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Dinner tonight was malaysian style Mee Goreng, or indian style fried noodles. I make noodles usually to finish odds and ends in the fridge. I had a pack of fresh yellow noodles i needed to use up. No real recipe, but basically I pureed some shallots, garlic and red chillies (several - we eat spicy) fried for a few minutes, then added sliced pork (I had a boneless chop i needed to use, but usually I don’t add meat). When that was cooked, i added some tofu pieces i had airfryered beforehand, added some boiled cubed potato, and sliced green cabbage. I thought i had some carrots but I was wrong. Added the cooked noodles and my sauces - light soy sauce, sweet soy sauce, and the secret ingredient - ketchup. Added some white pepper and I was done.
Usually its a bit saucier but I underestimated how much noodles I had so they came out a little drier than I normally make.
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Looks fantastic. The ketchup makes me think this is maybe related to or at least somewhat similar to Pad Thai?
It’s really not similar to Pad Thai at all. Pad thai is rice noodles, with a very light, thin sauce that functions more as a flavoring as opposed to a coating. Mee Goreng is usually sauce heavy (wetter), and many versions are made by the mamaks, or Indian Muslims, so there’s a blend of Indian ingredients and Chinese ingredients. It’s a strongly flavored dish, whereas Pad Thai isn’t strongly flavored.
Some people use fresh tomatoes instead of ketchup, but we prefer the ketchup version in our house. Mamaks tend to add curry powder too (Indian influence) but I didn’t add it this time. Some add ground ikan bilis (small dried anchovies). When I make my vegetarian version, I usually add some curry powder as well. This version was a fridge cleanout, so it was more improvised than normal.
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Good to know - I’m actually not a big fan of Pad Thai, but this sounds much more interesting!
I tried making some curry laksa using this recipe:
Sambal being fried.
Laksa paste ingredients. I caused my Vitamix to overheat when blending and had to finish pulverizing in the food processor. Still a bit fibrous. This made a lot of paste. Seemed like a bit too much paste actually. I just used about a half cup’s worth with a pint of chicken broth for one serving.
Frying the paste. Hopefully will not get poisoned by raw candlenut. Then added broth, coconut milk, and tofu puffs.
Noodles, beansprouts, fish cake.
After putting everything together, with shrimp, egg, some rau ram leaves, and sambal. There’s some broth underneath.
It came out ok. The broth tasted pretty good but there were still bits of fibrous vegetables in the broth, probably from the lemongrass, don’t know how normal that is. Maybe I should have peeled away more layers. Could be the galangal as well as that was quite tough.
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Next time, slice the lemongrass into thin slices before blending. Your pieces are too big. That should help with the fibers. What did you think of the belachan? Was it your first time using it?
Try it with the Chinese style egg noodles next time, which look like this. They have a different flavor and texture than the ones you used. 
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Thanks for the tips! Yes I think slicing the lemongrass into thin slices would have helped, also maybe I should have cut them down the middle and discarded more of the tough green part. The Malaysian shrimp paste I got (Shrimp & Boy brand) was quite dark and sticky, I needed two spoons to work with it. I’ve only used Chinese shrimp paste before and that’s not as sticky and it’s also lighter in color as well. Actually I don’t think I got the right type of paste as it’s labeled as ‘petis udang’ and not belachan.
Yes, belacan is different. It’s a dry crumbly block. You break off pieces and dry roast it before using. It’s very potent. My mom wraps it in a foil packet and roasts it on the grill outside so it doesn’t stink up the house! 
I think the paste you have contains sugar, whereas belacan is just shrimp and salt.
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I posted my pellet smoked pork butt last night when I had a party, but did not send pictures of my spring rolls as I fried them as the guests arrived. So, thought this might be the correct place to post them.
Made a ton of spring roll ingredients, Fujien style , wrapped 100 of them, freeze the rest. . I do not like to fry them ahead of time as they tend to lost their crispiness. Actually, Fujian style is to eat them wrapped in the very thin sheets (the ones I used comes from the Philippines, as thin as fillo dough sheets) by the guests themselves, garnished with a chinese herb called Ho Ti as well as crush peanuts with sugar and a splash of tabasco. However, for Americans, I prefer to wrap them, fry them at the last minute.
