Fried Hokkien Prawn Noodle AKA 福建炒虾面

Fried Hokkien Prawn Noodle is a popular local street food. You can find sometimes not one but two stalls selling Hokkien Prawn Noodle in a Hawker Food Center.

The essence of this dish is the richness of the stock. The flavor of the pork bones and prawns stock should be absorbed by the noodles but noodles should not be overcooked or soggy. The dish should neither be too dry or too wet. And the other contributing factor to a plate of yummylicious Fried Hokkien Prawn Noodle is the wok hei aka 镬气. (The flavour, tastes, and "essence" imparted by a hot wok on food during stir frying - Wikipedia)

It is no secret that Fried Hokkien Prawn Noodle is one of the most difficult dishes to perfect. That explains why the renowned stalls have long queues for their Fried Hokkien Prawn Noodle.

Having said that, I am still going ahead to share my recipe for Fried Hokkien Prawn Noodle. Though it's nowhere near perfection for now, but it is good enough to curb my craving.

Ingredients
100g of yellow noodles (parboiled)
200g of thick noodles
180ml of stock
6 prawns (with shells intact, pre-cooked in stock)
50g of pork belly (sliced, pre-cooked in stock)
80g of squids (sliced, pre-cooked in stock)
2 eggs (beaten)
20g of beansprouts
1 tablespoon of minced garlic
1 stalk of spring onion (cut into 3" long)

Preparation
Heat oiled pan to medium heat.
Stir fry garlic till fragrant before adding in eggs.
Break up the eggs and cook till slightly browned.
Add in the noodles and stir fry for another minute or so.
Pour the stock into the pan and cover with a lid.
Leave stock to reduce for a few minutes.
Toss in the prawns, squids, pork belly and beansprouts.
Stir and mix well.
Simmer for another 5 minutes or till stock thickens.
Adjust taste accordingly if necessary.
Add in the spring onions and toss well.
Serve with sambal belacan chili and lime.

Prawn Noodles AKA 虾面

Do you always discard the heads and shells of the prawns when you do not need them in your cooking? Don't!

Clean and save them up in a zip-lock bag in your freezer. They can make delicious broth for prawn noodles. I always save mine till they fill up the entire bag before cooking this recipe. (which is about 800g or more)

If you are one of those who seldom buy and eat a lot of prawns yet hope to try this recipe out, you can still do it. Substitute with 2 flower crabs instead. Just pound the crabs and wrap them up in a cheesecloth/ muslin cloth before cooking.

Ingredients
1 small packet of cooked yellow noodles (aka hokkien noodles)
800g of prawn heads and shells
250g of pork soup bones (parboiled)
100g of pork (parboiled and sliced)
50g of beansprouts (blanched)
6-8 prawns (parboiled)
1 fried fish cake (sliced)
2 tablespoons of minced garlic
1 tablespoon of dark soya sauce
Salt
Sugar

Preparation
In an well-oiled pot, stir fry the garlic till fragrant.
Add in the prawn heads and shells and continue cooking till they changes color and start to brown.
Pour in 1 litre of water and bring to a boil.
Toss in the soup bones and simmer for another 45 minutes.
Add in dark soya sauce, salt and sugar to taste.
When ready to eat, blanch the yellow noodles.
Top the blanched noodles with beansprouts, prawns, slices of meat and fishcake.
Ladle hot soup over the bowl of noodles.
Garnish with fried shallots before serving. (optional)

Marmite Prawns

I've always been a fan of Marmite. Love to add it to porridge for that extra flavor and vitamins, hot water for a bowl of soup or beverage or simply apply it as a spread for bread. (For nursing Mommies, Marmite helps to boost milk supply as well)

Anyway, since Chinese New Year is just around the corner, you may want to try this recipe out for the Reunion dinner as one of the many dishes. For all I know, dishes prepared for Reunion dinner usually consists of fish and prawns other than meat, vegetables and soup. Especially for Cantonese families, every dish has an auspicious meaning. In this case for prawns, it will be "嘻哈大笑" which means lol. The second character "哈" has the same pronunciation as the word prawn in Cantonese. So the true meaning serving the prawn dish is: "May your life be filled with laughter throughout the year".

Ingredients
200g of prawns (cut through the shells on the back & deveined)
2 teaspoons of marmite
1 teaspoon of sugar
Dash of grounded black pepper
Spring onions for garnishing (sliced into the thinnest strips)

Preparation
Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a pan.
Add in the prawns.
Mix the marmite, sugar and black pepper to 30ml of water.
Pour the mixture over the prawns when they are half-cooked.
Using medium high heat, toss the prawns thoroughly and cook till the sauce dries up.
Garnish with spring onions before serving.

