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.