Recipe: Stir fried loh shi fun 老鼠粉 + Fishball tofu soup

Baking with kids is a good starting point in the kitchen, since the kids will only have minimal contact with hot stoves, but as they grow older, I am exposing them to some cooking activities too. Both my kids can cook scrambled eggs competently (yah, you guessed it - we have this almost EVERY weekend and they take turns to cook it ;)). I occasionally let them help with stir frying vegetables too.

For our latest kitchen adventure, I taught Baby C how to stir fry noodles from scratch, starting from going to the wet market together to get the ingredients, showing her how to chop the ingredients and then how to cook it. She really enjoyed the first session and in less than a week, she requested to cook this again for the whole family.

Loh shi fun 老鼠粉, also known as rats' tail noodle or silver needle noodle is a type of short, white Chinese noodles made from rice flour. In Malaysia, you will also find it packaged as laksa panjang. We enjoy stir frying this with minced pork (or chicken), sliced fishcakes, and beansprouts, and seasoned with dark and light soy sauce. This is a really simple noodle dish to prepare, and makes a fantastic, quick dinner. And yes, kids always tend to eat more when they have helped prepare the dish.

Proud of my little girl!

We served this stir fried loh shi fun with a bowl of fishball tofu soup each, which the kids like too. The soup is simply made by boiling some dried anchovies (ikan bilis) for 10 minutes. Easy and nutritious!

Stir fried loh shi fun 老鼠粉
Recipe by Baby Sumo
Preparation time: 2 minutes
Cooking time: 15-18 minutes
Serves 4

Ingredients
450g loh shi fun (laksa panjang)
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2-3 tbsp cooking oil
100g minced pork or chicken
2 fishcakes, sliced
300g beansprouts, washed and drained
100ml water
1 1/2 tbsp dark soy sauce
1 tbsp light soy sauce
1/2 tsp chicken stock granules
1 tsp ginger wine

To serve
Spring onion, finely chopped
Sambal (optional)


1. In a wok, heat oil over medium high heat and once oil is hot, add the garlic and stir fry for about 2 minutes, until lightly browned.

2. Add the minced pork and stir fry for about 5-6 minutes, or until the pork is golden brown. Add the fishcakes and stir fry for another 30 seconds.

3. Pour in the water, and season with the dark soy sauce, light soy sauce, ginger wine and chicken stock granules. Once the sauce comes to the boil, add the noodles and stir to coat with the sauce, cooking for 1-2 minutes. Add the beansprouts and cook for another 1-2 minutes, or until the beansprouts are cooked through. Taste and season with more light soy sauce/salt as necessary.

4. Garnish with spring onions and serve immediately.


Note: Once you add the noodles, you may need to give your child a hand tossing the noodles with the ladle as it can be quite heavy, especially if you are cooking for a larger group. Adult supervision is required.

Fishball tofu soup
Recipe by Baby Sumo
Preparation time: 2 minutes
Cooking time: 15 minutes
Serves 4

Ingredients
16-20 fishballs
4 cups water
2 handfuls of ikan bilis, rinsed and drained
Salt, to taste
Spring onion, finely chopped
1 box silken tofu, cut into small cubes

1. Place water and ikan bilis in a saucepan over medium high heat and bring to the boil. Once boiling, lower to medium low heat and simmer for about 10 minutes.

2. Add the fishballs and cook for about 2 minutes, then add the tofu and cook for a further 30 seconds. Season with some salt.

3. Serve immediately and garnish with spring onions.


Note: You can use either silken tofu or 水豆腐.

If you enjoyed reading my posts, LIKE me on Facebook! You can also follow me on Instagram (@babysumo) for more photo updates. Thanks :)