Mie Kangkung (Egg noodles with water spinach)
My motivation to cook mostly comes from my appetite, what I feel like eating which covers a very broad range of cuisines, from Indonesian to Italian, from soup to salad, or from light to hearty food. Inspiration can also come out of the blue, usually after flicking through my cookbooks collection with mouth watering food images. So what about mie kangkung? Why did I make it? That’s the question asked by my husband after I told him we were having it for dinner. I never made it before, and it’s not something we commonly ate in Indonesia anyway. So why? The answer is “I don’t know”. I just remembered I had it a few times for lunch at a small cafetaria in BRI building next to the office building I worked in in Jakarta. It was one of those nameless food establishments, but it was known to its patrons as Fancy. My mom made it a few times as well, though I remember me and my brothers not really fancying it. Oh well, I guess sometimes I don’t need to have a specific reason to cook something, do I?
Ingredients
5 garlic gloves
3 red chillies
1 tbsp dried shrimp, toast on a fry pan, and pound in a mortar and pestle
500 gr chicken breast fillet, diced
1 tbsp dried shrimp
2 tsp light soy sauce
5 tbsp sweet soy sauce
4 tbsp oyster sauce
2 3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp white pepper
1 tsp brown sugar
2 tsp chicken powder
1.5 l water
4 tsp corn flour and 2 tbsp water, mix to form a paste
2 tbsp cooking oil
Main accompanying ingredients and condiments
100 gr bean sprouts, blanched in boiling water, drain, set aside.
500 gr fresh egg noodles, cooked in boiling water for 1 minutes, drain, set aside.
250 gr water spinach, blanched in boiling water, drain, set aside.chilli sauce
lemon/lime juice
dry eschallots
How to
1. Process garlic, red chillies and dried shrimp powder with a hand blender until smooth.
2. Heat 2 tbsp cooking oil in a wok, stir fry mixture no 1 until fragrant.
3. Add diced chicken, and stir fry until half cooked.
4. Add light soy sauce, sweet soy sauce, oyster sauce, salt, pepper and sugar. Stir fry until evenly combined.
5. Add 1.5 L water and 2 tsp chicken powder, and bring it to boil.
6. Add corn flour paste and quickly stir. Let it boil, and then remove from heat.
7. To serve, place noodle, water spinach, bean sprouts in a bowl. Then ladle the chicken broth and diced chicken. Serve with condiments.
Makes 5
