We’ll start with this because, once it’s cooked, it can sit and cool while you make the mie goreng. I used a heavy-based,12-inch skillet for this, but a similarly wide, heavy-bottomed saucepan will be fine — as will a wok if you have one.

Set your pan on a high heat and add 2 tablespoons coconut oil. As soon as the oil just starts smoking, drop the heat to low-medium, and stir in the chilies, garlic, and onion. You want the mix to soften — rather than pick up a lot of browning color. So, keep the heat low-medium and let the pan sizzle away cook — with a few stirs — for 3 minutes until the onions lose their body.

Stir in the cherry tomatoes, palm sugar, salt, and pepper. On that low-medium heat, you’re aiming to let the sugar dissolve and the tomatoes soften enough so they can be easily broken into a pulp with a wooden spoon. That’ll take about 5 minutes with a few encouraging stirs.

Now add the tamarind paste and water and turn the heat to medium-high so that the mix just begins to bubble. Drop the heat to low so that the sambal bajak can gently simmer for another ten minutes. As it’s simmering, use a potato masher to crush the mix into a fairly even consistency. In particular, make sure the tamarind paste gets completely combined with everything else. That’s it, you’re sambal bajak is done and can be poured into a pretty serving bowl, and set aside to cool.

Give the pan a quick wipe clean so you’re ready to use it for the mie goreng.

This gets cooked in stages, hot-and-fast. So, you’ll want to put an attractive, large serving dish into a low oven so each stage of your mie goreng will keep warm once it’s done. That serving dish needs to be big enough to easily hold everything that goes into your mie goreng — except the sambal bajak which you’re going to serve alongside in its pretty bowl.

The pork gets cooked first, followed by the spring onions (or scallions), garlic, and ginger, and then the shrimp (or prawns) and green beans. Those three elements then get mixed with the sauce and the noodles, and topped by your strips of omelette. Bear in mind that you want to work through these stages pretty smartly, so your mie goreng can be quickly assembled and promptly served.

Begin with the pork. Once again, set your big pan on a high heat and add 2 tablespoons coconut oil. As soon as the oil starts barely smoking, stir in all the slices of pork. You’re aiming to stir-fry the slices on that high heat for about 3 minutes — until they just start to pick up a little light browning. When that happens, use a slotted spoon to remove the pork and set it aside on the dish in your low — and I mean low — oven. Try to leave as much of the oil in the pan as you can — the spring onions, garlic, and ginger are heading there right now.

Drop the heat to medium-high and add a tablespoon coconut oil. Add the spring onions, garlic, and ginger and stir-fry the mix for about 2 minutes — until you just get a hint of golden color on the onions. As soon as that happens, stir in the mushrooms and cilantro. Stir-fry the whole lot on that medium-high heat for another 2 minutes, then turn it all into the dish with the pork in your low oven. Time now to flash-fry the shrimp and green beans.

Add another tablespoon coconut oil to the pan and set the heat to high. As soon as the oil gets to shimmering — but not smoking — add shrimp and green beans. Now focus on letting the shrimp sizzle for 60 seconds on each of their sides, and just give the beans a couple of stirring turns as the shellfish cook. You want the shrimp to turn a dusky pink, and as soon as they do, transfer them with the beans to your warm dish. Time now to cook the noodles and prep the sauce.

For the noodles, simply cover them with boiling water in a medium size saucepan that’s set on a high heat. Let them boil briskly for 2 minutes, then turn off the heat and cover the pan. They’ll stay nice and hot in the pan until you’re ready to drain them once you’ve cooked the omelette and prepped your sauce.

For the sauce, simply stir together in a bowl the kecap manis, light soy sauce, and the oriental fish sauce – it’s ready.

Time now to quickly make and slice your omelette. So, add a tablespoon coconut oil to your big pan and turn the heat to high. Let the pan heat for 30 seconds and pour in the beaten eggs. Swirl the eggs in the pan so they spread over the bottom and let them fry for 30 seconds on that high heat. The eggs will set in that time, so now flip the omelette over, and turn off the heat. There’ll be enough heat in the pan to finish cooking the omelette in about another 30 seconds or so. Set the omelette onto a chopping board and slice it into strips about ½-inch wide. You’re now ready to assemble and serve your mie goreng

Set your big pan back on high heat and add everything from the dish in your low oven — taking care to get all the juices from the dish into the pan. Let the dish stay warm in the low oven

Now add the sauce and stir the pan so everything gets a good coating of sauce. Keep the heat on high until the sauce starts to bubble. As soon as that happens, drop the heat to low-medium, and — quick as you can — drain the noodles and add them to the pan.

Now give the pan one final, combining stir so that the noodles get a fair coating of the sauce — not necessarily a thorough coating because it looks grand if some strands of noodles don’t get covered in sauce. Time to serve.

Turn your mie goreng onto the serving dish and top it with the strips of omelette. Present your mie goreng with the sambal bajak alongside, and let the happy folks serve themselves.