The ingredient inside was posted last year ( shredded poached chicken, chopped up shrimp precooked with ginger and spring onions, ground pork precooked with garlic and onions, tokwa - which is not just firm Tofu but is very old tofu, called LAO TAO KWA in my dialect, shredded in the food processor, then pre sautéed with garlic . I also shred onions, cabbage, carrots, snow peas all sauteed in peanut oil. The ingredients are just about the same quantity of each component ) Then, after all these individual ingredients are precooked, I mixed them in my large 18 Q sauté ( 18Q) pan ,simmer them for a few hours, taste for seasoning, add a bit of sesame oil and fried shallot .
Here are 6 left overs from last night which I fried for my lunch today. I serve them with with either La Choy’s sweet and source sauce or mixture of soy sauce, cider vinegar, crushed red peppers, freshly crushed garlic and a splash of hot sauce
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I’ve made a few Malaysian dishes this quarter, but i just keep forgettng to take pictures of them!
This is from last Friday. This is a dish called sothee, which is an Indian-Malaysian dish made with thin coconut milk, mustard and fenugreek seeds, turmeric, curry leaves, chillies, and vegetables. This time, I used onions, fresh green chillies, cabbage and carrots. Sometimes I add green beans if i have them too. It’s served at room temperature over white rice (there is rice under all that). On the side, i made a simple fish sambal type of thing, with onions, garlic, ginger, mustard seeds, dry red chillies, and fish curry powder (Baba’s brand from Malaysia.)
On Sunday, I made dried egg noodles boiled in water with with pork bouillon cube added to it. Threw in some frozen peas and corn during the last minute or so. After it finished cooking, I drained it, then tossed the noodles with kecap manis (sweet soy sauce), some shallot oil, some fried crispy shallots, and hot chilli sauce. Fried up some sunny side eggs, and that was an early Sunday lunch before the game.
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I guess the Malaysian Chinese celebrate the lunar new year, but how about the Malays and Indians? What are the new year food? @klyeoh and everybody that has the knowledge, can you throw some light on this? Thanks in advance.
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I think because Malaysia is such a mixed pot of cultures, the Malays and Indians also celebrate Chinese New Year to an extent. Everyone gets days off from work, so it becomes a time for everyone to spend with their family and friends.
My grandmother always used to make pineapple tarts for 2 holidays – Chinese New Year and Deepavali/Diwali. She said pineapple was supposed to bring good fortune and luck.
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How do they look like? Did an online search, but they are in all different forms.
They would be similar to these. My mom made them a couple times using my grandmother’s recipe and they were good, but just not the same! I think I’ll bring her tart press over and give it a try…
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Cross posted on the WFD thread…
Last night’s dinner was Malaysian style Indian. 
Yellow dal with green chillies, onion, and curry leaves, luncheon meat stirfried with curry leaves, green chillies, turmeric, and dark soy sauce, fried bitter melon salad with lemon and onion, and papad. All served with white rice.
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Tried making some char kuey teow using this recipe, minus the bloody cockles. Came out ok but I think I need to work on my stir frying skills.
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Looks good! I also skip the cockles – I’m not a fan. I always ask for them to omit them when I’m ordering CKT at a stall/shop. Sometimes they ask me 2-3 times if I’m sure I don’t want them!
I’ve been wanting to make CKT for a few days now but haven’t had time. Maybe this week if I get a chance!
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UI think that is chaw fen ( not sure of the spelling as different dialects pronounce it differently) It is a difficult dish to master. It looks good.
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Upcoming - gado-gado, followed by beef rendang & rice.
Both recipes from Ping Coombes book “Malaysia - recipes from a family kitchen”. Although not slavishly followed - e.g. I bought a peanut sauce from the supermarket for the starter, rather than making from scratch
Dessert, FWIW, are from the French patisserie a few minutes drive away (and which recently won the “best producer” award in my Sunday newspaper’s competition. Absolutely nothing Malaysian about them, although there is a use of lychee as a flavouring in the entremet.
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