Char Kway Teow, Trail Version
Charred rice noodles with dried shrimp and sausage, cooked in one pan on a two-burner.
- calories
- 640
- weight
- 6 oz
- cal / oz
- 107
- protein
- 22 g
- serves
- 4, scales
- prep
- 15 min
- cook
- 15 min
- total time
- 30 min
- water
- 900 ml boiled
- cost
- $$
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dinner
- Canister stove
- Liquid fuel
- Grill grate
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Canoe / raft
- Dairy free
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| Dried flat rice noodles | 8 oz | the widest cut you can find |
|---|---|---|
| Chinese sausage (lap cheong) | 2 links | cured and dry, holds a week out of the cooler |
| Dried shrimp | 1/4 cup | soaked, they stand in for the fresh shrimp |
| Freeze-dried scrambled egg | 1/2 cup | or 2 fresh eggs if you have a cooler |
| Dried onion flakes | 3 tbsp | |
| Freeze-dried green onion | 2 tbsp | |
| Oyster sauce | 4 tbsp | 4 parts hoisin to 1 part fish sauce also works |
| Light soy sauce | 2 tbsp | |
| Dark soy sauce | 2 tbsp | this is the color, not the salt |
| Ground white pepper | 2 tsp | |
| Sugar | 2 tsp | |
| Chicken bouillon powder | 1 tsp | |
| Neutral cooking oil | 2 tbsp | not olive oil, it smokes too low |
Method
- Boil water and cook the rice noodles per the bag, usually five to eight minutes. Drain, rinse with cold water if you have it, and toss with a teaspoon of the oil so they do not weld together.
- Cover the dried shrimp with hot water in a mug. Ten minutes. Drain and mix with 2 tbsp of the oyster sauce, 1 tsp white pepper, and the bouillon powder.
- Rehydrate the onion and green onion in a few tablespoons of warm water. Rehydrate the egg powder separately per its package.
- Mix the sauce in a mug: the remaining 2 tbsp oyster sauce, both soy sauces, 1 tsp white pepper, and the sugar.
- Heat the rest of the oil in the pan and soften the onions. Pull them out.
- Sliced sausage into the same pan. Cook until the fat renders out, two or three minutes, then set it aside with the onions. Leave the fat.
- Shrimp in next, one minute. Push them to one side, pour in the egg, and let it set before breaking it up.
- Add the noodles and leave them alone for a full minute so the bottom chars. Then pour the sauce over, fold everything back in, and toss until the noodles are evenly brown.
This dish is built on wok hei, which needs a screaming hot wok you will not have in camp. So the recipe leans on the other two things that make char kway teow work: rendered sausage fat and dark soy. Cook the sausage first and leave the fat in the pan. Everything after that is cooking in it.
The substitutions are all about the cooler. Fresh shrimp become dried shrimp, which rehydrate in ten minutes and bring more concentrated flavor than the fresh ones did. Fresh eggs become powder. Onions become flakes. The one thing worth keeping intact is the char step: get the pan hot, drop the noodles, and do not touch them. A minute of stillness is the whole difference between this and warm noodle salad.
Packing
Sauce ingredients go into one small screw-top bottle at home, already mixed. Dried shrimp, onion, and green onion share a bag. Noodles and sausage travel loose. The sausage does not need a cooler but keep it out of the sun.
Variations
- Skip the shrimp and sausage and double the egg for a vegetarian pan. The bouillon still has chicken in it, so swap that too.
- Bean sprouts, if you brought a cooler, go in during the last thirty seconds and nowhere else.
- A spoonful of chili crisp folded in at the end covers for the wok breath you are not getting.
https://www.xoverland.com/gon-cookin-recipes/char-kway-teow-stephanie-tea