Tuesday, 23 August 2011

From Khaw Ee Leng's Kitchen : Grandma's Mee Hoon Kueh

Top: Mine, Bottom: Mrs. Khaw's
Step
Ingredients
Method
Dodo’s Modification / Notes

 The Soup







1.     150g ikan bilis (we use pangkor type)
2.     100g dried shrimp
3.     8 medium dried mushrooms
4.     1 head of garlic
5.     2 small red onions
6.     Enough oil (we use peanut) to lightly cover the base of a medium – large pot
7.     1 bunch of sawi (sawi bunga preferably)
8.     2 tablespoons of salted vegetable (sayur masin/ tung choy)


1. Soak mushrooms for at least a couple of hours to allow them to draw in the moisture.
2. After soaking, remove and keep stalks. Cut the mushroom heads to chunky sizes to your preference (4 – 8 pieces each mushroom).
3. Rinse ikan bilis and dried shrimp, then drain. Set aside as much ikan bilis as you would like to fry as condiment, the rest will be used for the soup.
4. Peel and finely chop garlic and onions.
5. Heat oil in the pot on medium flame then add garlic and onions.
6. Once onions start to sweat, add mushrooms (stalks and head), ikan bilis and dried shrimp.
7. Stir occasionally over a few minutes until the oil has dried up and ingredients start to ‘stick’ to the bottom of the pot.
8. Add enough water to fill up the pot then set flame to high until soup boils.
9. Once soup has boiled, turn the flame down to a simmer.
10. Prepare the dough while the soup is simmering.


I divided all the ingredients into 4 parts. Only cooking for 1.

I replaced the sawi with Pak Choy.

I did not have Tung Choy so left it out. But Mrs. Khaw swears it’s the key ingredient so try not to omit.

I used Canola oil.

The Dough

1.     400g plain flour
2.     1 whole egg
3.     Salt to taste
4.     A dash of olive oil
5.     ± 2 glasses of water (depends on the texture you prefer)


1. Put the plain flour, egg, salt and olive oil into a large mixing bowl.
2. Add about 1 cup of water and mix the ingredients by hand.
3. Using your hands, combine the ingredients by folding and kneading.
4. Add water in small amounts and knead into the mixture.
5. Stop adding water once the dough has reached a smooth, bread dough type texture.
6. Stretch-pinch the dough into thickness and size to your preference and add to the soup.


If you find the texture sticky. My trick is to pat some flour on the surface of the dough and punch it down. Dust one hand with some flour, then  hold the chunk of dough. Dust flour on other hand’s fingers to make the pinch, stretch and tear easier.

Make sure you put  at least  ¾  teaspoon of salt for about 100grams of dough.

If you find the technique of pinching, stretching and tearing the flour difficult, (Actually it’s easy, don’t think too much!) you can roll out the dough into thin layers and then begin tearing and flinging it into the boiling pot.


The
Condiments




1.     6 shallots
2.     8 small mushrooms
3.     Enough oil (we use peanut) to cover the base of a medium-sized frying pan
4.     Oyster sauce to taste


1. You may want to delay the below process if the dough that you have pinched is thicker, to allow it to almost cook through first.
2. Once you have finished pinching all the dough and added to the soup, rinse the salted vegetables and wash and cut the sawi to desired lengths.
3. Add the salted vegetables and sawi to the soup and return the flame to medium.
4. Stop cooking once the sawi has wilted and stalks start turning soft.
5. Add white pepper to taste.


I don’t like crispy fried shallots. So I lightly fried them with the mushrooms and oyster sauce.

I fried some minced chicken after marinating it with Lea & Perrins Wos-the-whatever the spelling is-sauce. Makes it taste nicer.

Added some slices of green chili instead of cili padi.

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