Globecooking recipe : Mie Goreng (Indonesia)

This was my first foray into this month's Indonesian-themed Kitchen Trotter box and I was very impressed. It's a one pot stop for all your five-a-day in one go ! It used four exotic ingredients from the box.

Dried Combava Leaves, which release a citrus flavour when you crumble them, and Lemongrass in powdered form.

Terasi, fermented shrimp paste, which absolutely REEKS ! I have no idea how you'd know if this has gone off because it smells like it already has ! - and kecap, sweet thick soy sauce.

 Mie Goreng

ingredients :

drizzle of oil

a knob of fresh ginger

4 combava leaves

1tbsp lemongrass powder

3tbsp kecap

1/2tsp terasi shrimp paste

2 cloves of garlic

4 chicken breasts

1 large onion

1 head of broccoli

1 carrot

1 courgette

1 red pepper

2tbsp brown sugar

4 eggs

500g Chinese noodles

Put the Chinese noodles in a bowl and pour on boiling water. Leave to stand for a few minutes, separating them with a fork, then drain and reserve.

Beat the eggs and pour them into a frying pan with a drizzle of oil to create a thin omelette. Reserve.

Finely slice the courgette and carrot and dice the onion, red pepper, fresh ginger and garlic. Break the broccoli into small florets.

When cool, chop the omelette into small triangles.

Heat a drizzle of oil in the frying pan and toss in all the vegetables. Cook for four minutes, stirring.

Add 1tbsp sugar, the combava leaves (don't forget to break them to release the flavour), 1/2tsp shrimp paste, 1/2tbsp lemongrass powder, salt, pepper and the kecap. Stir-fry for another five minutes until the vegetables are soft (but still slightly crunchy). Pour into a large pot.

Fry the chicken in the frying pan that you just used for the vegetables. (Add an extra drizzle of oil.) When just cooked through, add 1tbsp sugar, 1/2tbsp lemongrass powder, salt, pepper and another drizzle of kecap. Toss to coat evenly and cook for a further 2 minutes to take on the lovely colour and flavour.

Add the noodles and chicken to the vegetables in the pot and toss to combine everything. Add extra kecap if desired. Serve with a few pieces of omelette on top.

This was quite delicately flavoured so I'd look at adding extra lemongrass powder, kecap and maybe even some of the dreaded shrimp paste next time - it was lovely though.

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