Mee goreng mamak

Name: Mee goreng mamak
Prep time: 12 min
Cook time: 21 min
Total time: 33 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Malaysian
Ingredients: 50g Peanuts; 15g Chilli; 10g Prawns; 5 tbs Oil; 750 ml Water; 1/2 tbs Tamarind Paste; 250g Potatoes; 2 Red Onions; 4 Garlic Clove; 30g Cabbage; 30g Chinese Broccoli; 1 Tofu; 1 tbs Soy Sauce; 4 Noodles; 1 Egg

By The Spice & Simmer Kitchen · Published May 3, 2026

A one-pot Seafood recipe with Malaysian flavors, built for busy weeknights when you want real food without a sink full of dishes. Comes together in roughly 61 minutes, serves about 4, and uses ingredients you can find at any normal grocery store. The technique is simple: build a base in your pot, layer in the main ingredients, simmer until everything has had time to talk to each other, and serve straight from the pan. If you're cooking for picky eaters, this one tends to land — the flavors are recognizable, the texture is comforting, and there's nothing weird hiding in the ingredient list. Perfect for the kind of evening where you want dinner on the table by 7pm and the kitchen empty by 7:30.

Ingredients

Makes 4 servings · 33 min total

50g Peanuts
15g Chilli
10g Prawns
5 tbs Oil
750 ml Water
1/2 tbs Tamarind Paste
250g Potatoes
2 Red Onions
4 Garlic Clove
30g Cabbage
30g Chinese Broccoli
1 Tofu
1 tbs Soy Sauce
4 Noodles
1 Egg

Step-by-step instructions

Heat oil in a pan at medium heat. Then, add peanuts, dried chilies, dried shrimps and dhal. Fry the aromatics until fragrant. Remove from pan and leave aside.
Blend fried ingredients with tamarind paste and water until fine. Then, sauté the blended ingredients in oil heated over low heat. Continue cooking until the oil separates from the paste and turns a darker shade.
Skin and cut potatoes into small chunks and boil them in a pot of water until knife-tender. Once ready, remove them from the pot and leave aside. Discard water.
Slice onion and fried tofu, mince garlic, cut some cabbage and Chinese flowering cabbage (choi sam). Prepare prawn fritters and cut them. Boil noodles to soften them if bought dried. Also mix black soy sauce with water.
To fry one portion of mee goreng mamak, heat oil and add 1/4 of the following ingredients in this order: garlic, onion, paste. Sauté until fragrant. Optionally, add prawns.
Add in 1/4 amount of tofu, boiled potatoes, cabbage, Chinese flowering cabbage and prawn fritters. Sauté for another 30 seconds.
Add noodles to the wok. Add 3 tablespoons of dark soy sauce mixture. Mix evenly for the next 1 minute. Then, move the noodles to the side of the wok. Stir in an egg. Garnish with a slice of lime and slices of green chilies. To cook another plate of noodles, repeat from step 5 onwards.

Why this works on a weeknight

Mee goreng mamak lands at about 33 minutes total — a little longer than our 30-minute target, but most of that time is hands-off simmering, which is why it earned a spot in our Stir-Fry collection. The technique is forgiving, the ingredient list is grocery-store standard, and the active cooking time is short enough that you can answer a text message in the middle without ruining dinner.

Cleanup notes

This is a single-pan recipe, so the cleanup is exactly one pan, one cutting board, and one knife. While the dish rests, fill the pan with hot soapy water — by the time you are done eating, the residue lifts off with a single pass of a sponge. Skip the steel wool on cast iron; a stiff brush and warm water are all you need to keep the seasoning intact.

Make-ahead and leftovers

Leftovers keep covered in the fridge for up to three days. Reheat in a dry pan over medium-low with a splash of water or stock to loosen the sauce. Mee goreng mamak actually improves overnight as the flavors keep talking to each other, so doubling the recipe and packing tomorrow's lunch is a high-leverage weeknight move.

Filed under 🥢 Stir-Fry Seafood Malaysian