Hokkien Prawn Mee 福建虾面

Perennial favourite of the family, updated recipe with new pictures and English instructions. [Chinese instructions in the old blogpost]

The preparation of Hokkien Prawn Noodles consists of three main parts – preparing the prawn stock, stir-frying the Hokkien Stir-fry Prawn Mee 炒福建虾面 and cooking of the Hokkien Prawn Mee soup 福建虾面汤.

Preparing Prawn Stock

Ingredients:

• 400-500g prawn heads and shell (the more the merrier, I used 1kg of it for this picture)
• 500g pork soup bone/ribs
• 3-4 tbsp fish dew (or suitable)
• 3 tbsp ice sugar, fruit death, white sugar
• 1 tsp shrimp optional
• Salt suitable amount

Instructions:

1. Cut off the pork fat part of the pork belly and cut it into small cubes, extract the lard over low heat and take out the crispy lard for later use. Take care not to burn crackling, otherwise it will taste bitter.
2. Put the shrimp shell in pan with the clarified pork fat and stir-fry over high heat until the shell turns reddish brown like caramel. One trick about accumulating prawn shells – Don’t throw away the prawn shell peeled when cooking other prawn dishes. Be sure to put them in a sealed bag to freeze and keep them for a long time. For the stock, the more shells are boiled, the better. If you want to enhance the taste of shrimp soup, you can add some fish sauce and prawn paste when stir-frying prawn shells.)
3. Add 750ml broth or water and shrimp shells over low heat for half an hour or an hour, and then take away the shells.
4. Put the remaining piece of pork belly into the stock and cook on high heat for 45 minutes. After that, take it out and cool it and cut it into fine shreds.
5. Cut the squid into small circles and quickly blanch it in stock until half cooked. Remember not to overcooked, otherwise when stir-frying noodles in the wok, the texture of the squid will be like an eraser.

Hokkien Stir-fry Prawn Mee 炒福建虾面

Technically, it is actually braising and not stir-fry. Its original name was actually “Rochor Road fried noodles” 梧槽炒面 because this local street food first appeared on Rochor Road.

At that time, just after the end of World War II, many sailors from Fujian turned to making noodles by day at Rochor and cooking the leftover noodles in the charcoal stove by night. It is also said that the originator of “Rocher Fried Noodles” is actually a small stall next to 7th Storey Hotel.

Ingredients (Serve four persons):

• 250g yellow noodles
• 250g thick rice noodles
• 1 kg of prawns -heads and shell removed to make stock
• 350g or around 1 large cuttlefish (sotong)
• 250g whole piece of pork belly (skin removed)
• 200g bean sprouts
• 200g chives or kangkong – the traditionalist will ask for chives, but it could be quite strong flavoured for the modernist, so kangkong is often used these days.
• 750ml prawn stock
• 4 large (60g or larger) eggs – if ordinary 55g eggs are used, then I would recommend 5 as the egg will thicken the braise
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic (approximately 8 cloves) – I actually add more as I like the garlicky taste
• 4 kaffir lime

Instructions:

1. Put 1 teaspoon of cold oil into a hot pot and sautéed the minced garlic. Quickly add eggs and stir-fry until half cooked. Because the heat is high, the speed should be fast.
2. Add yellow noodles and thick rice noodles and stir-fry them quickly. After the eggs are cooked over high heat, ensure that they are evenly distributed in the fried noodles.
3. Pour one-third of the shrimp soup and seasonings into the fried noodles and stir-fry them over high heat until the noodles absorb the liquid. Then turn to low heat, and then add one-third of the shrimp soup, cover it and simmer for 5 to 7 minutes.
4. When the liquid is absorbed, open the lid and turn the heat to the maximum, add the last third of the shrimp soup, and quickly stir-fry with shrimp, cuttlefish, shredded meat, lard residue and bean sprouts. Once the bean sprouts are cooked, the noodles are ready can be plated. Sprinkle with crispy lard.
5. Add some fresh lime juice before serving. It’s even more delicious if you can mix a little samba chilli.

Hokkien Prawn Mee Soup 福建虾面汤

Ingredients (Serve four)

• 200g prawns (deveined and blanched)
• 200-300g cooked pork
• 500g of yellow noodles
• 2 pieces of soaked thin rice noodles (Optional)
• 300-400g kangkong
• 300-400g bean sprouts
• 1 piece of fish cake, sliced to thin slices

Instructions:

1. Prepare ingredients, soak rice noodles, wash the kangkong, bean sprouts.
2. Then in the boiling water, blanch the noodles, kangkong and bean sprouts. Put the blanched items in a bowl and top with boiled shrimps, sliced pork and fish cake.
3. Pour the hot prawn stock into the noodles and sprinkle a little deep fried shallots. The delicious prawn noodle soup is ready!

Alternative preparation:

4. Add sambal chilli to the plate, add a little black soy sauce, shrimp broth and lard (vegetable oil is also ok), and stir.
5. Then add the previously blanched noodles and mix well, sprinkle with deep fried shallots and crispy pork lard, top with fish cake, pork and boiled shrimp. Serve with a bowl of prawn soup, and the dry prawn noodles are ready.