Ban Mian 面粉馃

Ban Mian 面粉馃 (Soup Base)

Its been some time since my last post and I felt really bad about it because I should and I could have write more but I am just plain lazy and unmotivated. So, today I am gonna write a quick post about a dish that has a special place in my heart and I can say its one of my comfort food. This dish never fails to put a smile on my face whenever I see it on my dining table.

Ban Mian is also know as Min Fan Gao (in cantonese) and its quite a popular dish in Malaysia and Singapore. In Singapore, the dough its more commonly found in noodles type whereas in Malaysia it comes in different odd  shapes and most importantly it must be FLAT!

The preparation for this dish is divided into 3 parts; the dough, the condiments and the soup.

Ingredients:

Soup:
For quick and easy soup, you can just use those cube anchovies. 1 cube can make a pot of soup enough for 3 pax. For healthier version, you can check out how to make soup using Fried Anchovies.

Condiments for my Ban Mian

Condiments:
Cai Xin - blanch
Anchovies - Fried till crispy
Minced Meat - Marinated with oyster sauce
Meat Balls
Chilli Padi
Minced Garlic
Mushroom (Optional)
Eggs (Optional)

Dough:
Plain flour
Water
Salt

When I was googling for other Ban Mian recipe online, I realized that mine was lacking of mushroom and egg, which I think its really important to this dish. Well, when I have time to have another go and this dish, I'm gonna make sure I don't miss them out again!

Instructions:

Kneading of dough (a video will be updated soon for easier reference)

Soup:

Heat up a medium sized pot with some oil

Sauteed minced garlic till fragrant and pour in 3 bowl of water (750ml to 1 litre)
Put in 1 anchovy cube and let it boil for 20 minutes
Put in meat balls to boil and set aside

Preparation of condiments:

Boil a pot of water and put in some salt

Blanch cai xin and set aside

Marinate minced meat with 1 tablespoon of oyster sauce and add in 1 teaspoon of flour. Scoop minced meat in a ball shape and boil it in hot water for 5 minutes and set aside.

Fried anchovies and set aside.

Ready to cook!
Bring a small pot and place in soup

Heat up and start putting the dough (by pulling small pieces from the main dough and flatten it) into the soup

When the dough starts to float up, (it indicates that the dough is cooked) start putting in all the condiments except for the crispy anchovies

Let it boil for one last time and scoop up
Put in the fried anchovies and its ready to serve!

There you go.. My comfort food.. Is it yours as well??

Mee Tai Mak with Salted Fish

When I was younger, I used bring my group of poly classmates to Seremban, a small town in Malaysia to eat a dish called "Claypot Rat Noodle" or in cantonese we called it "Sa Po Lou Shu Fen".

Yummy Lou Shu Fen~!

Rat Noodle or Lou Shu Fen which also knowns as Mee Tai Mak in Singapore its a type of noodle which looks like a rat tail but shorter and hence the name. Its does sounds kinda disgusting if you are listening it for the first time in your life but I can guarantee you that it doesn't taste anywhere close to a taste of a rat (tho I never tasted a rat before but I assume its disgusting! =P)

Recently my classmates been telling me that they miss the dish and they never forgot the wonderful taste of that dish even tho it has been like more than 10 years and sometimes I even wonder if the shop its still open for business. So, I decided to try my hands in making this dish and hopefully I can cook it myself and let them rekindle that wonderful taste that they have been missing.

Ingredients:

1 packet of Lou Shu Fen/Rat Noodle
4 cloves of Garlic
Green Onions for garnishing
5 prawns (de-viens and cut to tiny pieces)
Minced meat
1 slices of salted fish
3 chilli padi (if you like it spicy)
1 bowl of chicken stock (180ml)
Any type of Green Vegetable

Seasoning for minced meat:

1 tsp of Rice wine
2 tsp of Oyster sauce
1 tsp of Sesame Oil
A pinch of Pepper

Minced meat and prawns

Salted fish, green onions, chilli padi and garlic

Rat noodle / Lou Shu Fen

Chicken stock

Instructions:

1. Stir fry garlic and salted fish till fragrant
2. Add in marinated minced meat and fry till meat are cooked
3. Add in prawns
4. Scoop up minced meat and prawns and set aside
5. Heat up some oil and fry Lou Shu Fen
6. Add in the minced meat and prawns and stir fry together
7. Add in chicken stock and let it simmer till it thickens
8. Add in a pinch of pepper
9. Add in your greens
10. Once the gravy thickens, its ready to serve!
11. Garnish with green onions, chilli padi and a little soya sauce

Before and After (Clearly I was very hungry)

KL Hokkien Noodle (Tai Lok Min)

When I was young, I used to travel to KL with my parents to visit my uncle near Cheras and every time without fail, my uncle will always buy a packet of dark thick noodles wrapped nicely with newspaper. That packet of noodles will be finished within a few minutes and that noodles is the famous KL Hokkien Noodle! And in KL, they called it "Tai Lok Min" meaning Big Fat Noodles in Cantonese. Ever since that, this dish is a "MUST-EAT!!" for me every time I set my foot in KL.

What set the normal Hokkien Noodle that you find in Singapore or any other part in Msia from KL is the thick black gravy that is coated around the thick noodle and the generous amount of fried lards and lastly the sambal belachan that adds make this dish so sinfully delicious!

Fried Lard

One of the main ingredients for this dish is non other than the crispy fried lard! And in order for this dish to be tasty, you have to be generous in putting the fried lard and of cause it has to be crispy! But for home cook version, we try to reduce it for health purpose. 

