Green Lip Mussels

Home-Made Hokkien Mee

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

Spicy Chilli Mussels

image

Spicy Chilli Mussels

I remember going to Perth, Western Australia once to visit some friends and take a short holiday and I had one of the best spicy mussels in the world at Fremantle Market or Freo as they like to call it.

When I got back home, I knew I had to make it. And make it just as delicious.

I realized the key to great spicy Mussels was to get the black lip ones and they sold some at cold storage supermarket but sadly they don’t carry them very frequently or most of the times when I get them it is always near expiry.

So I tried the next best alternative which was the local green Mussels which were sold by the local fishmongers at the wet market.

The one at my place sold a kg of fresh Mussels for $2 (SGD). Unbelievable price and value. The cold storage ones were 750 grams for $19.95. Ingredients for the dish was also bought at the vegetable seller for $4 all in.

The wine and some other ingredients had to be purchased at the supermarket but the costing for my dish has significantly become cheaper!

These days I do my marketing at the wet market. Cheaper, fresher and you get to choose what you need.

My version of the spicy chilli mussels bears the following characteristics. Sweet, sour, spicy, salty.

Yum.

Recipe – serving for four

Ingredients

Green Mussels 1 kg

Yellow Onions (Medium) 2 whole

Tomatoes 6 whole

White wine – sauvignon blanc 2 cups

Garlic 5 wedges

Red chilli 2 pieces

Red chilli padi 5 pieces

Tomato paste 3 tablespoons

Brown Sugar 1 tablespoon

Sea salt 1/2 teaspoon

Bay leaf

Olive oil

 

Method

1. Heat a saucepan with 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Add minced garlic slices to fry till fragrant.

2. Slice and chop the yellow onions and stir-fry the onions until they turn transparent. Slice all the chillis and add into the pot to fry. Add salt and sugar.

3. Chop and discard the insides of the tomatoes and add to the saucepan and continue to cook with the rest of the ingredients until soften. Add tomato paste. Squeeze juice of 2 lemon and grate in the rind of one lemon. Add a bay leaf. Continue to cook until ingredients become a thick pulpy texture.

4. Taste test the mixture, it should be spicy, sour, salty and sweet. If so, it is done and the spicy sauce is ready.

5. Wash Mussels and remove any “beards” or barnacles.

6. Add two tablespoons of olive oil into another pot and fry minced garlic. Add the Mussels to the pot. Add the white wine. Turn the heat up and cover the lid to steam cook the Mussels. You know the mussels are cooked when they all open up. Discard those that did not open.

7. Add spicy sauce and mix well. Serve with a toasted garlic baguette.

Bon Appetit!