August 29, 2006

In the Mood for "Food-from-Home" - Malaysian Curry Mee

"Mee" is a Malaysian term for noodles.
I was reminded of an email request from a fellow blogger not too long ago as I browsed the local Asian mart in search of ingredients for my recent "Kampar Chicken Biscuits".I decided to go with the food-from-home theme this week and dished up warm spicy bowls of "Curry Mee" for our dinner tonight. The recipe from Mom was fairly easy to follow; however I made a couple of alterations along the way to reduce the big scary proportions of coconut milk and oil. I'll type up the original recipe and add notes on the side of what I've changed.
As we ran out of fresh chillies; I had no choice but to blend in a couple of dried red ones, and it turned out to be an extremely "hot" idea! *laughs* literally... We had a pretty Malay girl; Azalia over for dinner with us and we shed tears together as we slurped up our fabulous bowls of curry! Our nosebridges and foreheads were sweating and we quickly had to grab a box of tissues to stop our sniffles as we ate! I felt like a mean host to our suffering guest and told her I'd make her something else, but she kept insisting that the 'mee' was delicious as she cleaned up her entire bowl! *sigh* I guess us Malaysian kids like to torture ourselves for the sake of devouring deliciously spicy food! *grin*

3 TBSP OIL (I used 1 tbsp)
2 CUPS COCONUT MILK (I used 1 cup)
2 CUPS OF CHICKEN STOCK (I used 3 cups)
100 G PRAWNS,SHELLED
100 G SQUID, CLEAN ,SKINNED AND SLICED
6 CAKES DRIED DEEP FRIED BEANCURD (tau foo pok)
( I didn't have these 3 items and substituted with slices of fish tofu instead; they would probably have made it taste a whole lot better! but *shrug* the curry tonight tasted authentic enough for me.)

SALT AND PEPPER TO TASTE
DRIED VERMICELLI (beehoon), SOAKED TO SOFTEN
1 CUP BEANSPROUTS
1 EGG, HARDBOILED AND PEELED
2 SPRINGS LAKSA LEAF, CHOPPED ROUGHLY
2 TBSP FRIED SHALLOTS

SPICE PASTE
12 SHALLOTS
4 CLOVES GARLIC
6 CANDLENUTS
5 CM GINGER
4 RED CHILIES ( I used 4 dried ones; I dont recomment this though *laughs*)
2 TBSP DRIED PRAWNS ,SOAKED TO SOFTEN
2 TBSP FISH CURRY POWDER
1 TSP DRIED SHRIMP PASTE (belancan)
2 lemon grass, bruised

Prepare the spice paste first.Chop the shallots, garlic,candlenuts,ginger and chillies coarsely and blend or process with the dried prawns and a little of the oil until fine.(Instead of using oil; I threw in 1/2 a ripe tomato with the mixture to give it a little more moisture.)Mix in the curry powder and dried shrimps paste, blend for a few seconds longer, then set aside with the lemon grass.

Heat the remaining oil in the wok or heavy pan. Add the spice paste and cook over low heat, stirring constantly, for about 5 minutes until the paste is fragrant.Add the coconut milk and chicken stock and bring to boil, stirring. Put in all the seafood and the beancurd and simmer until cooked.Season to taste.

To serve , divide the noodles and beansprouts among 4 - 6 bowls. Top with coconut milk curry gravy,eggs and sprinkle with laksa leafs and fried shallots.
Helpful hints
The coconut milk gravy can be prepared several hours in advance and re heated just before serving.If no laksa leaf; omit.

8 comments:

Juanita So said...

Hm. I couldn't find any cake flour in Coles nor Woolies. But they do sell White Wings stuff. Did I overlook it? What does it say on the packaging.

Ooo. And how do you make your icing? I keep making icing that looks really homemade - not good.

Thanks thanks. Oh I'm studying in UNSW first year btw. =) Have I told you that?

yaya schmaya said...

hehehe it WAS nice laaa babes!! hihihi thanx for the dinner!! =D
but i guess im juz not 'macho' enough to handle spicy-nessss......
hehehe funny, grabbing tissues... *sniff sniff* *pedas pedas*

Su-Yin -Décorateur said...

juan: *laughs*; what do you need "Cake" flour for? For my everyday baking; Cake flour=bags of all purpose flour/self raising. I understand that flour makes a big difference when you bake; but special "cake" flour isnt an essential ingrdient. You can tell i'm not fussy...hehe; I'm a fan of simple basic and practical recipes. I don't follow them to the dot either...trial and error makes my cakes better as I repeat the recipes and alter as I jot down notes from every different proportion I do. But If you're really fussy with the cake texture and colour, (Cake flour is superfine+soft wheat flour which makes your cakes white and velvety in texture) Try this;
one cup sifted cake flour :
3/4 cup (84 grams) sifted bleached all-purpose flour plus 2 tablespoons (15 grams) cornstarch.

mom: Haha...thansk for a second laksa recipe..won't be needing it anytime sooon; but it sounds great too!

schmaya: hehe *hugs*

Cuisine Paradise said...

Wow.. Suyin Your curry Mee realli look GREAT!.... So Tempting to try it out...

By the way, i had tag u for a MEME on "5 Things To Eat Before You Die". Hope you had time to join in the fun.. :)

backStreetGluttons said...

hi

sadlah got no chance to try your sydney laksa,

mayb next time when i m there lah !

Angela Hemming said...

Thanks so much for this recipe, and thanks to Huenlily for posting hers. It's a challenge for me to find some ingredients (serai, buah keras, santan, lenguas? aaaa!) but I'll try these and let you know how they turn out.

Anonymous said...

i am currently working abroad and i really apreciate each and every recipe that were post here especially the Malayasian section.
i wish i share the same motivation as you in cooking to cure my cravings.

Anonymous said...

I'm salivating!!!