Asam Prawns AKA Tamarind Prawns

Asam (or asam jawa) - Malay word for tamarind, is widely used from India to Southeast Asia. It is also commonly used in Peranakan dishes. Other than being one of the ingredients in cooked dished, do you know it can be served as a snack as well? The fruit is semi-dried, sprinkled with sugar and a little chili and voila! - A snack on its own.

But better known as a ingredient, the dried pulp is sold in packets. To use, simply add water and dissolve the pulp. Strain and discard residue.

This is a delightful dish suitable for all ages. It's not too spicy for children, it's sweet, yet it has a tinge of sourness from the tamarind. However, do kindly note that the recipe that I am sharing here is the one with sauce. Not the dry one. As I understand that Asam Prawn can also refer to deep fried prawns marinated with asam paste.

Ingredients
300g of prawns (shells removed up to the tail part & devined)
1/2 a large onion (sliced)
1.5 tablespoon of tamarind pulp
1/2 tablespoon of belacan chili
1 tablespoon of minced garlic
1 tablespoon of sugar
1/2 teaspoon of salt

Preparation
Dissolve the tamarind pulp in 100ml of water.
Stir fry minced garlic till slightly browned and fragrant using medium low heat.
Add in the belacan chili and continue to stir fry until aromatic.
Toss in the prawns and onions.
When the prawns turn half-cooked, switch to high heat and pour in the tamarind juice followed by sugar and salt.
Mix well and turn heat off when sauce reaches a boil/prawns are cooked.
Serve hot.

Dumpling Soup AKA 水饺汤

I hope everyone enjoyed their holidays! I did! I had so much fun and good food that I am suffering from a sore throat now. So, no more deep fried/baked food for me! At least, not for a while. 

This is a soup version of Deep Fried Wantons. Equally nice. Add some noodles and vegetables to it and it's a meal on its own. Ingredients and preparation remains pretty much the same except for tiny weeny bit of changes here and there.

Ingredients
1 packet of dumpling skin
300g of minced pork
5 water chestnuts (peeled and finely diced)
20 prawns (small sized)
1/2 stalk of spring onion (finely chopped)
1 egg (beaten)
1 tablespoon of soya sauce
1/2 tablespoon of sesame oil
1/2 teaspoon of pepper
1/2 teaspoon of cornflour
1 chicken stock cube

Preparation
Mix pork, water chestnuts, spring onions and egg together in a bowl.
Season with soya sauce, sesame oil, pepper and cornflour.
Set aside to marinate for at least 30 minutes.
Wrap a prawn together with the marinated ingredients for each dumpling.
Cook the dumplings for 5-10 minutes in a pot of boiling water over medium high heat.
For the broth, add the stock cube to 800ml of water and bring it to a boil in another pot.
Drain and drizzle some cooked oil before ladling soup over the dumplings .

Garnish with spring onions and serve hot.

Steamed Prawns in Chinese Wine

In my house, my husband is usually the one who does the marketing. He is price-savvy. He knows exactly what should costs how much and what is a rip-off. I only know to cook. Not a fantastic cook though. But at least you won't get diarrhea from eating my food.

The day he went marketing, he came home with a bag of very fresh medium large prawns. Would be a waste to deep fry the prawns. So I prepared this dish. This recipe highlights the sweetness and freshness of the prawns. Folks who managed to get hold of very fresh prawns or live prawns might want to try this recipe.

Suck on the prawn heads to get all that hidden goodness!!
*Not advisable for the health conscious and cholesterol watchers*

Ingredients
8 medium-large prawns (cleaned)
20g of ginger (sliced)
1 stalk of spring onion (cut into length of about 3" long)
1 tablespoon of wolfberries
3 caps of shaoxing wine

Preparation
Place the ginger slices on a serving plate.
Arrange the prawns and spring onions on top of the ginger. Do not stack the prawns together.
Pour shaoxing wine over the prawns and sprinkle wolfberries on top.
Steam for 5 minutes.
Serve immediately.

Prawn Omelette AKA 虾仁煎蛋

Ingredients
5-6 prawns (shells removed & deveined)
2 eggs
1 tablespoon soya sauce
Pepper to taste

Preparation
Beat the eggs before adding in soya sauce and pepper.
Pour the mixture into a well-heated oiled pan.
Place the prawns on top of the mixture.
Cook over low-medium heat.
Flip over the omelette when the underside turns light brown.
Remove from heat when the other side of the omelette is cooked.
Ready to serve.