Monday, July 7, 2008

Wan Tan Mee - self made :)


Inspiration - OK, So I miss Malaysia and how I took for granted all those years when I can just go out and literally get wan tan mee anywhere at anytime. It is difficult to find the dry wan tan mee here cos mostly they have the Hong Kong style which is soup-based with big wan tan dumplings. I want dry wan tan mee..so I make myself loh. You notice that my "charsiu" is not really "charsiu", I just went for the simplified version...marinate the pork with soy sauce/oyster sauce and just bake. So it is more like roasted pork but it taste great.

Simple ingredients -
1) 1 strip of pork belly
2) Vegetables - Choy sum
3) Egg noodles - easily available at any Chi/Viet grocery stores
4) Soy sauce, oyster sauce, pepper, salt, oil, sesame oil.
Simple steps -
1) First start with the meat. Marinate the pork belly with soy sauce, oyster sauce, salt, pepper. I was using a small sealable bag so I have cut up into smaller strips. Prefer to marinate overnite but at least 30 mins to 1 hr at least. Bake in oven at 350 for at least 20-30mins depending on the thickness and amount of meat.

You will be able to hear the crackling sound of the pork roasting but more so the smell the delicious roasted pork aroma coming from yr oven. Here, since I am making only a small portion, I am using the electric oven which serves the purpose just fine.


2) Ok, next just boil a pot of water. I usually boil the vegetables first. Here, I am using choy sum...hmmm to find out what it is called in English. Anyone??

Just boil for 5 mins or so, drain and put aside. You can also add some salt in the water for taste.


3) Now for the noodles, remove from pack and loosen the noodles as it is usually all clumped tight together.

In hot boiling water, put in the noodles, once the water start boiling again and the noodles float up, drain it. The next step is important though for it may seem unnecessary (cos u can technically just eat the noodles now) but trust me, if u do it, you will find that yr noodles will be springy and yummy.
The step is to put the noodles in cold water. You will see that all the hawkers stall actually do this process. They boil the noodles in hot water, remove and put in cold water and then put it back to hot water again before serving. In cantonese they call it "kor lang hor" (cross the cold drain)!

So remember, hot water, cold water and then hot water again before draining. Prepare the dry sauce - consisting of soy sauce, a bit of oyster sauce, salt, pepper, oil and sesame oil and also some dark soy sauce for color.


4) Toss the noodles together with the sauce.


5) Almost ready...........garnish with choy sum, and the roasted pork and Voila! Ready to eat! Yum Yum! Do try my simple self made "Wan Tan Mee"

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

You left out the Tan Tan ! Where is the Wan-Tan ? Wan Tan Mee is not Wan Tan Meee with no Wan Tan !

Anonymous said...

Hi anonymous - yeah...yeah...somehow in Malaysia, whenever I think of wan tan mee, I am actually keen to eat the noodles, the wan tan soup is just a side dish...ha ha contradictory to the name huh...so I just prepared the noodles. In my next next entry, I will post the wan tan soup I made recently.

Anonymous said...

Very nice recipe. Thank you

Although I can't remember the original taste lol

Anonymous said...

Hi anonymous - Try it. But it will never taste the same as eating the good wan tan mee in KL. But better than nothing

Anonymous said...

very interesting,i am searching how to make wan tan mee, and i found this site. very nice site, i will try to make it this week, by the way, i do not have oven,i only got microwave, not sure can bake the pork by using microwave? i always confuse with the use of oven and microwave.

Anonymous said...

Hi Eater - Mine recipe is not authentic wan tan mee cos the meat is not the charsiu recipe, more like roasted pork. However it taste pretty good anyway :)
As for the microwave and oven. Microwave is for heating and oven is for baking/roasting. Some microwave come with microwave oven which has the baking function and I guess it would work. However, another alternative which I also use is the electrical toaster oven - the one that you can toast bread and also bake/toast other smaller items placed on a square tray. I use that too.

Anonymous said...

I've always like to eat the wan tan mee when I was in Malaysia. I missed eating it that I've searched for a recipe. I'm fortunate that I've come across your blog. Very informative. The picture looks like the one I used to have back then. Unfortunately I haven't ever tried cooking the mee by myself so I don't know the ratio and proportion of how much dry sauce be prepared when making that much noodles. I really wanted to make one please help me and provide how many grams of noodles as well as how many teaspoons of the seasoning. Thanks a lot for spending time with my request.

mysimplefood said...

Hey annoymous - I am sorry for the late reply. I stopped blogging for more than a month thus the silence. Anyway the best thing about Chinese cooking is "agak-agak". If u r not Malaysian, that means guess guess. Lol!

Ok I know that does not help so let me try to be more precise. You can buy wan tan mee from any Chinese grocery shops if u r in the States. And it is sold like in Msia, a handful of noodles for an individual portion. Anyway for the dry sauce....

1 tsp of dark soy sauce
1 tsp of sesame oil, or u can use oil fried with shallots or better still lard :)
1 TBSP of light sauce sauce
1 tsp of oyster sauce
a pinch of salt
a dash of pepper if desired
1 TBSP of water or as u desire depending how wet or dry u like yr noodles.

Hope my tip helps!! Good luck

Anonymous said...

Thanks a lot for this tip. This is very much helpful.

Have a great day.

mysimplefood said...

You are welcome! Tell me how it went!

LoveLikeHell said...

Hi, I just tried your recipe. It's not exactly the same as the 1 in Malaysia, but when you're overseas, something is better than nothing. Plus it's simple and very yummy!!! Really glad I found your recipe!!!

LoveLikeHell said...

Btw, for very simple wan tan, you can just use plain flour mixed with a little water to form a dough and then flatten it to make the wan tan skins. Marinate minced pork with soy sauce and oyster sauce, salt and pepper, then wrap them in wan tan skins. Cook them in boiling water/chicken soup for about 5 mins or till done. =)