The Food Canon

I cooked a batch of Prawn Mee for 30 pax recently. I will share the recipe here. It will also be my cooking notes for future cooking. 

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.

   

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.

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 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 am making my Mum's Penang Hokkien Mee twice this week and thus, inspired to say something more about it though I have blogged the recipe.

Her version never fails to please. In fact, most are "wow-ed" by it.

So, what is it that makes her Penang Prawn Mee special?