway, but I like to think I could've done slightly better. Anyway, as mentioned this is very quick and easy - really only takes around 4 minutes cooking time and the luscious thick slurpy goodness of the noodles is irresistable. The pork sausages, and quite possibly the soy sauces are laced with msg, but best not to think about that. I'm sorry I even mentioned it. Very yummy mmmm good. And Cheap. I bourght all the ingredients for seven people and it only cost me a mere $20.

Serves Four
Ingredients:
You Should be able to pick up everything you need from a well-stocked Asian Supermarket:
1 clove of garlic, finely diced.
1 small red chilli (or to personal taste)
1 Packet of fresh, thick cut rice noodles (usually come refridgerated)
3 handfulls of beansprouts
200gms tofu puffs, sliced.
6 Chinese Sausages, sliced on the diagonal into about 5mm pieces.
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup garlic chives, cut into 3 cm lenghts
4 tablespoons light soy sauce
4 tablespoons dark soy sauce, or (even better) mushroom soy.
fried shallots, to garnish
lemon or lime wedges, to garnish.

Method

1. Heat a tablespoon of cooking oil in a large frypan or wok.
2. When hot, fry the garlic and chilli for a minute
3. add the chinese sausage and tofu, fry around 2 minutes, or untill sausage gets slightly crispy
4. add noodles and sauces, stir untill everything is coated in dark sticky soy goodness
5. push the noodles to one side, making a gap in the pan closest to you.
6. pour the egg into the gap, and allow to scramble slightly - ie stir with your spatula so that it is semi-cooked, but still liquidy in parts.
7. stir egg through mixture, add bean sprouts (mmm...crunchy) and garlic chives.
8. when everything is combined good and proper, serve on plates!
9. sprinkle with the fried shallots and serve with the lemon or lime.
10. provide extra chilli passed seperately if desired.

NB: If you only have a small pan, it is best to do this in two seperate goes so to avoid over crowdning and unwittingly stewing instead of frying.