Home-style recipes from around the world, written for real kitchens

EN
Thick yellow noodles stir-fried in a red-brown spice sauce, tangled with shrimp, bean sprouts and cabbage, served with emping and lime
Prep20 min
Cook45 min
Serves4 servings
CuisineIndonesian (Acehnese)
Southeast Asia

Mie Aceh: Spice-Scented Thick Fried Noodles from Northern Sumatra

Mie Aceh, the signature noodle dish of Aceh at the northern tip of Sumatra, made with thick yellow noodles, shrimp, cabbage and bean sprouts in a reduced spice sauce of cardamom, star anise, coriander and candlenuts, plus kecap manis. Covers reducing the sauce until the oil separates, leaving a little liquid in the pan, and serving with emping and pickled shallots.

Total: 1 hr 5 minLevel: Intermediate

Cooking flow

Cooking steps

STEP 11 / 6

Stir-fry the sauce ingredients

Stir-frying dried chilies, star anise, cardamom, garlic, red onion and peanuts in a skillet
Stir-fry over medium heat for 5 minutes until fragrant. Don't scorch the chilies

Heat 1 tbsp of the sauce oil in a large skillet over medium heat, add all the sauce ingredients (except the remaining oil), and stir-fry about 5 minutes. It is enough when the garlic and red onion are soft and the spices are fragrant. Dried chilies turn bitter if scorched, so take the pan off the heat before they blacken.

STEP 22 / 6

Blend, then reduce until the oil separates

Reducing the spice paste in a skillet until red oil seeps from the edges
Reduce for 15–20 minutes, until red oil seeps out

Move the fried ingredients to a blender, add the remaining oil, and blend about 2 minutes, adding water little by little, to a smooth paste. Return it to the skillet over medium heat and simmer 15–20 minutes, stirring now and then. It is done when the water has cooked off, the paste is a deep red-brown, and red oil seeps from the edges.

STEP 33 / 6

Boil the noodles and stir-fry the shrimp

Stir-frying shrimp over high heat in a wok until red
On high heat for 1–2 minutes, until the shrimp turn red

Boil the noodles about 30 seconds less than the package says, rinse in cold water and drain. Heat 1 tsp oil in a wok over high heat, add the shrimp and stir-fry 1–2 minutes until they are red all over and cooked through, then remove.

STEP 44 / 6

Stir-fry the onion and sauce, then add vegetables and stock

Stir-frying onion and spice sauce in a wok, adding cabbage, tomato and stock and bringing to a boil
Stir-fry the sauce 3 minutes, add vegetables and stock and simmer 3 minutes

Add the remaining oil to the same wok and heat, then stir-fry the thinly sliced red onion about 3 minutes. Add 6–7 tbsp of the spice sauce and stir-fry 3 minutes, and when fragrant add the cabbage and tomato and toss about 1 minute. Pour in the chicken stock, bring to a boil, and simmer about 3 minutes until the cabbage softens.

STEP 55 / 6

Return the noodles and shrimp, season and steam

Returning noodles and shrimp to the wok, seasoning with kecap manis and soy sauce and tossing
When the noodles are dyed a glossy red-brown, cover for 2 minutes

Add the boiled noodles and stir-fried shrimp, add the curry powder, soy sauce, kecap manis and white pepper, and toss broadly with tongs. When the sauce coats all the noodles and the noodles are dyed a glossy red-brown, cover and heat over medium heat for 2 minutes. A thin film of liquid left on the bottom of the pan is the right finish for mie Aceh.

STEP 66 / 6

Add the bean sprouts and plate

Adding bean sprouts to the wok off the heat, tossing and plating
Toss the sprouts for 30 seconds and turn off the heat right away

Remove the lid, add the bean sprouts, toss quickly for about 30 seconds and turn off the heat right away. The residual heat softens the sprouts while leaving some crunch. Taste, adjust with salt, plate, and scatter with scallions sliced about 3 mm thick. Serve with emping, pickled shallots and lime.

