Hokkien Mee aka Prawn Noodle

Do you feel like want to have a big bowl of delicious home cooked Hokkien mee? Let me tell you, the method of cooking is not complicated, but the whole process really takes time. I’m going to share with you the method of cooking, but not the quantitative recipe. The reason is simple, because my mom’s ingredient is for 20 person. Yes, TWENTY person!

Hehe…This is the outcome for the hard work. It’s my mom’s home cooked Hokkien mee.


Blended prawn shell

So, let’s start with the soup base. First, you need to have enough prawn shells. My mom collected prawn shells from about 3kg’s prawns. You can keep it in the freezer until you get the desired quantity. You need to stir fried these prawn shells with some chopped garlic. Add some light soy sauce and oyster sauce, and continue to stir fry till you smell the aroma. Next, you need to blend the prawn shells with a cube of belacan (you determine the size). Add some water to smoothen the blending process.

Bring water to a boil in a pot. Add few hundred grammes of pork ribs; return to a boil. Add the blended prawn shell. Reduce heat; simmer and stirring occasionally. Add some smashed pepper, some rock sugar, and let it simmer for about 1 hour.

While the soup is simmering, you can proceed to deep fry the sliced shallots in a wok.

Set a side the crispy shallots for garnishing purpose. To maintain the crispness, the best is to keep the cooled shallots in a sealed container.

Then heat enough oil in the wok, and saute the chili paste for about 3-4 minutes.

Pour chili paste in a bowl.

Sift the whole pot of soup to remove the prawn shells. Add some chili oil and continue simmer for another half and hour. Add salt or light soy sauce and MSG to taste.

Use the remaining chili oil in the wok to stir fry shelled and deveined prawns.

Remove the prawns, and let it cool. Slice each of the prawns into 2.

Cook vermicelli in large saucepan of boiling water, uncovered, until just tender; drain.

Rinse noodles under hot running water; drain.

Roasted pork, cut into small equivalent sizes.

Cook some kangkung in the boiling water and drained.

Bean sprout with tips trimmed. Rinse the bean sprouts under hot running water; drain.

Hard-boiled egg, quartered.

To serve, put a handful of noodles and vermicelli in a bowl. Add a little of each garnish: bean sprout, kangkung, hard-boiled egg, prawns, and roasted pork sliced. Pour a ladleful of prawn soup over the noodles and garnish. Sprinkle crispy shallots, and add some chili paste to taste.

This is the earlier version of my mom’s home cooked Hokkien mee. She used thinly sliced pork meat (hard-boiled in the prawn soup) instead of roasted pork. What to say? Marvelous!