Home-Made Hokkien Mee
Sometimes I see the food court stall with the title “home-made..” worded nicely before whatever it was that they were selling and I would usually think to myself, “is it clean?” LOL. I know how I cook at home, and it is definitely not Michelin world class standard kitchen. My kitchen; my rules.
But if you are selling something and you have a shop front, just say it like it is, you made it at the shop. Wouldn’t that be less ambiguous and clearer for me the customer? Okay okay. I will stop ranting.
Back to my wicked home-made Hokkien Mee. I don’t mean to brag, but it is really not bad. Of course, I am no puritan chef, I am home cook. I cook what makes sense to me and whatever resources I could get my hands on.
So for Hokkien Mee, the key ingredient is the stock. If you got the stock wrong, you may as well go out and eat. So what goes into the stock, it is no nonsense chicken stock my friend. Let’s not kid ourselves here. How can we cook Hokkien Mee without chicken stock?! You have to be a master chef.
Now that we got that out of the way, let’s begin.
Recipe
Ingredients
1 packet Green Lip Mussels (wash and scrub the shells off of any beards or debris)
6 Medium Grey Prawns (leave them whole, no need to peel)
1 large or a few Squids (wash clean and sliced)
250 grams Pork Ribs (blanched and remove scum)
50 grams Lean Pork (sliced thinly)
1 packet Egg Noodles
1 packet White Bee Hoon
A few sprigs of Spring Onions (wash and chop off both ends)
1 packet Chicken Stock (chicken broth)
Half a teaspoon powdered Chicken Stock
Method:
1. Prepare the broth (or stock) for the Hokkien Mee by boiling all the seafood and pork ribs. In a pot, pour about a litre of water, turn up the heat, and start boiling the packet of green lip mussels. The broth is to be used for the stock. The mussel meat can be used for ingredients later or discarded. I usually keep them as ingredients.
2. Boil the squid next for about 30 seconds in high heat, in that same stock. Then quickly take the squid pieces out and run them over cold water to stop them from cooking further. Squid tends to harden if you cook them too long. The key is to cook quickly or cook them long long.
3. Next drop the prawns whole (with shells) into the broth and cook them until they curl into the shape of a letter C. “C” stands for cooked. If it curls into the shape of an “O”, then it means “Overcooked”. The prawns will sweeten the broth further. Once the prawns are cooked, de-shell the prawns and drop the shells back into the broth to continue cooking.
4. Next boil the pork ribs and lean pork. Take out the lean pork slices and reserve aside. You may continue boiling the pork ribs with the prawn shells.
5. This is where you add a packet of that chicken broth and by doing so essentially changes the whole dynamics of the soup stock. Now it should be very tasty.
6. The actual cooking of the Hokkien Mee is actually assembly. Ladle the broth into a wok, turn up the heat, drop the noodles/bee hoon into the wok and stir. Then add the cooked ingredients in to cook and a few sprigs of the spring onions. This is where you add the powdered chicken stock to complete the taste. It really does taste like bona fide Hokkien Mee.
I usually reserve the excess stock so that I can cook Hokkien Mee on demand. Easy.
Bon Appetit!
Green Lip Mussels
Lean Pork Slices
Medium Grey Prawns
Squid