Making noodles is great because a) it’s really easy b) you can usually use what ingredients you have available and c) you seem very travelled dishing out Asian cuisine.
The ingredients we’ve used here could easily be swapped out for something else. For the photos we used thin noodles, but I generally prefer something thicker like whole wheat noodles. It just gives more texture.
Speaking of ingredients, some of these might be unknown for you. If you plan to make more asian dinners however, these will be handy to have. Sambal Oelek is a spicy chilipaste which gives a really nice, round spice to it. Ketjap Manis is sweet soya sauce (basically).
You don’t have to use bok choy either. It’s totally fine to use Chinese cabbage, for example.
I recommend prepping before you start frying. Once you turn on the pan, everything goes fairly fast and you don’t look cool stressing in the kitchen – trust me.
We borrowed and adjusted this recipe from Green Bonanza.
Portions: 4
Ingredients:
- 200 g noodles
- 300/400 g firm tofu
- 5 – 6 leaves bok choy (or Chinese cabbage for example)
- 2 shallots (1 finely chopped, 1 chopped in circles)
- 3 garlic gloves (finely chopped)
- 2 tsp sambal oelek (add more for fire)
- Kecap manis
- 2 – 4 tsp maizenna (type of flour)
- Oil for frying
- Salt & pepper
Optional:
- Handfull bean sprouts
- 2 – 3 scallions (chopped)
- Crispy onions
- 1 lime
Prepping:
- Turn on some music. Remember, you’re prepping because you’re smart and cool. I recommend my hipchill playlist on Spotify.
- Take the tofu between paper and set a book over it for pressure. What you want is to press out the water without, of course, ruining the tofu. Set aside.
- Cook the noodles and set aside.
- Finely chop 1 shallot and all the garlic gloves. Add in a small container and add the sambal oelek. 2 tsp is medium hot, so adjust what you prefer. Stir everything together and set aside.
- Chop the bok choi leaves in fairly big pieces and add to a bowl. Chop the other shallot in rings and add to bowl. Set aside.
- Take a small, plastic bag and add the 2 – 4 tbs maizenna flour, plus salt and pepper. Chop the tofu in dices and add to the same small bag. Use the bag to shake everything so all the tofu dices is covered with the flour. This will give the tofu some crust when frying. Set aside.
Ah shizzles, you’re now ready to shizzle this bad boy.
Instructions:
- Turn on a skillet on high heat with enough oil. Wait until it’s very hot, then add the tofu mix. Be very careful. Fry until all the dices get’s golden on all edges. When done, add in a spare bowl.
- In the same empty skillet, add a bit more oil and add the bok choi and shallot mix. Fry until the leaves are beginning to get blank. Then add back in bowl.
- Add some more oil in skillet and add the sambal oelek and onion mix. Fry for about 5 minutes while you rotate everything. It might get intense with smells.
- Add the tofu mix back in the skillet and mix everything well together. Do the same with bok choi mix.
- Add kecap manis so it covers everything. Don’t bother measuring up with dl, just add so it’s well and wet.
- Add the noodles and stur everything well together. I usually add some more kecap manis here. You don’t want the dinner to dry, but neither too much kecap manis either.
- Let the noodles warm up and you’re done!
- If you want, chop the scallions in small pieces and add that plus bean sprouts and crispy onion on top of the plate.