The Food Canon

I have been wanting to work on the Curry Mee recipe and am glad that I finally got down to it.

So, what is the difference between Curry Mee and Laksa?  In my opinion, both terms describe the same thing: noodles in curry. We know that laksa is not laksa if it is not noodles and if the broth has no curry in it.

Just that this version which we normally call "Curry Mee" in Malaysia  has a lighter broth. In my version, I omitted coconut milk.

In a nutshell, Curry Mee broth is a combination of meat broth (or stock) and sambal. In this version, I used some prawns and added the shells go into the broth. I also added some tamarind slices for the sour flavour. I also used oil from chicken fats and skins to make the sambal.

There are actually many times of Curry Mee. You can also use pork bones for the stock. Add some coconut milk if you like. Omit using daun keeping if you prefer a sweeter broth. Just get the general idea of how to make curry mee or laksa and you can improvise as you please.

This is not something you will want to make for your daily dinner. But if you are expecting many relatives or friends in a gathering, this great for such occasions.

Making the Broth

Ingredients:
2 kg of chicken bones and parts
1 tsp of salt
1 kg of medium size prawns

Peel the prawns. Reserve the meat for garnishing. Fry the shells and heads till they are golden. Heat up about 6 laters of water and simmer the chicken bones and prawn heads/shells for 2 hours. If you are using pressure cooker, an hour will do.

Making the Sambal

Making the Sambal

Ingredients
To blend
10 pieces of garlic
20 pieces of shallots
10 buah keras (candlenut)
1 inch of turmeric or 2 tsp of turmeric powder
1 inch of blue ginger
2 tbsp of belachan

2 tsp table salt
3 tsp sugar
4 tbsp of chilli paste
2 tbsp of light or chicken curry powder
4 stalks of lemon grass (smashed)
2  tamarind slices (daun keping)
1 bowl of chicken or vegetable oil

Blend the ingredients. In a wok, heat up the oil and add the paste. Add salt, sugar, chilli paste, curry powder and the lemon grass. Simmer for 20 minutes.

Boiling the prawn shells and chicken bones

Preparing the Bowl of Curry Mee

Ingredients
Yellow Mee
Rice vermicelli (bi hun)
Bean sprouts

For garnishing
Mint leaves
Strips of Chicken meat
Tau pok (fried bean curd puffs)
Lime (kalamansi)

Strain the broth. Add the sambal paste and stir the broth. Leave some of the sambal paste for dipping. The broth is done. Add the fried bean curd.

In the boiling broth, blanch the chicken meat til it is cooked. When cooled, tear into strips.  Likewise, blanch the prawn meat.

Next, soak the rice vermicelli (bi hun)  in warm water for 15 minutes. Blanch the mee, bi hun and bean sprouts. Add the curry soup. Garnish with chicken strips, prawn, tau pok and mint leaves. Serve with some sambal and lime on the side. If you like, add some slices roast pork as a garnish. It goes very well with the sambal.

The finished broth

This is years ago now but I used to frequent this fried vermicelli with prawns stall at a HDB coffeeshop. I was still single then and so hmm...that is definitely more than 25 years ago!

I have written a few post on this recipe and you can check them out through this link.

I have never cooked this for less than 30 bowls and the recipe reflect this. However, there have been various request for a smaller portion recipe. So, I hope this is helpful if you plan on making 10 bowls or less.

As for the stock, it is primarily a prawn or shrimp stock with some secondary flavours from meat stock, i.e. chicken or pork. Once you grasp this, you will know how to vary the ingredients as you will be using different type of prawns, depending on what you can get from the market in your area. If you have very small shrimps, they can be used whole without peeling. Remember to roast them first before pulverising.

Auntie Ruby's Hokkien Prawn Mee Recipe

To make 10 bowls (about 2-3 liter of stock)

Preparing the prawn and dried shrimp stock 

800 gm  prawns
100 g dried shrimps (hae bee)
150 g  fried anchovies (ikan bilis)
5 cm ginger

1. Peel and separate the heads and shells of all the prawns. Trim off the sharp pointers at the top of the heads. Set aside about 20 pieces of meat for garnishing later.
2. Heat up 1 Tbps of oil in a wok and roast the dried shrimps for 10 minutes. Add ginger. Then add the heads/shells and roast till they turn golden orange. 
3. Add 2 litres of water and pulverise it finely, using a stick or standing blender. You should see some orange or red coloured foam at the surface of the stock. 
4. Add the ikan bills. Cover and simmer the stock for half an hour. Then let it steep overnight for maximum flavour extraction. You can also do this earlier in the day and let the flavours develop by dinner time.