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Ingredients

Ingredients

1 / 3

Spice sauce (about 8 portions)

Ingredient Amount Substitutes & notes
Dried red chilies 15 g Seeds removed
Star anise 1 Whole star
Cardamom (whole pods) 7 —
Candlenuts 5 Macadamia nuts also work
Sambal oelek 80 g Fresh red chilies also work
Garlic 40 g About 8 cloves
Red onion 100 g Roughly chopped
Ginger 20 g Thinly sliced
Roasted peanuts (unsalted) 30 g —
Coriander seeds 15 g A little over 2 tbsp
Fennel seeds 1/2 tsp —
Neutral oil 120 ml —
2 / 3

Stir-fry ingredients

Ingredient Amount Substitutes & notes
Chinese noodles (thick) 400 g Spaghetti also works
Shrimp (peeled and deveined) 250 g Thin-sliced beef also works
Red onion 1 (small) Thinly sliced
Cabbage 1/4 head Roughly chopped
Tomato 1 Seeded and diced
Chicken stock 300 ml Increase for a soupier dish
Bean sprouts 1 bag (200 g) —
Neutral oil 2 1/2 tbsp —
3 / 3

Seasoning and accompaniments

Ingredient Amount Substitutes & notes
Curry powder 1 tsp —
Soy sauce 3 tbsp Adjust to taste
Kecap manis 2 tbsp —
White pepper 1/4 tsp —
Salt To taste —
Emping As needed Shrimp crackers also work
Pickled shallots As needed Soak thinly sliced shallots in vinegar, sugar and salt for 30 minutes
Lime 1 Cut into wedges
Scallions 2 Sliced thin
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Night in Banda Aceh. At a stall on the main road, a big wok throws up flames and the cook tosses thick yellow noodles with an iron ladle. A red-brown sauce clings to the noodles in the wok, and the sweet smell of cardamom and star anise drifts down the street. Beside the plated noodles are thin nut crackers called emping, purple pickled shallots and a wedge of lime. This is Mie Aceh, the signature noodle dish of Aceh at the northern tip of Sumatra, at the western edge of Indonesia.

Noodles at the Western Edge, Where Arab, Indian and Chinese Aromas Meet

A night stall in Banda Aceh with thick noodles stir-frying in a wok, and a table set with emping and lime

Aceh sits on the northern tip of Sumatra, which juts into the Indian Ocean. It long prospered as a port of call for ships passing through the Strait of Malacca, visited by Arab and Indian merchants. Indonesia's tourism ministry describes mie Aceh as a dish born when Arab, Indian and Chinese food cultures mixed with local Acehnese know-how. Noodles that came from China, in other words, seasoned with spices inherited from India and the Middle East.

The noodles are yellow egg noodles as thick as udon or spaghetti. The deciding flavor comes from a spice blend called bumbu, combining black pepper, red chilies, shallots, garlic, cardamom, caraway, cumin and star anise, with a curry-like aroma. For the filling you can choose beef, goat, or seafood such as shrimp and squid.

Good to know

Mie Aceh comes in two forms: fried with the liquid cooked off, and with plenty of broth. Banda Aceh has several famous mie Aceh shops, and Indonesia's tourism ministry names "Mie Razali" on Jalan Panglima Polem and "Mie Aceh Simpang Lima" near the Baiturrahman Grand Mosque.

What goes with mie Aceh is emping, a faintly bitter cracker made by crushing, drying and frying melinjo nuts, plus pickled shallots and lime. To the dense, spice-heavy noodles, the lime's acidity and the crispness of the pickles are added, so you don't tire of it to the end.

What to Know Before Cooking It in Your Own Kitchen

Kecap manis, sambal oelek, star anise, cardamom, candlenuts, coriander seeds and thick Chinese noodles

The method in this article is based on the Mie Goreng Aceh recipe on "What To Cook Today," the blog of Indonesian-born food blogger Marvellina. It works in two stages: first make a batch of spice sauce, then use it to fry the noodles. The sauce keeps 1 week in the refrigerator and 1 month in the freezer, so make it once and enjoy it several times. The original sauce is quite hot, so this article reduces the dried chilies and omits the fresh bird's-eye chilies for a milder blend.

