Cooking Recipe: Malaysian Prawn Noodle (Har Mee)

While most of you will have cereals, sandwiches, yogurt with fruit or granola bars for breakfast, here in Malaysia; the locals will turn to our array of local dishes like Har Mee/ Prawn Noodle, Wan Tan Mee or Nasi Lemak (rice cooked in coconut milk served with some fried anchovies, hard boil egg and spicy sambal). Of course over the generations and period of years, we too have become more health conscious and turn to simpler breakfast. However, the beauty of our local cuisine is that you can have them anytime of the day. Be it breakfast, lunch or even dinner.

Usually I will just pop by a hawker stall and order a bowl of prawn noodle soup. But these days, it's getting a little tougher in getting a decent 'Prawn Noodle/ Har Mee' . The broth or the soup seems to be lacking in some flavour. Well let me tell you this, the key to have a wonderful delicious 'har mee' lies in the soup. There's not much art in making the soup, but patience and having good ingredient is key. The slices of pork, prawns, fried shallots will be the garnish which compliments the dish. As one will only remember the soup and not so much of the rest.

Some parts of the recipe is referenced from Rasa Malaysia; a famous Malaysian food blogger residing in the States who is constantly missing good food back home in Malaysia. However, the recipe suggested below has been tweaked slightly to make it simpler; I hope.

With our melting pot of culture, and races, one would agree that Malaysia is truly a land of magical colours with warm friendly people. So, this post is dedicated to my Malaysian roots, and I would like to share it with you a tiny glimpse of our culture. For the prawn noodle soup, do try out the recipe, as there is a perfect balance of the sweet broth and hint of spiciness. Enjoy!!

Recipe
referenced from Rasa Malaysia
yields 4-6 bowls depending on portion served

For the Broth/ Soup
1 Ziploc bag of shrimp or prawn heads and shells (I used Ziplock Easy Zipper Bag)
3- lbs pork bones (try getting them from the Asian market, tell the butcher you need it to boil soup)
15 cups of water or more depending on the amount of shrimp head and shells and pork bones (reduced to about 12-13 cups of water after hours of boiling and simmering)
2-3 pieces of rock sugar (about the size of a small ping pong ball) or to taste
Salt to taste

For Chili Paste:
30 dried chilies (seeded and soaked to soften)
10 shallots (peeled)
5 cloves garlic (peeled)
2 tablespoons of water
6 tablespoons of cooking oil

OR
**Refer no.2 & 3 to prepare chili paste. Toss in garlic first into the oil, then the chili paste.

6-8 tbsp ground chili paste (store-bought or ready made found in Asian market)
4 garlic cloves, diced
3 tablespoons of cooking oil

For Noodle:
1 pound of yellow noodles (scalded)
1 pack of rice vermicelli (scalded)
Some kangkong or water convolvulus (scalded)

For Toppings:
1/2 pound of lean pork meat (boiled and sliced thinly)
1/2 pound shrimp or prawns (shelled and deveined)
Some fried shallot crisps (store-bought)

To prepare chili paste:

1. Using a food processor, pulverise the chili paste ingredients until finely ground and well blended.

2. Next, heat up the wok and add cooking oil. Then stir fry the chili paste for 5 minutes. (Cautious: Be careful as the oil might splatter at this point). Dish up and set aside.

3. Using the same wok (unwashed), add a little oil and cook the shrimp topping. Add in a little chili paste, sugar and salt. Pan-fry the shrimp until they are slightly cooked and turned coral blush in colour. Dish up, and set a side to cool.

To prepare broth or soup:

1. Using a frying pan, with 1 tablespoon of cooking oil, fry shrimp heads and shells until they are cooked.

2. Transfer into a deep pot, and add in the pork bones and water. Simmer on low heat for about 2 hours or longer until stock becomes cloudy and tastes quite prawn-ish and pork-ish.

3. Using a ladle, carefully scoop out and discard as much of orange and brown foam as possible. Then using a sieve, strain the soup into another clean pot and discard the shells and pork bones. Otherwise, strain into a big bowl, then wash the pot and strain the broth one more time back into the pot.

4. This time, add in rock sugar and salt to taste, and simmer until rock sugar has completely melted.

5. Add in lean pork meat into soup and boil until it's cooked. Take it out and let it rest before slicing thinly.

To assemble prawn noodle or har mee:

1. Place a portion of noodle, vermicelli, and kangkong in a bowl. Ladle hot stock or soup over. Top with meat, prawn or shrimp and garnish with some friend shallots. Serve immediately and enjoy!

xx

Cooking Recipe: Tangy Chili & Garlic Tiger Prawns Noodle

What's for dinner? Another spontaneous meal that I put together. I found some prawns, and french beans. And then an A-HA moment came along. I recalled reading Pierre's post on duck and scallop with yellow egg noodle and I thought .. "okay tonight's dinner will be significantly Chinese".

I decided that we are not having rice, so instead I will fry some prawns with chili, lime juice, lots of garlic, some shallots and pair it with a simple fried yellow egg noodle. There's a secret in the dish.. pssts.. come closer.. there's bacon. ;) LOLs..

The lime juice ties up the whole dish nicely. It has the perfect balance of heat, sourness and saltiness from bacon and natural sweetness from french beans, prawns and yellow egg noodle. Enjoy!!

Recipe
yields 4-6 pax
Note: To marinade prawns, I always use my mom's basic recipe and it goes well with just any meat and poultry. Add some light soy sauce, couple dashes of sesame oil, white pepper, shaoxing wine and couple teaspoon of cornstarch. If possible, marinade a couple hours ahead or even better, marinade overnight.

For the tangy chili prawns

200g tiger prawns, deveined
5 cloves garlic, diced or finely chopped
3 shallots, sliced finely
1 medium red chili, seeded and finely chopped
1 tbsp Dry sherry or Shaoxing rice wine
1 lime, juiced
75g french beans, chopped into 2 cm lengths
dried chili flakes
6-8 streaky bacon, sliced into cubes
2 tbsp vegetable/canola/peanut oil
salt and pepper to taste

For fried yellow egg noodle:

1 1/2 packet yellow egg noodle
1 tbsp canola/vegetable/ peanut oil
2 cloves garlic, diced of finely chopped
1tbsp oyster or hoisin sauce
3 tsp sesame oil
3 tsp light soy sauce
some white pepper
1 tsp caster sugar/ brown sugar
1 1/2 tbsp water

To prepare tangy chili prawns:

1. Fry streaky bacon without any oil until they are golden brown. Remove excess oil from wok or pan and leave about 2-3 tsp of bacon oil behind. Set bacon aside.

2. At this point, wok or pan will still be hot. Add the oil then fry garlic, onions and chili for few seconds until they are fragrant.

3. Then add the prawns, sherry or rice wine and the lime juice and stir fry until the prawns start to turn pink.

4. Add  the French beans and  bacon and mix together. When prawns have turned pink, season with a little salt, white pepper and a pinch of chili flakes. Set aside.

To prepare fried yellow egg noodles:

1. Combine all the ingredients and mix well  leaving out garlic and yellow egg noodles.

2. Heat a clean pan or wok, add oil and fry garlic for a couple seconds making sure they don't burn.

3. Immediately toss in yellow egg noodles and pour noodle mixture and stir fry for 1-2 minutes until noodles are evenly coated. Add a little water (2-3 tsp) if noodle is too try.

4. Lastly, add in the fried tangy prawn and mix it up with the noodle. Serve immediately.

xx