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.