Hokkien Fried 'Pek Keh' / Chinese Rice Cake

Hokkien Fried "Pek Keh" (30 Apr 2012)

A dear friend has offered to take proper pictures of my dishes just recently. Looking at my 'Pek Keh' image, I suppose I should take up the offer or send myself for some photography classes. There are other 'things' that I must tackle besides my photography skills as well. 1) I love to serve my food hot so by the time I'm done cooking, it's meal time, sharp to the second! 2) Thus, leaving me little time to design and plate my food as you'd see in food magazines and other glorious food blogs that I envy so much. 3) I have 3 kids who'd linger in the kitchen every 5 minutes or so to whine of hunger & starvation even though they just had their breakfast at 10am.

Rice cake after soaking for a day

Now do you see my point? But that being said, I actually prefer it this way. I love to watch my family devour the food I prepare and what excitement and privilege it gives me to serve new dishes every week to them! My anticipation, their anticipation, my wok and spatula clanking, their spoon and fork clinking... you get what I mean, right?

It's not easy to find a "Tai Chow" that serves a good fried 'Pek Keh'. For those of you who don't know what 'Pek Keh' is, it's basically dried slices of rice noodle originated from China. I'd let you google about it later but for now let me introduce you to the Malaysian Hokkien version of this noodle. To fry the 'Hokkien' style regardless of noodle, you need a lot of wok hei (literally means chi/energy from the wok) - very big flames and very quick arm movements. This dish seems to be very popular around Jalan Ipoh, Segambut and Jalan Pahang areas. Lucky old me work around the area too...


Hokkien Fried Pek Keh Recipe (for 4 pax)

Ingredients:
400gm dried sliced Chinese rice cake (Could substitute with Korean rice cakes)
100gm lean pork, sliced thinly
8-12 small prawns (Could add squid as well)
A few leaves of Chinese cabbage
2 sprig of Chinese celery (Kan Choy)
2 tbsp garlic mince
2 tbsp of lard / cooking oil

Pork Marinade:
1/2 tbsp cornflour
1 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp Chinese wine
A dash of pepper

Seasoning:
2 tbsp of dark soy sauce
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp sugar
1 1/2 cup of chicken stock
2-3 drops of sesame oil


Method:

1.  Soak the Chinese rice cake for at least 1/2 a day before use. I soaked mine for 24 hours. Change the water a few times until it's no longer cloudy.
2. Prepare all the ingredients. Marinade pork for 15 minutes before use. Cut the Chinese cabbage into small pieces. Cut the Chinese celery into 1 inch long strips.
3. Heat up cooking oil in wok until smoking. Saute garlic mince and add pork slices. Sprinkle some chicken stock so that the pork does not stick to the wok. Add prawns and stirfry until they turn pinkish.
4. Add the rice cakes and seasoning and stirfry vigorously for a minute. Add the chicken stock and cabbage. Cover for 2 minutes.
5. Lastly, put in the Chinese celery and toss it a bit.
6. Note, the heat is always on medium high to high for frying Hokkien Noodle. You have to fry this dish in less than 10 minutes otherwise you'd get gooey overcooked rice cakes. Feel free to add more water if necessary as rice cakes absorb a lot of moisture.
7. Serve hot!