Preparing the lard and sambal chili

300 g of pork fat 
30 pieces dried chilli
1 inch in diameter block of belachan or 1 Tbps

1. Lard is of course optional but the flavour and mouth feel of pork fat is fantastic in the broth. Cut the pork fat into 1 cm (0.4 in) cubes. In a pan, slowly heat up the cubed fat. The oil will slowly flow out and fry the rest of the fat. Keep the fire low so as not to burn the lardon. It will take about an hour to do it right. When the cubs have shrunk to a quarter of its original size, increase the fire to get the lardon nicely browned. The lardon can be offered as a garnish but the oil is what you want. Lard can be prepared beforehand and stored in the fridge for weeks.    
2. Leave about half a bowl of the lard in the wok to make the sambal chilli. Blend the soaked dried chilli into a paste.  Then, over low fire, add paste and simmer for 15 minutes. You can also use ready-made or store bought chilli paste.

1. Strain the prawn and ikan bills stock. 
2. Keep the broth on a simmer. It is important to taste it as you develop the flavours to learn how each ingredients move the broth closer to the outcome you want. While I give the quantities of ingredients in the recipe, the sweetness and saltiness which you prefer may be different from mine. Learn to train your palate to balance the flavours. If you have tasted some good Hae Mee or tasted mine, those palate memories can guide you. 
3. Add the rock sugar, chicken stock (bouillon powder or concentrate) and sambal chilli. The chicken stock flavouring gives a mellow body to the broth. (Note: You can replace the chicken stock with chicken bones and meat or pork bones if you want to stir clear of MSG.) 
4. Add the belachan and a bowl of the sambal chili (with lard oil) into the broth. 
5. Add some water along the way.  

Don’t rush through this stage. This is where a cook can improve his skills, palate and learn the steps in improving a broth. Sometimes, I ladle out some broth into a bowl and flavour it to find a right estimate of what is needed in the pot. Of course, if you are using the same ingredients again and with experience, you will get more confident.

Preparing the prawn meat and pork loin meat(for garnishing)

1. Simmer the pork loin meat in the stock for 30 to 40 minutes depending on how large the chunks are. Don't overcook it or it will be too dry. 
2. Set aside 20 pieces of prawn meat for the topping. Keep the remainder for other uses. Devein the prawn meat for the topping using a toothpick or the sharp edge of a knife. It is easier to devein before you blanch them.  
3. Blanch the prawns in the boiling stock using a strainer. Do this in small batches as the prawns need to cook quickly or the meat will fall apart on the sides. If you are doing this the day before serving, refrigerate the prawns. They keep well after they are cooked.   

Preparing the bowls: garnishing and serving

20 pieces prawn meat (halved into 40 pieces, 4 per bowl)
500 gm  water convolvulous (kangkong)
500 gm beansprouts
300 gm pork loin
4 eggs
Fried shallots
400 gm (2.2 lb) yellow noodles
400 gm  (2.2 lb) rice vermicelli (bee hoon)
30 slices of fish cake (3 slices per bowl)

1. Slice the boiled prawn meat into halves. 
2. Slice the pork loin and fish cakes. 
3. Fried shallots are indispensable. Make your own if you can. If you use commercial ones, get those which are fresh and crispy. 
4. Soften the bee hoon in water for about 30 minutes.  
5. When it is time to serve, assemble a serving of the bean sprouts, mee, bee hoon and kangkong in a bowl. Blanch the contents of the bowl in rolling boiling water for about half a minute. This will also remove the “kee” (alkaline) smell of the yellow noodles. Put back into the bowl. Garnish with slices of prawns, pork and fish cake. Pour in the boiling broth and drain. Do it twice. Garnish with fried shallots and serve immediately with plates of sambal chilli and lardon on the side.  

The PPM broth is done.

I love noodles. Don't you?

If you are a follower of this blog, you would have noticed that my Mum was big on noodle recipes. Some of these recipes (sans curry laksa) have already been blogged in great detail and my coming cookbook will also feature them. They are indeed worth learning and mastering.

