Mee Hoon Kueh (Anchovy Flat Noodle Soup)

Recipe: Mee Hoon Kueh (Anchovy Flat Noodle Soup)(面粉粿)
Serves: 2 - 4




Ingredients

• 250g all purpose flour
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 large egg
• 75g - 85g water
• 1½ tsp oil

Side Ingredients

• mani cai / choy sum / spinach / lettuce / kale
• 150g ground pork / sliced pork (marinated with 1 tsp light soy sauce, ⅛ tsp salt, ⅛ tsp sugar, pepper & ½ tsp tapioca starch)

Soup Ingredients

• 150g dried anchovies
• 2.2L water
• salt to taste
• sugar to taste
• pepper
• 2 - 3 tsp shallot oil

Garnishing

• anchovy crisps
• shallot crisps

Dipping Sauce

• chopped bird's eye chilies + light soy sauce

Measurements: tsp = teaspoon | TBSP = tablespoon

Preparation
Soup
1. Gently rinse the dried anchovies for 2-3 times. Put the anchovies and water in a pot and bring to a boil.	2. Strain the soup. Reserve the anchovies to make anchovy crisps. Return soup to simmer for a while then add seasoning to taste. Turn off the heat and set soup aside.
Flat Noodles
1. Mix the flour & salt in a mixing bowl. Make a well in the center, break the egg into the well, pour in the water & oil. Stir with a fork until crumbs form.	2. Knead dough using hand until smooth. Cover the dough with a damp cloth or cling wrap. Let the dough rest for about 30 minutes before use.	3. Simply knead the dough couple of times. Divide dough into 2 to 4 portions for easier handling.
4. Take a portion of the dough and roll out on a lightly floured surface to your desire thickness using a rolling pin. Dust off any excess flour.	5. Ladle some soup into a small pot to reheat if you are making mee hoon kueh bowl by bowl. Add in some marinated meat and simmer until meat is cooked. Continue to simmer over medium or medium low heat. ** Fish out meat once cooked to prevent overcooking if you are going to tear a large batch of flatten dough into the soup. **	6. Tear mee hoon kueh and drop directly into the soup. Stirring occasionally to prevent sticking. Once you have done tearing, add in some veggies then turn heat to high and let soup bring to a boil again, uncovered. Mee hoon kueh will float on the surface once cooked. Continue to simmer for about a minute or longer (for thicker noodles) over medium heat. Turn off the heat and pour mee hoon kueh into a serving bowl. Repeat step 4 to 6 for the remaining dough.
7. Garnish mee hoon kueh with shallot crisps and anchovy crisps.If you prefer you can drizzle a little bit more of shallot oil over your mee hoon kueh and add a sprinkle of pepper on it. Serve hot with bird's eye chilies in soy sauce.
Dipping Sauce
Mix chopped bird's eye chilies with enough light soy sauce to use as dipping sauce.

Notes

Proportion of flat noodle dough => flour : water + egg is approximately 1 : ½. Dough should be pliable like play-doh or slightly harder. Add a little more water if dough is too dry. Add a little more flour if it is too moist. You may replace each egg with 60ml water. But egg does give the dough more elasticity. 1 large egg can use for upto 500g flour. Alternatively you can use a pizza cutter to cut the dough instead of tearing using hand.

Crispy Fried Anchovies

Recipe: Crispy Fried Anchovies酥炸江鱼仔

 

Ingredients

dried anchovies vegetable oil / canola oil / peanut oil pinch of salt sugar

 

Preparation
1. Wash and drain dried anchovies.	2. Heat up a clean frying pan on medium high heat. Keep saute achovies in the hot pan without oil until dry. Remove achovies and set aside.	3. Put oil enough to coat the anchovies into the hot pan. When oil is hot enough, add a pinch of salt. Turn heat to medium. Add the anchovies and toss to coat evenly with oil.
4. Toss occasionally to make sure every surface of each anchovy is brown evenly. Turn off the heat when anchovies turn golden brown.	5. Sprinkle fried anchovies with some sugar and toss evenly. Fish out fried anchovies and let them cool completely on 2 or 3 layers of kitchen towels before keeping them in an air tight container.

Notes

Crispy fried anchovies can keep in air tight container at room temperature for up to a week.

Crispy Fried Shallots

Recipe: Crispy Fried Shallots酥炸葱头仔

Ingredients

shallots vegetable oil / canola oil / peanut oil pinch of salt

Preparation
1. Peel shallots. Wash and dry shallots with a kitchen towel. Cut shallots into thin slices. Carefully pull out and separate each slice and each overlay rings into an individual ring. Discard any sprout. Pat dry shallot rings again with a kitchen towel.	2. Heat up a frying pan on medium high heat. Put oil enough to cover your cut shallots. When oil is hot enough, add a pinch of salt.	3. Turn heat to medium. Add the shallot rings and saute until each ring is coat with oil.
4. Saute occasionally to make sure each surface of a shallot ring is brown evenly. Turn off the heat as soon as the shallots turn golden brown. Do not let shallots to turn too brown or else they will burn easily.	5. Combine 2 - 3 layers of kitchen towel together on a platter. Fish out fried shallots and let them cool completely on the kitchen towels before keeping them in an air tight container.

Notes

Drop an onion ring to the hot oil, oil is considered hot enough when bubbles form all around the onion ring. Crispy fried shallots and shallot oil can keep in separate air tight container at room temperature or refrigerator for up to a week.