Since Labour Day is a holiday, and my parents and sisters are free for dinner, I decided to invite them over for a mee siam treat. That will also satisfied my hubby's craving for mee siam! Both himself and myself love to eat mee siam.
Beginning of the week, I had already started buying some ingredients for mee siam. One who has not seen the mee siam recipe, would not have known there are actually so many ingredients and steps just to prepare a bowl of mee siam with gravy. It was "The Day" for me today.
I started pretty early preparing the ingredients, weighing them out, cutting them, blending them and even frying the belachan. Gee, there was really a lot more work than I had thought. I had to start with the mee siam gravy, which included blue ginger, yellow ginger, chilli paste, belachan & many others to blend with! The rempeh had to be fried with oil, before mixing with assam and slimmer them for a whole 3 hours!! In between, seasoning and coconut milk were added. This was a lot of work!
Next, I moved on to cooking the sambal chilli. Again, blending of the ingredients include shallots, chilli paste, belachan and some other ingredients. I had to fry them till fragrant. Not only that, the chilli had to be submerged in the oil. Gee...that was really a lot of oil to be used!
Finally, it was the preparation of the mee siam noodles. Bean sprouts, chives, soya puffs were all prepared. Hard boiled eggs and blanching of prawns were done way before. All the small small garnish, the side dishes had to be prepared before had. Even frying of the mee siam needs patience and skills. Tongs has to be used to fry the noodles so as to prevent them from breaking.
The preparation of this labour intensive mee siam really took me the whole day. I didn't get my domestic helper to help me with all these as she was also busy preparing lunch and separately cooking fried rice for the kids for dinner. She was busy on her own tasks! I started at 9.30am, and didn't get to rest till 5.00pm after my mee siam was all prepared! I was really dead tired, just preparing ONE food!!
Fortunately, the busyness the day has brought was worth it, as all my family members commented that the mee siam was really really good. The gravy was very fragrant, the mee siam texture was good. It wasn't too sweet nor too salty. The only thing they said was, it was not spicy enough. They said that since it was not spicy, they can eat more! Had it been more spicy, it would have prevented them from eating too much, and I will have more leftover! I'm just glad that they enjoyed the food, even though they mentioned that buying from outside only cost $2.50 a bowl. I also agreed that with so much effort, it's really not worth it as it only cost $2.50 a bowl! However, the overall experience in this preparation, was really enjoyable.
I still have a bottle of my non-spicy Sambal Chilli. Anyone interested to buy? ;)
My domestic helper cooked us Wanton Noodles Soup for lunch. It was yummy! I've always like her wanton, be it fried or steamed, it has always been delicious!
11 comments:
wow, i didn't know that a simple mee siam is not so simple to prepare. Nevertheless, it's always gratifying to cook for family and especially when they thoroughly enjoy them!
Cheers,
Hi quizzine,
Yes, a bowl of mee siam tastes nice, but we didn't know what actually goes inside. Having made them myself, then I really appreciate the hard work of those hawkers! Yes, most importantly, my family members appreciate them!
wow.. I really hope can have a bowl of your mi siam! Looks very very delicious!
Hi Grace,
When you are fully recovered, I'll save a bowl for you the next time I made again! ;)
You have been busy with all the baking and cooking courses....:-)
The way you prepared Mee siam (we call it Mian Xian) is different from what we did in Xiamen. The hot gravy is very much like the one used for the Xiamen Satay Mee......
Frying mee-siam takes a hell lots of patience...and oil (egrrrrr....) but it's better and safer than the store-bought one. Who knows what kind of the oil the factory used for frying...
hi,
You really want to sell the sambal chilli? I'm interested to buy from you. :) Thanks.
Thanks Jane!! Looking forward to eat them. Cheers!
Hi Angie,
Our Mee Siam is different from yours. Our noodles is "mi fen", whereas yours is "mian xian". My gravy has more dried shrimps (xia-mi), whereas your Xiamen Satay Mee is made from peanut to form the gravy. But seriously, I think your version will also be very nice. We also have a version called "Satay Bee Hoon", which is "satay mi fen". You're right, home cooked food even how oily, is still better than store bought becos you never know how many times they reused the oil!!
Hi Thinkingmama,
I was just kidding! Sorry about that. Though I admitted it looks pretty good, but it's not very spicy. I've distributed some of them out already. Don't think it's reached the "saleable" standard yet! Thanks very much for your interest!
Hi Grace,
You're most welcome, just make sure you are fully recovered! ;)
over time, you will learn to be like me. I made mee siam in a flash. I would fry the ingredients 1 week ahead of time. Freeze it. Then I would make prawn stock to keep in the freezer too. Then when its time to cook mee siam, I would thaw everything, pour the paste into a large pot to cook with the prawn stock. then add Assam Jawa paste(ok, I am selling this now!) and let it simmer till boiling. Then add coconut milk. the remaining paste is used to fry the beehoon with the tau geh. Voila..done! Now I do catering for mee siam. Its to die for!
Thanks Jane!! Looking forward to eat them. Cheers!
Hi quizzine,
Yes, a bowl of mee siam tastes nice, but we didn't know what actually goes inside. Having made them myself, then I really appreciate the hard work of those hawkers! Yes, most importantly, my family members appreciate them!
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