Penang Hokkien mee recipe

Hedy Khoo | The New Paper | Tue Feb 21 2012

Singapore, February 21, 2012

There is something wonderfully addictive about Penang Hokkien mee.

It's a totally different animal from its cousin, fried Hokkien mee. It's seductively saucy, it's tasty and the best part is, the cooking method is relatively straightforward.

Property agent May Tan, 60, shared a recipe which she has been whipping up for the last twenty years.

She is a Singaporean-Hokkien, but learnt to cook the dish from her Hokkien mother-in-law in Penang. She says: "It's a dish I will definitely cook every Chinese New Year for my guests.

Madam Tan and her husband love the dish so much, both of them frequent eateries or hawker stalls which sell this dish, to taste the different methods of cooking it and improve their own recipe.

On one occasion, they observed that one hawker pre-fried his noodles with some dark sauce. Madam Tan cannot recall the name of the stall, except that it was "somewhere in Bukit Timah" and that the stall is no longer in operation.

But she remembers the taste.

She says: "We thought the noodles at that stall were exceptional and the most outstanding among all the other stalls that we have tried."

She went home and decided to incorporate the cooking method into her mother-in-law's recipe. She found that the extra step of pre-frying the noodles made the dish more fragrant and gave a more robust taste to the dish.

And I couldn't agree more. But Madam Tan has a cautionary tale for those who wish to try the recipe.

Don't soak the noodles in water before cooking or even pour boiling water over it.

Says Madam Tan: "It's not necessary, and worse, you will find that your noodles will stick to your wok or pan if you try to rinse them with water."

As for the step of covering the noodles and allowing it to simmer for a short while, the time depends on your preference for the amount of gravy you want.

The more gravy, the shorter the time. If you like your noodles a little drier, cover the pan and allow the noodles to absorb more of the liquid.

When I attempted the dish, I used a slab of fish cake I had lying around in the fridge and added a generous handful of beansprouts to give an extra crunchy texture to the dish.

While Madam Tan uses plain hot water in the recipe to cook the noodles, I decided not to waste the prawn heads and shells.

I boiled them in 500ml of water, adding a 2-cm piece of old ginger. Strain this and you get a glorious prawn stock which gives an added dimension to the dish.

More importantly, there's minimal wastage of perfectly usable ingredients.

I also used about one tablespoonful more of dark soya sauce just before adding in the prawns to give the dish a darker colour and to up the savoury factor a notch.

Madam Tan says she has never cooked the dish with beansprouts, but is game to try my version the next time.

I find that a good home-made belacan chilli goes well to complement the taste of the noodles, as well as a good squeeze of lime. But Madam Tan says it tastes just as good with sliced fresh chilli.

Watch out for a Hed Chef chilli special next week.

Penang Hokkien mee recipe

Ingredients

500g Hokkien noodles (thick yellow egg noodles)
200g lean pork, sliced
150g caixin
300g prawns
150g beansprouts
100g fish cake
4 to 5 cloves of garlic, chopped,
6 to 8 dried shitake mushrooms, soaked and quartered
300ml hot water or prawn stock
Oil for frying
Fried shallots (for garnishing)

Seasoning to pre-fry noodles

2 tbsp dark soya sauce
2 tbsp water

Marinade for pork

1 tbsp light soya sauce
1 tbsp corn flour
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp cooking wine

Seasoning

1 tbsp light soya sauce
White pepper to taste

Method

Heat 3 tbsp of oil and pre-fry the noodles, adding water and dark sauce for colour. Fry for 2 to 3 minutes and then set aside.

Heat 5 tbsp of oil and fry the garlic, followed by the mushrooms.

Add the lean pork and once it turns opaque, add the noodles, caixin and fish cake.

Add the water or prawn stock and cover for a few minutes until the liquid has reduced to your preference.

Season with light sauce and pepper.

Throw in the prawns and beansprouts. This should take 2 minutes or so to cook.

Garnish with fried shallots and serve.