Hokkien Noodle

This is one of the first few dishes I had cooked for my in-laws and the first one to earn a compliment from them. I wonder if I am the only Mum out there who feels anxious and worried every time I whipped out a meal for my in-laws. I am a very competitive person... almost a perfectionist. I don't like failure and I will get upset at myself if things don't come out the way I had planned.

So on one fine day I decided to give this traditional Hokkien dish a try. I do not have a recipe for this, this was done from the sheer memory I had from my childhood... My Mum used to cook this for us when we were kids. Luckily this dish is simple enough for me to attempt.

Ever since that attempt, I had cooked this dish most frequently and after so many attempts, I can say my noodle is very near to perfection! My parents tried it once and immediately gave me the thumbs up! The real proof of my success in this dish comes from my Husband one day when he requested me to cook this for his classmates Pot Luck Dinner :) that was indeed a very happy day for me!

Here's my Hokkien Noodle... Cooked by a pure blood Hokkien...

Here's my recipe for this simple one-dish-meal, this recipe is re-created from my childhood memory. Hope you like it!

Ingredients:

(Serve 5 adults)

- 1 kg Yellow Flat Noodles (Hokkien Noodles)

- 400g Fresh Prawns

- 2 pieces Fishcakes

-  300g Pork Lean Meat (Can substitute with Chicken Fillet)

- 3 to 4 bunches of Malaysia Chye Sim 

- 3 cloves garlic

- 3 tbs of Fried Dried Onions

- 3 tbs cooking oil

Seasoning:

- Pepper

- 2 tbs Oyster sauce

- 5 tbs Dark Soya Sauce (or lots more depending how dark and salty you prefer)

Preparations of Ingredients:

- Wash Prawns, Remove heads and shells, keep the tails and devein

- Boil a medium pot of water with the Prawn Heads and Shells till bubbling hot and fragrance, switch to lowest fire. (We need the broth later)

- Slice Pork and Fish Cakes to thin slices

- Marinate Pork with some corn flour and light soya sauce

- Wash and cut Chye Sim to about 2.5 inches long

- Wash Noodle with Tap Water and drain dry

- Chop/Mince Garlic

Method:

- Heat wok, add 1tbs oil and half portion of garlic, fried until fragrance then add in prawns and fried until it turn pink. Remove from wok and set aside.

- Add 2 tbs oil and remaining garlic, fried till fragrance, add in pork, follow by fish cake and fried till pork well cooked

- Add in half the broth, then add in noodles. (At this moment, the fire should still be at the highest)

- Check if the broth fully cover the noodles, if not, add in more broth till noodles are completely covered 

- Add in all the seasoning and stir till well mix

- Add in Vegetables. (Vegetables must be submerged under the broth)

- Let it simmer for a while till broth become thick, add in Fried Dried Onions and Prawns (previously set aside)

- Simmer till broth dried up till noodles is no longer submerged but still quite wet (as the broth will be absorb further by the noodles even if its cooked)

- Done

Notes:

1) You may add in squids 

2) You may want to taste the noodles while it simmer so you may i increase the pepper or dark soya sauce