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Colorado Kuay Chap

It's been a long time since I've had Kuay Chap or, translated from Teochew, 'cake juice'. I know, it doesn't sound very appetizing. The dish, consisting of rolled rice noodles and pig offal probably won't sit down well with most North American palates.

I didn't have any pig intestines on hand but I did have the deer intestines that I wanted to try. I washed it out well and cooked it. Unfortunately, it did not taste like pig intestines so it went to the chickens. I was a good thing I didn't save too much because it was a LOT of work cleaning it out.

I had no choice but to make do with just the deer tongue and with the ingredients I bought from my local Asian supermarket.

I bought some made-in-Thailand dried Kuay Tiao. It was labeled as "Rice Flake". I also got a small pack of Giam Chai (salted vegetable).

Ingredients

Dried 'Rice Flakes' or kuay tiao or rice noodles
Cooked pig's blood, cubed
Pig's intestines (optional)
Tongue, sliced (optional)
Pork Belly sliced so that there are 3 layers in every slice (optional)
Tau Pok (Fried Bean Curd), rinsed and squeezed, cut into quarters if it's the large version
Hard boiled egg, shell removed
Dark Soy Sauce
Water
1 Star Anis
Salted Vegetable

Cilantro (for garnish)
Chili sauce or Sriracha sauce for dipping (optional)

Method 

Cook rice flakes in boiling water until the noodles are soft and roll up. Set aside.

Boil dark soy sauce and water in the ratio of about 2:1 portions. If it is too salty, add more water, if it's not salty enough, add more soy. Add all the ingredients except the salted vegetable, chili sauce, cilantro and noodles into the soy mixture. Simmer until everything looked braised in the soy.

When the egg becomes brown from the soy, remove and slice lengthwise into quarters. Serve a little bit of each items with the noodles and top with the soy gravy. Garnish with cilantro.

Shandong Noodles

To be honest, I'm not sure what authentic Shandong noodles are supposed to taste like. I found a 5lb box of dried Shandong noodles for $5 at my local Asian grocer so I decided to try it.

Ingredients

Shandong Noodles, cooked in boiling water then drained
(Leftover) baked chicken, shredded
4 dried Shitake Mushrooms (rehydrated in hot water and julienned)
2 carrots, peeled and julienned
1 piece of ginger, peeled and julienned

Salt, black bean sauce, oyster sauce, Shaoxing wine (or dry sherry), sesame oil, garlic powder to taste

Cilantro (for garnish)

Method

In a hot pan, add a little oil. Add ginger then black bean sauce and stir fry until fragrant. Add mushrooms, carrots and chicken and fry until cooked. Add noodles. Add seasonings to taste.

Garnish with cilantro. Serve with Sriracha sauce (optional)

Note: Adding bean sprouts will go well with this dish. Since I didn't have any on hand, I omitted it.

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Buying and Storing Ginger

I wanted to include a post on using fresh ginger. Since I use a decent amount over the year in my recipes, I think it's important to include a post on this topic.

When I was a kid, I always remember my mum having a large chunk of ginger root by the sink. Since it's so humid in Singapore, I never remember seeing the root every really drying and shriveling out.

In Colorado however, the roots shrivel up from the dry air QUICKLY, rendering them useless after sometime. At $4.99/lb at regular grocery stores, that gets expensive.

The best place to get fresh ginger roots would be from an Asian grocer. In the Denver area, the price is usually about $0.98-$1.10/lb, which of course, is a fraction of regular store prices. Since I live a fair distance from the Asian stores, I have to buy my supplies in fairly large amounts.

To choose fresh ginger, always try to pick the firmest root with the smoothest skin. Never buy wrinkled roots. Sometimes you find nubs that are not as good as the rest of the root, just break those off.

Storing /Freezing Ginger

Rinse the roots under cool running water to remove any debris. Use a potato peeler to remove the outer skin.

Cut into thumb-sized chunks (or whatever size you normally use per recipe). I find thumb-sized chunks work well.

Ginger ready for freezing - cost less than $1 and should last at least 6-12 months

 
Store all the chunks in a freezer bag and pop it in the freezer for later use.

I have kept ginger frozen this way for over a year and it still came out fine. The chunks may form ice crystals around it over time. Just break off a chunk you need to use and rise the ice off. Works every time!