Another safe favorite of Indonesian one-dish meal is stir-fried noodle. The noodles used are fresh round and thick egg noodles, which can easily be substituted with instant ramen noodles. This is stir-fried quickly with spice paste and green vegetables. The main difference with other type of fried noodles are the generous use of chili and thick sweet soy sauce.
When sold in traditional eateries, the take-away noodles will be wrapped in a couple of banana leaves and fastened by toothpick or rubber band. This cheaper version is sold with pickled shallots and onion and a couple of shrimp crackers. It can certainly satisfy your midnight cravings for oily food. In fancier spots, mi goreng is served with shredded omelette or fried eggs sunny side up, a piece of fried chicken and crackers.
The secret for nice mie goreng is that as soon as the vegetables are added into the hot wok, the egg noodles are added and seasoned with sweet soy sauce as fast as you can, and quickly mixed them well with one spatula in one hand and a big ladle / fork in the other. The noodles The faster you remove the noodles from the heat, the better it would turn out to be. Overcooked noodles is soggy and easily broken into short and lumpy.
Ingredients
For spice paste
2 cloves garlic
10 shallots (15 grams)
4 candlenuts, toasted
1/2 teaspoon whole white pepper seeds
For stir-frying
250 grams egg noodle
150 grams beansprouts
150 gr chinese green cabbage, cut into 2″ length
5 spring onions, cut into 5 cm stalks
1 stalk chinese celery, chopped finely
1/8 cup green / bird’s eye chili (10 grams)
1 tomato, quartered
1 tablespoon cooking oil
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 tablespoons sweet soy sauce
1/4 cup water
Instructions
- In a spice grinder or mortar, add the garlic, shallots, candlenuts and pepper. Lightly mashed everything together till reaches smooth paste consistency
- Heat oil in a heavy saucepan over high heat till smoke starts to show at the surface
- Add the spice paste and chili, quickly stir-fry for two minutes
- Toss in the green and beansprouts. Mix well with the paste quickly for one minute
- Add in the noodles, tomato pieces, sweet soy sauce , salt, chopped celery and spring onion and water. Keep on stirring for one more minute, and remove from heat
- Serve warm with pickled shallots and sprinkle some fried shallots for garnish
Cook’s note
When fresh egg noodles are used, wash them under running water for a couple of minutes before tossing into the wok.
Chinese greens can be substituted with shredded cabbage
Step by step shots
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
This is certainly different than bakmi goreng Jawa that I used to buy
I ought to try this one. Thank you for sharing the recipe.
I am not good at stir-frying noodles. Yours look so tasty! I luv your step-by-step instructions.
Tuty,
There are so many ways to do it, huh. I bet every family has their own version of mie goreng. I would love to check out some bakmi goreng Java. Never had that before.
Food4Tots,
Haha. I did that under heavy supervision from my mother. I am sure if left alone, my noodles will be one big lump of starchy mess.