Fried Hokkien Mee

Invited to another foodie's house for Boxing Day dinner... what should I cook? (especially when this person wants to learn about Chinese stir fry??) Hmmm..

After a few days of Christmas food, we were hankering for some good old Singapore flavours. Garlicky, savoury.. full of umami...

Rummaging in our pantry we found a packet of thick yellow (Hokkien) noodles and dried rice vermicelli. Fried "Hokkien Mee" then! ("Mee" is Hokkien for noodles). This dish, consisting of thick fresh noodles and rice vermicelli, cooked with prawns, squid, pork in a rich prawn stock, is a firm favourite, appearing in every hawker centre.

stir-frying mee in a wok

Braved the pre-Christmas crush at the supermarket on the 24th and found a packet of frozen prawns, raw, with shell on. Wanted fresh actually, but then that would be nigh impossible. Do you know how difficult it is to find fresh prawns here? Blood from stone! We had to scour the freezer chests of 2 supermarkets just to find the type of prawn we wanted. Most supermarkets here sell frozen prawn cutlets, either cooked or raw without the shell or head. Just what are prawn cutlets? Why not just call them prawns? Anyway, I digress. Another key ingredient, belly pork was not too hard to find, still plenty left on the shelves, not really a Christmas food. Frozen squid tubes substitute quite nicely for fresh calamari.

mung bean sprouts or "tau geh"

Don't be daunted by the long list of ingredients. It's really quite an easy dish to make, the preparation is not too tedious and one is well rewarded by the results.

blanched squid, prawn and pork

Ingredients:

• 200g fresh thick yellow (Hokkien) noodles
• 100g dried rice vermicelli
• 150g raw prawns, peeled and deveined, head and shells reserved
• 150g squid tubes
• 200g belly pork (2 strips about 2-3cm thick)
• 4-6 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 3 cups bean sprouts, cleaned
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• spring onions / scallions finely sliced
• red chilli, de-seeded and finely sliced
• salt
• white pepper
• dark soy sauce 1 tablespoon
• light soy sauce 1 tablespoon
• 4 small limes (limaukasturi)

Method:

1. Prepare the prawn stock - a good stock makes the difference between an absolutely delicious plate of noodles and a "just so-so" one.
2. Heat a table spoon of cooking oil in a large pot and stir fry 2 cloves of garlic over medium heat for a few minutes until just starting to soften. Add the prawn heads and shells and fry till they turn pink and smell fragrant. Add the 2 soy sauces, allow for caramelisation and the add 1 litre of boiling water. Simmer for 10-15minutes.
3. Strain into another clean sauce pan. Use a potato masher to extract as much from the shells as possible. Season with salt and pepper. (The stock has to be salty enough to flavour the noodles, as no more salt will be added during the frying of the noodles)

Preparing the meat/seafood:

1. Cook the prawns and squid separately in the stock, remove and cool.
2. Slice the prawns into 2 (or keep them whole if you feel generous or have plenty of prawns)
3. Slice the squid tubes into rings about 5mm wide.
4. Poach the pork in the stock, remove, cool and slice into 2-3mm thick pieces.

Preparing the noodles:

1. Put the fresh yellow noodles in a bowl and pour boiling water water. Stand for a minute and drain.
2. Soak the dried rice vermicelli in hot water until softened (about 5-10min), drain and set aside.

Putting in all together:

1. Heat 2-3 tablespoons of peanut oil in a wok, stir fry the remaining garlic until golden brown.
2. Add the noodles and rice vermicelli and 1 cup of stock and stir fry over high heat for 1 -2 minutes.
3. Add the bean sprouts, 3/4 of the pork, prawn and squid and another 1/2 cup of stock and stir fry for another minute until heated through.
4. Make a small well in the middle of the noodles, pour the beaten egg in and let it cook briefly, until it starts to coagulate and then stir through the rest of the noodles.
5. Add more stock if at any time if the the noodles look dry or threaten to stick to the wok.
6. Transfer to large serving dish
7. Garnish with reserved pork, prawns and squid and sprinkle sliced chilli and spring onions for added colour.

Enjoy!