Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Homemade Prawn Mee

I have to thanks Precious Pea for this inspiration. I tried to make my own prawn mee a few months back but I was making an abridged version aka "the cheat version". Link here. I used the soup base from an instant noodle but added all the condiments so that it looked like a prawn noodles that I was ordering from a hawker stall in Malaysia. It was a nice Saturday morning breakfast thrill to surprise my Hubby-D. Fast and delicious prawn mee from Foodmadesimple hawker stall.

Precious Pea was so nice to direct me to her posting whereby she made the prawn mee from scratch. I decided that I must make it one day but firstly, I would have to accumulate the prawn heads. After months, I finally managed to accumulate enough so this is my attempt at the original foodmadesimple's Homemade Prawn Mee.




Simple Ingredients -

Soup base :-

1) Prawn's heads and shells - from 1-2 pound of prawns

2) Pork ribs -1 pound

3) Water - 10 cups (approximately 2 liter)

4) Rock sugar - 2-3 small pieces.


Chili Paste :-

1) 20 dried chilies (soaked to soften)

2) 5 fresh red chillies

3) 6 shallots (peeled)

4) 4 cloves garlic (peeled)

5) 2 TBSP of water


I made the chilli paste earlier. Blend all the ingredients above till fine. Heat the wok with 4-5 TBSP of cooking oil. Stir fry the chili paste for 5 minutes. Dish up and set aside.

Toppings:

1) 1/4 pound of lean pork meat (boiled and sliced thinly)

2) 1/4 pound shrimp / prawns (shelled, deveined - stirfry lightly)

3) 2-3 hard-boiled eggs

4) 1 pack of rice vermicelli / mee hoon (scalded) - enough for 3-4 servings

5) Kangkung or water convolvulus (scalded)

6) Bean sprouts (scalded)

Simple steps :-

1) Firstly, with a 2 tbsp of oil in wok/pot, you stirfry quickly the shrimp heads. Then you add water and bring it to bowl. Simmer on low heat for about 1.5 hours or longer until the stock is yellowish orange like above.



2) Strain the stock through sieve. Discard the prawn heads and shells. Discard the orange "foam" which in on top of the stock. Add the chilli paste, add the pork ribs and continue to boil in low heat for another 1-1.5 hour until the pork ribs are thoroughly cooked.


3) Ah-ha the special ingredient is to add rock sugar. Don't know why but for sure it would sweeten the taste. Let it boil until ready. Add salt to taste. The stock is ready!


4) To prepare the rest of the ingredient is pretty easy. Boil the eggs until hard boiled. Boil the pork slices, shrimp, until cooked, Keep aside. Get some fried shallots. Boil the kankung (water convolvulus) and bean sprouts. Boil the noodles.










5) Ready to eat?? To serve, place a portion of meehoon(rice vermicelli), some kangkung and bean sprouts in a bowl. Ladle hot prawn stock over. Top with pork slices, shrimp, egg and pork ribs and fried shallots. Add more chilli for more 'kick' as desired.




Click here for Precious Pea's recipe.

10 comments:

Little Inbox said...

Cooking prawn noodle is a long long process huh? My mom cook superb prawn noodle too... :) Yum yum.

Anonymous said...

Looks nice! No more prawn mee in hawker center. Long live homemade prawn mee!

mysimplefood said...

Hi little inbox - It's a little long to prepare each condiment but the end results is yummy!

Hi Horizon - yeah!!!

Precious Pea said...

Your cheat version really cheating leh!! Hahaha!

Nothing beats cooking from scratch right???? I think i have saved enuff prawns shell for 2nd attempt!

mysimplefood said...

Hi Precious Pea - hehehe, it was a cheat method but with the condiments, it feels like real. But I agree nothing beats doing from scratch. My Hubby-D really enjoyed it. Thanks Thanks for your recipe!

Nate @ House of Annie said...

Looks really tasty. The best broth comes from using the shrimp shells with heads!

mysimplefood said...

Hi Nate n Annie - I agree the broth is good. But I do worry abt cholesterol though....see if I ate outside (a bowl of Prawn noodles) I would not think twice. But when I make it myself, I know now the amount of prawn heads I need :)

New Kid on the Blog said...

I agreed with Little Inbox, the process is too long. :(

mysimplefood said...

Hi new kid on the blog - But But But....think of the reward. :) I think you can try my "cheat version" - Use the instant prawn mee and just add the condiments on top - like real one!!

mysimplefood said...

Tagging myself from my other blog on a meme!! First time doing it!! It's pretty fun. I need to find 7 other things to write about myself.