For all you noodle lovers out there, here’s something we enjoyed recently per the request of my daughter Sam who said she missed terribly stir fried oriental noodles with store-bought fishballs and quekiam. This is commercial quekiam, mind you, the kind you buy frozen from the supermarket, not the kind wrapped in tawpe (bean curd skin) that is served as an appetizer in Chinese restaurants.
Commercial quekiam is so called only because it is shaped and colored like the real que-kiam. In truth, it’s mostly flour. So are the fish balls, actually. You can’t use real que-kiam for this stir fry but if you want to make it on another occasion, there is a que-kiam recipe in the archive.
There are so many brands of commercial quekiam and fish balls, choose the best quality that you can afford because the cheaper ones turn tough as rubber after frying and often taste like cardboard.
- 250 grams Asian noodles dry weight (egg noodles or rice noodles will work best)
- 200 grams frozen quekiam sometimes spelled as kikiam
- 200 grams fish balls
- 1/2 head garlic
- 1 onion
- 1 carrot
- 1 bunch pechay pei-tsai in Chinese, a variety of cabbage
- 1 bunch onion leaves
- 1/4 cup oyster sauce
- 1/4 cup hoisin sauce
- 3 to 4 tablespoons light soy sauce
- pepper
- 6 tablespoons cooking oil
- sesame seed oil
-
Cook the noodles according to package directions. Set aside.
-
Peel and finely mince the garlic. Peel and finely slice the onion.
-
Peel the carrot and slice thinly. Discard the root ends of the onion leaves and cut into one-inch lengths. Cut off the dark green leaves of the pechay and reserve for future use. You only need the crisp white and light green stalks for this noodle dish. Cut the stalks into one-inch lengths.
-
Cut the fish balls into halves. Slice the quekiam diagonally into two to three pieces.
-
Heat the cooking oil. Lightly fry the fish balls and quekiam. Add the carrots and cook, stirring, for about a minute. Add the garlic, onion and pechay tips; cook for another minute. Add the onion leaves. Stir. Pour in the soy sauce, oyster sauce and hoisin sauce. Add pepper. Stir to blend.
-
-
Add the noodles, toss and stir to coat the noodles with the sauce. Turn off the heat, drizzle with sesame oil and serve.
-
Not everyone like tea but this stir fried noodles with fish balls and quekiam really goes well with green tea. :)
