After a month’s break, I finally stepped into the kitchen. I thought since I’m back home, I might as well try cooking something that I’ve not cooked before and probably won’t be able to cook when I return to Dubai. I’ve shared the link to this Kuala Lumpur-style black hokkien mee recipe on my Facebook page sometime back. I wasn’t able to try cooking it then because I couldn’t find hokkien mee and chye sim in Dubai. For those who are unfamiliar with hokkien mee, they are like Chinese yellow noodles but flatter and broader.
I tweaked the recipe a little by using pork lard instead of vegetable oil. Of course, for the health conscious and those who can’t take pork, stick to vegetable oil. I also stir-fried the prawn heads and shells before boiling them with water for the stock. It makes the stock more flavourful and you can really taste the fresh prawns when you eat the noodles. My parents loved it. But then, they will probably love ANYTHING that their daughters cook for them. Still, it’s strange to be cooking in my mom’s kitchen with her as my sous chef when it really should be the other way round. My mom also insisted on doing all the cleaning up. Makes me feel rather bad for messing up her kitchen!
Here’s the recipe for Kuala Lumpur-style black hokkien noodles. Enjoy!
KUALA LUMPUR-STYLE BLACK HOKKIEN NOODLES
Serves 4
Ingredients:
- 15 large prawns
- 2½ cups water
- 5 tablespoon minced garlic
- 5 tablespoon minced shallots
- 3 tablespoon dark soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 420 gram Hokkien noodles, soaked in water for 15 minutes and drained
- 1½ tablespoon light soy sauce
- 220 gram chye sim
- 2 pieces fish cake, sliced
- 300 gram pork belly
- 1 tablespoon shaoxing huadiao wine
Method:
- Shell, devein and set aside the prawns. Reserve the heads and shells for the stock.
- Cut out the fats from the pork belly and reserve the lean pork for cooking with the noodles. Chop the fatty part into small cubes and slice the lean pork. Add huadiao wine to the lean pork, mix well and set aside.
- Dry the pork fats with paper towel. Heat up a wok and fry the pork fats to prepare pork lard. Be very careful as they will splatter! Dish up the pork lard once they are crispy and brown in color. Do not discard the oil. It’s liquid gold! Set the oil aside for frying the noodles later.
- In the same wok, stir-fry the prawn heads and shells till red. Transfer the prawn heads and shells to a pot. Add water, 2 tablespoon garlic and 2 tablespoon shallots. Bring to boil and simmer for 10 minutes. Set the stock aside.
- Heat up 3 tablespoon of pork oil in a wok. Add the remaining garlic and shallots and stir-fry for about 2 minutes, until fragrant.
- Mix in the dark soy sauce and sugar. Add ¾ of the stock and bring to boil. Lower heat, add the hokkien noodles and simmer for 5 minutes.
- Add the light soy sauce. If the gravy is starting to get too thick, slowly add the remaining stock, a little at a time, until the gravy is thin enough to be stirred easily.
- Add the prawns, pork slices, fish cake slices and chye sim. Fry for 2-3 minutes, until all the ingredients are cooked. Top with pork lard and serve.
