Soupy Fried Mee Suan (煮炒Style)

1st May 2009
Had been busy cooking for Trenyce during the weekend spent with her. Didnt touch outside food at all for once for a weekend! Cooked this soupy fried mee suan for her becos Trenyce loves noodles...well, I guess thats becos she only has porridge and rice during the weekdays so perhaps noodles are kind of an innovation to her. Actually this was the 2nd time I cooked this for her. The first time was just the week before and hubby also kind of like it too =p Hubby even commented that if i were to open a stall to sell this noodles surely will go bankrupt cos I put in some much ingredients hahahaa....

I learned about this dish when I have my lunch at Chinatown market one of the days. Initially I thought it was 生面 (crispy noodle) but the singnage on the stall said it was mee suan (面线)...yah lah, it was slightly 'thinner' than 生面. Then one day, I went to a wet market in AMK and saw the exact same noodles. Asked the seller uncle and was told it was mee suan (面线). So thats how I embarked on the journey to prepare this noodle dish.

Ingredients (6 pax share):

- 8 pieces of mee suan (There is 5 pieces in each packet that I bought. Depending on individual, I gave 1.5pieces to the guys and 1 piece to the ladies).
- Chicken or pork bones.
- Some vegetables (caixin/spinach/lettuce, I use caixin).
- Carrot, sliced.
- Garlic, chopped finely.
- Fishcake, sliced.
- Meat (Sliced/minced pork or chicken, I use sliced pork), seasoned with soya sauce, sesame oil & starch powder.
- Prawns, seasoned with soya sauce, pinch of starch powder & sugar.
- 4 eggs of average size.
- 4 tablespoons of starch powder, mixed with a bowl of water.
- Salt to taste.
- Pinch of pepper (for each serving, optional).
- Cooking oil.
- Water.

How to cook:

- Separately, boil 1 pot (average sized pot) of water in advance. Can use chicken or pork bones to prepare the stock/soup base to be used as gravy for the noodles.
- Heat the wok with cooking oil.
- Add in the garlic once the wok is heated.
- Put in the vege/carrot once the garlic turns slightly brownish and add in some water.
- Then add in the fishcake.
- Fried for a while and take out the vege, set aside.
- When the stock boils, add in the meat.
- When the meat is cooked, add in the prawns then the eggs and keep stirring the stock.
- Once it boils, add in the vege dish that was prepared earlier.
- Finally, add in the starch mixture to thicken the gravy and salt to taste.
- When the stock thickens, turn off the fire and its ready to be served.

How to Serve:

- Put the mee suan in the plate and pour the gravy over the mee suan.
- Add the pepper and the mee suan is ready to be served.

Mushroom Ipoh Hor Fun

I love this mushroom Hor Fun dish since young. I am not sure if this is a special DIY recipe from my mom or she knew about it from elsewhere perhaps from Ipoh, her hometown. I remembered her cooking this dish whenever someone from the family brought back some Ipoh Hor Fun (the plain ones mostly, aka Cheong Fan) to Spore. The Cheong Fun from Ipoh tastes very different from the ones I have in Spore, the texture is really smooth and when you put it in your mouth, you feel like its slipping into your mouth! :p

Well, unfortunately, I dont have anyone coming back from Ipoh recently. So, I have to make do with the frozen pre-packs that I can find at the supermarket, it has some wordings written on it that said its "Ipoh Hor Fun". Not too bad tho not as smooth as those fresh ones I had at Ipoh :D

**Food picture unavailable** 
[Unfortunately Slide.com had ceased operation on 6 March 2012 and I didnt manage to transfer the pics in time of which some are lost permanently as I didnt have a spare copy.] 

Ingredients (5pax share):

- 2 pkts of pre-packed Hor Fun, soaked in boiled water for 5 minutes (to soften it) and remove the water.
- About 150g spare ribs, for boiling soup (can use chicken bones or ikan billis)
(I prefer using bones for cooking soup as it makes the soup more fragnant and definitely more nutritious for the children)
- 150g pork meat (chicken or pork, always use breast meat) sliced/minced and mixed it with some soya sauce and starch powder (note: starch powder is to soften the texture of the meat, only for pork)
- About 8-10 mushrooms (of average size), sliced.
(If you want to decorate the dish, dont slice all)
- One can of preserved caixin, chopped into cubes
- Some wolfberries (optional)
(not too much otherwise will make your soup too sweet, mainly to add some colour to the dish, can use red chilli if you like it hot)
- 1 tablespoon of Vegetarian mushroom oyster sauce
- 2 tablespoons of Soya sauce
- 2 tablespoons of starch powder, mix with a bowl of water and stir till the powder dissolves
- Pot of water, about 3/4 full (use an average size pot)


How to cook:

- Put the spare ribs in a pot of boiling water and soaked for 2-3 mins to remove the porky smell.
- Then boils another fresh pot of water together with the spare ribs
- When the water boils for the first time, add in the mushrooms, canned caixin and wolfberries
- When it boils again, put in the meat and the 2 sauces (oyster and soya sauce)
- When you get the taste you desire, add in the starch powder mixture (to pour in the starch powder gradually as you stir the soup otherwise the starch mixture will clog together)
- Pour the soup onto the Hor Fun (before pouring the soup, the Hor Fun should already be placed on individual plates)

Notes:
1. The amount of ingredients serve as a general guide. You may add in more according to your preference.
2. All my ingredients purchased from ShopnSave, so you can go there and get all the stuff at one shopping.