Another of her favourite recipes which she only cooked regularly for those of us at home is "Mee Hoon Kueh." It is sometimes called "Pinched Noodles" or Pan Mee.  I have many memories of enjoying these bowls of homemade goodness. The noodles are pinched, flattened and randomly shaped by hand (fingers rather) with varying thickness, which makes the texture interesting. This is the character of this dish, as opposed to uniform machine-made noodles.

The garnish of crunchy fried ikan bills and fried shallots adds more flavour and variation in texture.

It has been a fascinating journey of trying to recreate my Mum's noodle recipes: Assam Laksa, Penang Prawn Mee, Ipoh Kai See Hor Fun and recently, her version of Mee Jawa. Her laksa still awaits.

Auntie Ruby was exceptionally good with noodle dishes. I think her recipes were gathered and improved out of her many years of cooking in canteens, restaurants and hosting parties. She must have known some "makciks", possibly learning from the Malay cooks in the Muslim section of her canteen, as her Malay recipes are "sungguh sedap."

While her written recipes are helpful, taste memories played an important part in inching it closer to how she made it. The first batches are always for my family and when they give the thumbs up, I know one of Auntie Ruby's dishes has been recreated.

Bee Hoon is a "stand by me" friend which every Chinese home cook should get familiar with.

Like pasta for Italians, it is a staple which is useful for different occasions and can be cooked in many ways.

Here in Singapore, it seems you you can find fried bee hoon everywhere: wakes & funerals, parties, catered buffets spreads and hawker stalls. I must have eaten a lot of bee hoon growing up, second only to rice. It actually is made from rice and that may explain it’s staple appeal to Asians.

It is easily available in most global world cities. Dehydrated like pasta, it can keep for months in your larder. Quick and easy to cook, it is also a favourite party dish as it can be served as a stand-alone dish, vegetarian one or to accompany another meat dish. It can be served at room temperature. Unless it is a soup recipe, it will still taste good if you serve it many hours after it is cooked.

I am blogging this recipe for a Canadian friend who had visited Singapore before and was missing the food there, especially laksa. She wanted to learn how to make it.

It is was not difficult to make the laksa broth. Make the chicken stock and then combine with the rempah (curry paste).

What was more challenging cooking it was using whatever ingredients I could find in Toronto and having to do it within the limitations of a hostel kitchen. I will describe the recipe here and the options one can take to improve or simplify it.

Ed notes: In this post, I have done a major update of the recipe and rewritten the cooking notes since I first published it two years ago. I have also written a series of posts with more photos, the "science" behind it and how to cook this for a large party. Check out the series of posts through this link. I have also worked out a smaller portion recipe. 

My mum's Hokkien Prawn Mee was one of her 'signature' dishes.

It brings back many fond memories.

Annually, on Teachers' Day, she would cook for all the children teachers and helpers in my church's Super Powerkids Ministry. That tradition has of course ceased the year my mum passed away.

When news got round that she is cooking this, family members and friends will gather in anticipation.

And this is the dish she cooked for a a group of friends before she fell seriously ill. It was her last celebration. I still remembered how I visited my friend's place to enjoy it. When we meet, we still reminisce about this.

Every cuisine has her own favourite noodles.

We associate a good bowl of it as a signature of the cuisine.

Penang-nites can be proud of their Assam Laksa and Hokkien Prawn Mee.
Thais their Pad Thai (strictly speaking, served on a plate).
Malays their Mee Rebus.
Indonesians, Mee Soto.
Vietnamese, Pho.

We served 160+ bowls of Penang Prawn Noodle recently. This lot was good with nice balance of flavours with sufficient prawn stock. When we did not need to add too much of the other flavourings (esp Ikan bilis and chicken stock), we knew we had a good broth coming.

My mum's version does not use pork bones which changes the flavor and is nice in its own way. And it is often used commercially because dried shrimps and ikan bilis are expensive.

I normally cook my Mum's version to give diners a unique taste of good home cooking.

I will write my cooking notes here to guide the team when they need to do this again.

I am revisiting this wonderful recipe. My late Mum had made this many times, especially when there is Ipoh Hor Fun around in the house. 

The soup is basically a chicken-based stock with some prawns flavour added through the shells. The tasty light broth accompanies the silky smooth hor fun very well, along with strips of chicken meat, slices of prawn, chives and bean sprouts.

I am in the midst of writing a post about my recent trip to Hong Kong.

I brought back some food stuff and amongst them were packets of dried wheat noodles I bought this from an old noodle shop at Tai Po. It was recommended by our old friend, Irene (old as in friendship, not her age!). Thanks, Irene.

