Bakmie Goreng (Indonesian Fried Noodle)

This food reminds me of my childhood in Indonesia. Most birthday parties that I went always served bakmie goreng. Noodle is a sign of long life and hence, every birthday party must have noodles!

I cooked bakmie goreng to celebrate Thu's birthday. It was his first experience of my bakmie goreng as we usually order this dish in Indonesian restaurants. I was pleased with the result and will definitely make it again, especially for someone's birthday!


Ingredients:

• 1 bulb garlic (peeled and crushed)
• 2 eggs (scrambled)
• 10 beefballs (cut in half)
  
• 3 chicken thigh fillets (cut in strips)
• half bunch choy sum (cut to medium strips)
  
• 1 pack Hokkien Noodle
• salt & pepper
  
• 2 tbs sweet soy sauce (kecap manis)
• 1 tsp garlic chilli sauce (sambal bawang)
• fried shallot (bawang goreng) to garnish
  

Preparations:

• Blanch hokkien noodles in boiling water until they are well-separated. Drain and run in cold water for 1 minute to avoid noodles get too soft.
  
• Scramble the egg and put them aside.
• Stir fry crushed garlic until they turn slightly golden. Add chicken thigh strips, a pinch of salt and pepper. Keep stir-frying until chicken is fully cooked.

• Add choy sum, beefball, and garlic chilli sauce. Keep mixing. When the veggies are cooked, add hokkien noodle and sweet soy sauce, a pinch of salt (based on your taste). Mix until the colour is uniform.

• Add scrambled egg. Mix and it is ready to serve. Garnish with fried shallots.

Chinese Noodle Salad

My Chinese colleagues at work like to prepare this noodle salad during special occasions when everyone brought some food to share. I always enjoy this kind of gathering and forget about science for a little while. Science is sometimes too mysterious and this really tests my patience. What I love about science is that once you get an interesting result, it's very rewarding. This, of course, makes you feel good.

Anything can be added to chinese noodle salad, depending on your preference. You can have prawns or chicken or BBQ pork/ duck or vegetarian style. I spent last weekend making this salad based on what I had in the fridge. There were Hokkien noodles, cabbage, shallot, coriander, chicken thigh filllets, five-spiced tofu, dried beancurd and toasted sesame seeds. This salad is very delicious and so perfect to enjoy during summer. Give it a go!

Salad dressing:

• 1/4 cup kikkoman soy sauce
• 2 tbs dark soy sauce
• 1/4 cup brown vinegar
• 1/4 cup sesame oil
  
• 3 tbs hot chilli oil
• 1 tbs sugar

This salad dressing is enough for 2 packets of Hokkien Noodle (6 servings). If you only prepare a small portion, reduce the dressing by half the amount. You can adjust the amount of soy sauce and vinegar depending on your taste. 

Salad Ingredients:

• Hokkien noodles (blanch in boiling water and drain)
• shallot (cut thinly)
• coriander (cut thinly)
• cabagge (cut thinly)
  
• toasted sesame seeds
• Stir fry: olive oil, minced garlic, chicken thigh fillets (cut into strips), tofu (cut thinly) and dried beancurd (soaked in water overnight, then cut thinly). Add a pinch of salt, pepper and dark soy sauce.

I prepared my thigh fillets in stir fry to avoid having raw garlic in my salad. You can boil the meat for the salad and add raw garlic. This is easier to prepare but the garlic taste will be quite strong. You can balance it by adding minced young ginger. So, here are some pictures showing my salad preparations.

 

Thai Chicken Noodle Salad

Here is a nice and easy recipe for busy people. I understand how tiring it could be to prepare dinner after a long day of work. As a solution, I always try to prepare dishes that require a small number of ingredients as possible.

I got this recipe a while ago from a cooking demo held in Westfield Eastgardens, 10 mins drive from our place. We tasted the dish and Thu said "Let's cook this tonight!!". Just a reminder that Thai sweet chilli sauce has so much sugar in it. If you're diabetic, please reduce the amount of the sweet chilli sauce.

Ingredients:

• half pack of Wai Wai noodle
• basil leaves (chopped thinly)
• 2 tbs olive oil
• a pinch of salt and pepper
  
• 2 chicken thigh fillets (cut into strips)
• 2 tbs Thai sweet chilli sauce
  
• 0.5 lemon
• 200 grams long green beans (cut into small pieces)

Salad dressing for noodle:

• 3 tbs soy sauce
• 1.5 tbs sesame oil

Preparations:

1. Boil noodle for 2-3 min, then drain. If noodle are too long, chop them with scissors before adding the salad dressing.
2. Toss the noodles in a bowl with sesame oil, soy sauce and chopped basil leaves.
   
3. Heat olive oil on the wok, add chicken thigh fillets, salt and pepper. Stir fry until they are fully cooked. Add Thai sweet chilli sauce, lemon juice and long green beans. Cook for maximum 3 mins. The green beans should be crunchy.
4. Serve the chicken with green beans on top of the noodles and garnish with basil leaves.