From golden nests of dried noodles to the thick Shanghai variety, egg noodles work hard in dishes across Asia. Fresh hokkien noodles, as the name implies, were invented by the Hokkien Chinese and were swiftly adopted by Malaysia where they’re often used in hawker-style dishes. They’re sold cooked and oiled, either fresh or in vacuum packs. Shanghai noodles are a close cousin to this variety and are generally sold in an uncooked state. They’re famously used in zha jiang mian, noodles topped with a pork and brown bean sauce, which loosely resembles that other popular meat and noodle dish, spaghetti bolognese. Fresh and dried egg noodles are eaten for breakfast, lunch and dinner, dropped into soups or, as here, stir-fried in a take on the Indonesian rice classic, nasi goreng.
Ingredients
Method
Main
1.Cook noodles in boiling water for 1 minute or until just cooked. Drain, refresh in cold running water, drain again and set aside.
2.To make omelette rolls, combine eggs and 1 tbsp soy sauce in a bowl and season to taste with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. Heat 1 tsp oil in a 10cm-diameter frying pan over medium-high heat, add a quarter of the egg mixture, swirl to coat pan, cook for 1 minute or until egg is just set, then transfer to a plate and roll into a cylinder. Repeat with remaining egg mixture.
3.Heat remaining oil in a wok or large heavy-based frying pan over medium-high heat, add garlic, pork and chicken and cook for 2-3 minutes. Add prawns, cabbage, chilli, green onion and cook for 2-3 minutes or until prawns just change colour. Add stock, kecap manis, remaining soy sauce and noodles, toss to combine and cook until noodles are warm. Divide among bowls, top with an omelette roll, scatter with fried shallots and serve with kecap manis and chilli sauce passed separately.
Ben Dearnley
