Of course, I would need to check whether the husband is agreeable or not and so I got my approval and happily went to buy the ingredients required.
My family recipe is a bit different from the versions we see outside. Ours is totally plain. Mummy used to say this is 1 of the most thrifty dish to prepared. 1kg of flour and some ikan bills and viola, she can feed the 3 of us till full full. Haha.
I grew up disliking my mee hoon kuay to have anything added aside from fried ikan bilis. Even till now when I ordered outside, I would sometime request not to put meat but give me extra ikan bilis.
But Mr Love did not grow up eating our family version so I made some changes for fear that he find it too plain for his liking.
Ingredients( serves 3 or 4):
500g of flour
1 egg (Beaten)
200ml of plain water
150g of ikan bilis (for stock)
100g of minced meat
4 shiitake (soaked in water to soften it)
1 bunch of chinese spinach (苋菜)
Making the dough
Mix the flour and egg in a big bowl
While kneading, add water gradually, the dough will slowly stick together and you will get a big dough.
Egg and flour |
Ta-dah! Dough created |
Smaller doughs set aside |
Wash and rinse 100g of Ikan bilis.
Heat up 1 tbsp of olive oil in a pan and fry the ikan bilis till it turns golden brown.
Mummy had taught me before that by frying the ikan bilis, it would made the stock tastier. This can be skipped if you are too lazy. Just throw in the ikan bilis and boil.
With 2.5litres of water in a pot, add in the fried ikan bilis and bring to boil.
Lower the heat and let it simmer for 2 more hours.
Sieve away the excessive oil every now and then.
Meat and shiitake
This was originally not in my mummy's recipe and I search online and saw someone using this method.
I added 1 tsp of sesame oil, dark soy sauce and light soy sauce and some pepper to mix well with the minced meat. Then, I leave it in the fridge for 2hours for the seasoning to seep in.
Shiitake mushrooms was sliced and set aside.
With 1 tbsp of olive oil heated, I stir fry the meat and mushroom together till well cook and set aside.
Mr Love commented that I could have just throw in the meat and mushroom while cooking the mee hoon kuay but I reckon that the meat would be pretty bland, so I took the more troublesome steps instead.
Stir-fried minced meat and shiitake mushroom |
What is mee hoon kuay without deep fried ikan bilis? Even when young, I would pester mummy to deep fry some for me to eat along with the mee hoon kuay. Many a times she would reject as it is too troublesome to deep fry. I deep fried much more today as I wanna keep some for snacking. Hehe
My favourite deep fried ikan bilis |
I used a separate small pot to cook individual portions during serving. This is to ensure that the mee hoon kuay will not be over cooked.
Bring the stock to boil after transferring to the smaller pot and lower the heat while you tear out the dough. Try to make it as thin as possible. But this would require much practising. Haha I realised I lost touch but am still able to produce some really thin ones. Hehe
After putting in the required dough, turn up the heat and add in the veggies. Let it boil for a while and it is ready to served. I then added the shiitake and minced meat on top.
Verdict:
Mr Love like it well enough not to criticise and I take it as a success. Though it doesn't have the same taste as what mummy had cooked for me when I was young but I would say it has 70% similarity since I followed what I remembered from her recipe though adding in the meat and shiitake.
Mummy called at 7pm and told me she wanted to come and have a bowl too. Since I have left over I told her to come if she don't mind eating my 1st try mee hoon kuay. I didn't invite her today as I did not know I can make it successfully or not.
She told me the dough was pretty well knead (yeah) and finished a big bowl. I take it that she passed my cooking this time.
End product |
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