Saturday, August 21, 2010

Mee Siam

My younger girl has not been coming home for her meals lately. She is a volunteer, helping out in the Youth Olympics. That's why lately, I've been resorting to cooking simple fare for myself and my husband.
Today, I felt like eating mee siam.
I love mee siam, in fact anything that's bee hoon! The danger of my cooking bee hoon is that I don't have limits eating it. Today is one such day! BURP!!


Forty-two years ago, I met a charming Indonesian lady in her late thirties . She was one of my guy friends' aunt. I learned a lot of baking and cooking from her. She was very knowledgeable in the art of cooking and baking including cake decorating with buttercream, royal icing and even gum paste. You could say she was my 'Guru' or 'Sifu' then.

I learnt to cook many Indonesian dishes. The mee siam is one of them. Hers is a wet version with gravy but I did a dry one instead and tweaked it a little.





What I Used:

A
500g bee hoon (vermicelli)(I used the thick ones meant for laksa)

1/2 cup shelled prawns (I omitted this and used sliced fish cake)


B (to be ground)
2 teaspoons belachan
3 cloves garlic
10 dried chillies, soaked to soften
12 small onions


C
50g dried prawns/hae bee/udang kering, soaked and ground
1 and 1/2 tablespoons preserved soya bean paste/tau cheo
2 big onions, sliced
2 handfuls of bean sprouts/tau gay
1 tomato, sliced
Oil
1 tablespoon assam, soaked in 300g water and strained
sugar to taste (I used 2 tablespoon gula melaka syrup)


D (save some for garnishing)
3 pieces tau kwa, fried and cubed
2 eggs, beaten and made into omelette, cut into strips
a bunch of chives, cut into 3-cm lengths

limes
fried shallots




What I Did:

1. Heat oil and fry ground ingredients.

2. Add sliced onions, dried prawns and bean paste and fry for a while.

3. Add fish cake and bee hoon and stir well to mix and then add assam water and simmer to cook.

4. Add bean sprouts, tomato, 1/2 tau kwa, omelette and chives and gula melaka. Stir well and fry for a couple of minutes. Do not overcook bean sprouts or it will be soft and limp. No salt is required as the dried prawns and bean paste are salty enough.

5. Serve, garnish with remaining tau kwa, omelette, chives and fried shallots. Squeeze juice of one lime over mee siam. Yum!





I forgot to buy limes when I went to the market this morning. I had to make do with lemons which I happened to have in the fridge.

12 comments:

  1. I've never heard of this dish but it looks so delicious. I love this type of food!

    Maria
    x

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  2. I love mee siam too. I remember I learnt my first mee siam was from my secondary school economic class.
    And Judy, please post more Indonesian food I want to learn from you... ;))

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  3. I love Meehoon too...
    but I like them dry :)

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  4. I love mee siam, in fact anything with 'bihun'.
    I lived in Woodlands for about a year many, many years ago and my brother's Malay help, Mak cik Bedah used to make yummy mee siam.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hi Maria,
    This is a typical Asian dish, common in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia. And it's good and spicy!


    Hi Jess,
    Without doubt a fave of mine!


    Hi Ann,
    Will be cooking those dishes by and by and post them.


    Hi Wendy,
    I love both wet and dry as long as it contains bee hoon!


    Hi Cheah,
    If you're somewhere in the east, I'll invite you over for a bite. :)

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  6. Love mee sian! At home my mum usually make them in soup....very tasty too.

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  7. Don't know why, your bee hoon looks like mee to me, fat fat one. I might give this Indonesian mee siam a try. :)

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  8. One of my favs - Mee Siam. Love it. Great recipe!

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  9. Loved the dish...you have a lovely blog too...

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  10. Love your dried mee siam - It looks very delicious! Do you have the wet version as well?

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  11. Hi Recipehobbyst,
    Yes, I do have the wet version. Will cook it one of these days and post.

    ReplyDelete

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