Prawn Noodles Soup

I actually went all the way and cook my first ever, homemade prawn noodles soup. Fondly known as hair mee, this is one of the hawker fare that I really enjoy. I would have to say that tasting one too many mediocre prawn noodles soup outside is one of the main contributing factor.

 

My bowl of homemade prawn noodles. I deserve a standing ovation for this. As usual, I googled up the recipe and found that this recipe from kuali is good enough, although from the amount of ingredients given you would have known that I made a lot of shortcuts here and there.

Prawn Noodles Soup
Ingredients:
For the stock:
1kg spareribs (pai kuat)
500g belly pork
3 chicken carcasses, cleaned
600g flower crabs, shells removed, halved and cleaned
600g prawns, shelled
2 tbsp curry powder
1/2 tsp salt
tbsp oil
500ml water, 4 litres water
50–75g rock sugar

Seasoning:
1 tbsp salt or to taste
50–75g rock sugar

600g fresh yellow noodles
300g rice vermicelli, soaked until soft then drained
250g bean sprouts
200g water convolvulus(kangkung), plucked into neat sections
3 hardboiled eggs, shelled and quartered
Some shallot crisps

Chilli oil:
4–5 tbsp chilli paste (cili boh)
6 shallots pounded
3 cloves garlic pounded
4–5 tbsp oil
1 tsp salt


Method:

Put spareribs, chicken carcasses and water into a deep stockpot. Bring to a boil and simmer for 1–1½ hours. Halfway through, add belly pork and cook until meat is just cooked through. Remove and slice the meat thinly then put aside for use as garnishing.

Boil crabs and prawn shells in 500ml water then simmer for 10–15 minutes. Strain stock and add to main stock. Add rock sugar and salt and bring to a boil to dissolve sugar. Marinate shelled prawns with curry powder.

Heat 4–5 tablespoons of oil and fry pounded shallots, garlic and chilli paste until aromatic. Dish out and set aside for use as chilli oil and paste. Add 2 tablespoons oil to remaining chilli oil in wok and stir-fry marinated prawns until just cooked. Remove and set aside.



To serve, put noodles, rice vermicelli, bean sprouts and water convolvulus into a noodle strainer. Scald in a pot of boiling hot water for a minute then drain off excess water. Place into soup bowls. Top up with the main stock and with a quarter slice of hard-boiled eggs, sliced belly pork, chilli oil, chilli paste and shallot crisps.