This shop carried many types and brands, including some made at the back of the shop. They claim that this particular noodle is their best and so we bought some home. They are flavored noodles, slightly saltish.

I am doing another write-up of this fantastic recipe. I have posted the recipe and updated it recently.

Here, I use a different format and document some additional notes. Actually, I am doing this for myself. These are cooking notes, if you like. As I don't cook the same dish in twice in a row, writing it down helps me to remember what went right and what didn't. While I am at it, you might as well read it too.

I have since cooked it for many parties. There are times when the broth tasted really good. There are times when it did not. Once the pork was hard, dry and tasteless as I left it boiling and forgotten for too long. On numerous occasions, the bee hoon was way took soft. I have since learnt that you don't need to pre-soak it in warm or hot water. Cold tap water will do.

I added Mee to my home version

So why in the world do you want to make Char Kuay Teow at home?

It is readily available in almost every food court. Even the Penang ones are appearing all over Singapore these days.

Some still prefer to fry them at home. I venture to explain some of the possible reasons:

• They like to turn their homes into smokehouses.
• They want a romantic evening, gazing hazily at each other, with the song "Smoke gets in your eyes" in the background
• They want to try out different ingredients. Such as foie gras, truffle oil or lobster meat. Oyster in place of cockles. Instead of lard, they prefer the apparently healthier la graisse de canard (duck fat!)
• They dislike queues (and the better CKT stalls always have queues - I call these the Char Queue Teow stalls - CQT).
• They dislike the CQT man who always scowl with a 'take it or leave it' attitude. 
• They dislike the made-to-feel-guilty stares as they queue and bump into a friend. Sheepishly, "Er..I only queue for CQT once a month!
• They are dying to try their new wok and burner.

I really don't know.

We finally come down to the recipe.

I should pause to credit the recipe to my brother Clement and my sis-in-law, Mary from Ipoh. They love Assam Laksa and have taken the trouble to learn it from my Mum. Some of the beautiful pics here were taken by their daughter Japhia Wong. You can see through her lens that she is talented.  

The preparation of the fish broth is described in greater detail here. For info on some of Assam Laksa special ingredients and how they are prepared, go here.

Bunga Kantan: As beautiful as it can get

In the first post, I have detailed out how to prepare the kembung fish broth. I hope you are not put off by the work involved. Just get into it and it will be intuitive after a few tries. But you (and your family & friends) will be rewarded with a spectacular dish.

We continue with the rest of the recipe.

I will introduce some of the exotic ingredients in this recipe.

The ginger flower or torch bud is beautiful both in appearance and taste. Used in Nonya and Malay cooking, it also goes by Bunga Kantan. If you are a sophisticated biologist, you call it etlingera elatior. If you are a plain Joe - like myself - you can just call it the "Rojak flower." It is easily available here. It is a fantastic flavour enhancer. It is also used widely in Thai and other types of Asian salads. It's taste is exotic and rather hard to describe. In fact I am chewing on some now.

How do you even begin to describe the experience of eating Assam Laksa?

Imagine a fish kembung broth meticulously prepared. Then you add spices like chili, the complex and fruity ginger flower (torch bud), lots of sour tamarind (assam), assam keping (dried tamarind skins), blue ginger (lengkuas, galangal), shallots, laksa leaves and "funky" belachan (dried shrimp paste,and 'funky' was the word an Australian chef used to describe this paste).

As if that is not flavorful enough, you garnish the sweet and indescribable prawn paste (hae kou), mint leaves, and shredded large red onions, grated pineapple and more chillies and ginger flower.

Fishy, sour, sweet, fruity, spicy, salty, bitter, minty and umami. This rich, flavorful and complex broth has all the works.

I love the food in Ipoh.

I was born and bred in Petaling Jaya and she does have some great hawker stall dishes.

But Ipoh is quite something else.

Many say that it has to do with the surrounding lime hills which affects the alkalinity of the water. This in turn may explain why Ipoh's bean sprouts, bean curd and hor fun (flat rice noodles) are so unique that they are named after the city. The Chinese populace is predominantly Cantonese (if not in dialect group, certainly in terms of cooking culture) and famed for their cooking. And with fresh fish, crabs and prawns coming from rivers in the region and the slower pace of life, you have some of the factors which makes Ipoh's cuisine special.