I was telling my dad about this dish the how I missed this dish and within the next day, I saw him bringing out a packet of thick yellow noodles to demonstrate to me how to cook a plate of KL hokkien noodle!

Thick flat yellow noodle

The noodle my dad use is not 100% the same as those in KL which is thick and squarish because you can't get those in the local wet market. So, we have to settle with what we can get which is thick but FLAT! 

Ingredients:
500g of thick yellow noodles
300g of prawns
cabbage
1 piece of fish cake
5 cloves of garlic
Fried Lard
Fried Shallots
500ml of water/stock

Seasoning: (adjust according to your taste bud)

Sweet sauce

3 tbsp of Oyster Sauce
Pinch of Salt
3 tbsp of Dark Soya Sauce
1 tbsp of Sweet Sauce

Directions:
1. Heat up at wok under medium heat and sauteed the garlic till light golden brown.
2. Add in the water and let it boil under high heat.
3. Add in the seasoning and blanched noodle.
4. Let it simmer under high heat and cover it with a lid.
5. Add in the fish cake, cabbage and prawns and mix well.
6. Simmer until the gravy thickens. (around 5 mins)
7. Lastly, add in a spoonful of fried lard and fried shallots.
8. Scoop up and serve!

Comparing to the authentic KL Hokkien Noodle, it is less darker but the taste is still there. If you prefer it to be darker, just add in more of the dark soya sauce. And besides that, if you want to make this dish tastier, try using pork bones and ginger to make the stock, so you can use the stock instead of water. =)

To catch a glimpse of the true KL Hokkien Noodle, you can drop by http://ieatishootipost.sg/2011/07/kong-kee-seafood-restaurant-taste-of.html. It is a blog post regarding one restaurant in Geylang Lorong 31 which serves it. I tried it a couple of times before and it do taste similar to those you get in KL.

Penang Assam Laksa (Cooking)

 Directions:

Ginger, torch ginger & Lemongrass

All the spices grinned

Spice Paste:
Pound or grind all ingredients into a fine paste preferably with a food processor or blender.
Add in the water to ensure that the paste is ground efficiently.
Heat up wok without oil and cook the spice paste for about 4 ~ 5 mins until fragrant.
Set aside to cool.

Assam Laksa Soup:

Boil the fish in a big pot

Boil the water in high heat and cook the fish in it.
Remove the fish when it is cook. ( Roughly around 15 ~ 20mins)
Allow the fish to cool and remove the flesh from the bones.
Return the fish bones and simmer for another 20 mins.
Add in the spice paste into the soup.
Add in assam, laksa leaves, and prawn paste.
Add in salt and sugar to taste.
Reduce to low heat and let it simmer for another 30 mins.
Lastly, add in the fish and bring it to boil again. (remember to break the fish to smaller pieces)

Separate the meat from the bones

Noodles:
Blanch the vermicelli in hot boiling water for 7~ 10 mins.

Garnishes are nicely sliced!

Assembly:
Place a serving of vermicelli in a bowl
Spread garnishes on top of the bowl depending on your preferences
Add in the soup (make sure the soup must be hot!)
Squeeze in lime juice
Top up with a spoon or two of Heh Ko according to taste
Serve~!!

Add another tbsp on heh ko to complete your bowl of assam laksa!

Penang Assam Laksa

Home Cook Penang Assam Laksa

Assam laksa which originates from Penang, a small town in Malaysia is not like those ordinary laksa you find in Singapore which uses coconut milk. It uses tamarind (assam) to give this bowl of noodle the distinctive sweet and sour taste with a hinge of spiciness. It is healthier too in the sense that it also uses fresh fruits and vegetables like pineapples, cucumbers, onions and mint leaves / laksa leaves (aka Polygonum leaves) as garnishing.

Ikan Kembong (Mackeral)

One of main ingredients for this bowl of noodle is the fish. Various fishes are used in making Assam Laksa such as Wolf-herring, Mackeral and Shad. According to my mum, the authentic fish for Assam Laksa is Ikan Kembong which is Mackeral.

Cooking a bowl of Assam Laksa is quite a task because there it requires lots of preparation work for the ingredients and some are not easy available in our nearest FairPrice or even wet market.

So, I was pretty excited when my mum told me she will be cooking Assam Laksa for the family and there I am with my camera and notebook taking down all the important points for this delicious bowl of noodle!

Ingredients: Serves 4 to 5
(all the measurements are rough estimations, you can gauge according to how you prefer your bowl of Assam Laksa taste like)

Thick Rice Vermicelli

Noodles:
1.5kg of thick rice vermicelli

Belacan

 Spice Paste:
20~ 25 Dried chillies
3~5 Chilli Padis
2 tbsp of Belacan
4 stalks of Lemongrass
3 stalks of Torch Ginger
1 small piece of Ginger
3 Shallots
3 cloves of Garlic
200ml of Water (for the paste to be ground efficiently)

Assam

Garnishes:
1 Cucumber (thinly sliced)
3 Onions (thinly sliced)
1/2 Small Pineapple, preferably ripped (cubed)
10 Limes (sliced at the top)
4 tbsp of Heh Ko (prawn paste), 1 tbsp for a bowl
4 petals of Mint Leaves (thinly sliced)
A handful of Lettuce (thinly sliced)
4 petals of Laksa Leaves

Lemon Grass & Torch Ginger

Soup:
1kg of Mackeral, including the bones
3 litres of Water
6 large stalks of Laksa Leaves (Polygonum)
4 pieces of Assam phoi (Tamarind)
3 tbsp of Heh Ko (prawn paste)
3 tbsp of Sugar
2 tbsp of Salt to taste

Continue to my part 2 of my Penang Assam Laksa...