Mee Siam

Mee Siam is a dish that is very popular and I love the sweet and sour of the gravy. I have nevery tried cooking this before so here is my first attempt cooking this and I liked it very much. Is the taste that I was looking for and mum gave thumbs up for this dish too.

Recipe Source: singaporeshiok

Ingredients:

Spice Paste

15 shallots, peeled
8 cloves garlic, peeled
25g dried chillies, seeded, soaked until soft, drained and squeezed dry
5 tbsp tau cheo (fermentd soy bean paste)
40g (1/2 cup) small dried prawns, rinsed, soaked until softened and squeezed dry
6 buah keras (candlednuts) toasted and crushed

1 tbsp belacan, crumbled
400g Bee Hoon (dry rice vermicelli), soaked in cold water until softened then drained
250g Mung Bean Sprouts, cleaned, washed and thoroughly drained
1 pcs Yellow Tau Kwa (opptioal) - pan fried
1.5 litres water or prawn stock
1 1/2 tbsp sugar
1 2/3 - 2 tsp salted ( taste seasoning as adjust according to salt level in the dried prawns and tau cheo)
5 tamarind slices
10 small tau pok (deep fried tofu puffs), rinsed, squeezed dry, toasted until crisp and cut into cubes
6 hard boiled eggs, peeled and halved
1 handful flat chinese chives, thoroughly washed, drained and cut into 1 cm length
Prawns - shelled and cooked
Lime halved

Methods:

Combine spice paste ingredients and process to a paste.

Heat about half a cup of oil and fry the belachan until golden & crisp.
Add the chilli paste and fry, stirring occassionally until fragrant and oil separtates from mixture.
Transfer 1/3 of spice mix to another pot, leaving 2/3 behind.

Add the well drained Mee Hoon to the pot with the 2/3 spice mix and stir well over moderated heat until thoroughly coated with the spices and softened. Add a little water if the Mee Hoon sticks to the pot.
Add bean sprouts, chives and bean curd and stir through until sprouts are just heated through.

Add the water or stock to the reserved 1/3 of the spice mix and bring to the boil.
Add the sugar, salt and tamarind and stir well. Add the Tau Pok .Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary.
* I added the Tau Pok to the sauce instead of deep fried *

To serve, put some Mee Hoon in each plate and ladle over desired amount of gravy. Garnish with hard boiled eggs, prawns and lime.