For noodles, thick Chinese noodles come closest in texture. If you can't get them, spaghetti works. Kecap manis (Indonesian sweet soy sauce), sambal oelek (chili paste) and candlenuts are available at Indonesian grocery stores or online.

Tip

The important step is to simmer the sauce in a pan for another 15–20 minutes after blending. Keep reducing until the water cooks off and red oil seeps from the edge of the sauce. The raw edge of the spices disappears and you get a sauce that clings well to the noodles.

Emping is sold dry before frying, or already fried, at Indonesian grocery stores. If you can't find it, shrimp crackers can stand in.

Ingredients (serves 4)

Thick Chinese noodles, shrimp, cabbage, bean sprouts, tomato, red onion and spice sauce ingredients for mie Aceh

Caution

The sauce uses peanuts and candlenuts, and the stir-fry uses shrimp. People with peanut or shellfish allergies cannot eat it. Candlenuts cannot be eaten raw, but the long cooking in the sauce makes them fine. Stir-frying dried chilies gives off an irritating smoke, so run the exhaust fan.

How to Make Mie Aceh

The spice sauce takes about 30 minutes and frying the noodles about 15. If you make the sauce the day before, the finished dish takes 15 minutes on the day.

Tip

To make a soup version, increase the chicken stock to 600 ml in step 4, simmer about 1 minute uncovered in step 5, and serve in a deep bowl. The noodles absorb the broth, so eat right away.

Caution

Cook the shrimp through. Check that they have turned red and the flesh is white and opaque. Keep leftover spice sauce in a clean jar and use it within about 1 week in the refrigerator or 1 month in the freezer.

Squeeze the Lime and Nibble the Emping

A plate of mie Aceh with lime squeezed over it and emping and pickled shallots on the side
Squeeze the lime and alternate emping with the pickles

Take the first bite of mie Aceh as it is and check the spice aroma. Behind the sweet scent of cardamom and star anise, the heat of the chilies slowly follows. When you are about halfway through, squeeze the lime, put pickled shallots on the noodles, and the flavor tightens right up. The bitterness and crunch of emping also make a nice accent.

For a comparison with another Indonesian noodle dish, Java's sweet soy-flavored mie goreng is the contrast. Even among Indonesian fried noodles, you see clearly how strong Aceh's spicing is. If you are following the cooking of Sumatra, also try West Sumatra's rendang (in Japanese).

Good to know

According to Indonesia's tourism ministry, in Banda Aceh plain mie Aceh sells for about 15,000–20,000 rupiah a plate, and the version topped with seafood for about 20,000–30,000 rupiah. It shows that mie Aceh is a dish that serves both as an everyday meal and as a treat.

Ways to Vary It

A bowl of mie Aceh made with thin-sliced beef, in the soup style

Use thin-sliced beef instead of shrimp and you get the beef mie Aceh that is a staple of Acehnese eateries. Stir-fry the beef over high heat for 1–2 minutes in step 3 just as you would the shrimp, take it out when the color changes, and return it with the noodles in step 5. If using squid, cut it in rings and take it out after about 30 seconds so it isn't overcooked, and it stays tender.

The spice sauce also works for stir-fries. Stir-fry chicken or vegetables and toss in 1–2 tbsp for an Acehnese-style dish. Use it in fried rice and you get a spiced nasi goreng.

FAQ

Packing leftover spice sauce into a clean jar for storage

How spicy is it?

This article's blend uses fewer dried chilies than the original recipe and omits the fresh bird's-eye chilies, so it is only pleasantly hot. If you like it spicy, increase the spice sauce or add sambal at the table.

What should I watch for when using spaghetti?

Boil the spaghetti as directed and set aside a little of the cooking water. If step 5 needs more liquid, adding 2–3 tbsp of the cooking water helps the sauce cling to the noodles.

I have a lot of leftover spice sauce. What do I do?

This article's sauce makes about 8 portions. After using one portion (6–7 tbsp), put the rest in a clean jar and refrigerate for 1 week, or freeze in small portions for about 1 month.

How do you eat emping?

Alternate bites of emping with the noodles, or crush it and scatter it over them. If you bought it dried, fry it briefly in 160–170°C oil and it puffs up with a crisp texture.

Sources

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