To Cook
Bring 1L of water to the boil, together with 1 tsp oil. Add noodles, boil for 2 mins. Drain and set aside.
Cut open squid tube, score inner side in a diamond pattern, cut into bite-sized pieces.
Heat oil in a wok, add garlic, stir until fragrant. Add prawns, pork, squid and choy sum, stir for 3 mins.
Add Hokkien noodles, sesame oil, dark soy, kecap manis, sugar and pepper. Garnish with spring onion and fried shallots.
Serve with chilli garlic sauce on the side.
Noodles
Teriyaki Chicken and Udon Noodles
To Cook
Prepare noodles as per pack instructions.
Coat chicken with corn flour; set aside.
Heat 1 tbsp oil in wok. Add onion, stir-fry until translucent. Add cabbage, together with the extra tsp of water and cook for 2 mins.
Heat remaining tbsp oil in wok; stir-fry chicken for 4 mins.
Add teriyaki sauce, mirin, 1 tsp water, noodles and vegetables; cook for 2 mins.
Garnish with a sprinkling of dried green laver (aonori) and serve.
Fish Ball Mee Pok
To Prep
Add the minced pork, light soy sauce, white pepper powder, corn flour, and sesame oil in a small bowl and allow to marinate for at least 10 mins in the fridge.
To Cook
Bring soup stock to a simmer, and add fish balls and fish dumplings. Cook for a few mins until the fish balls float to the surface. Keep the soup bubbling at a low heat.
Add Chinese fish sauce, black vinegar, hot stock, sambal tumis, crispy lard pieces, and lard oil in a serving bowl. Stir and mix it well.
Add one ladle of hot stock over the bowl of marinaded pork. Set them aside.
Meanwhile, bring another pot of water to boil. Cook Mee Pok for about 30-45 secs until just cooked. Rinse the noodles in tap water for a few secs, drain and add to serving bowl.
Blanch fish cake slices and bean sprouts in a slotted ladle for 30 secs. Drain and transfer to serving bowl.
Put the bowl of marinated pork in hot stock back to the soup pot. Cook the pork for a few secs and separate the pork to smaller pieces with wooden chopsticks. Drain the pork and top the serving bowl.
Garnish with lettuce and spring onions. Ladle a small bowl of soup to go with the Mee Pok. Serve with a sauce of sliced chilli padi in soy sauce.
Mix the noodles thoroughly with the sauce before eating.
Malaysian Hand-Torn Noodles (Hand-Torn Pan Mee)
To Make the Dough
Combine the flour and salt together in a bowl and mix well, before making a well in the centre of the flour and adding in the egg. Mix the ingredients together till clumps form and then add in the water.
Continue mixing until a dough forms. Add more water if required or more flour if the dough becomes too sticky.
Continue to knead the doughy until it becomes elastic. At this point, cover with cling wrap and set aside for an hour to soften.
After the hour has passed, remove the dough and divide in to 2 or 3 smaller sections to be handled easier.
Take 1 section of the dough and press the top side of the dough to form a lip. Continue to press this section to stretch it until you get a bite sized piece that is evenly thick and relatively thin.
When you have your desired noodle size, tear it off and set it aside under a damp towel to stop it from drying out.
Repeat until all of the dough has been used.
To Make the Broth
Add the anchovies and water in to a large pot over a high heat. When the stock begins to boil, reduce the heat, add in the salt and let simmer for 15 mins.
When the stock has finished simmering, remove the anchovies form the pot and reduce heat to low or remove from the heat until ready to cook the noodles.
To Cook the Meat and Mushroom Topping
Heat oil in a pan over high heat and when hot, add in the garlic and pork and fry until the meat is mostly cooked through.
Add in the mushrooms and continue to cook for a couple mins.
Reduce the heat and add in the rest of the meat ingredients. Stir well to evenly coat all of the ingredients before adding some water to balance the seasoning.
If the seasoning is good, remove from the heat and set aside.
To Cook the Noodles
Over a high heat, bring a pot of water to a rolling boil. If the stock was removed from the heat, return it to the stove and warm it up over a low heat.
Add the noodles in to the pot one batch at a time, making sure they have enough room to cook and won’t clump together.
Once the noodles begin to float to the surface, let them cook for further min before removing from the pot and setting aside.
Once you’re done with the noodles, add in any vegetables you want and blanch them before setting them aside to serve.
To Serve
Add the cooked noodles in to the broth to heat them up and then transfer a serving in to a bowl and top with the vegetables. Garnish with the cooked meat and mushroom, as well as fried anchovies and fried shallots.
Fried Rice Vermicelli (Fried Bee Hoon)
To Cook
Prepare rice vermicelli by soaking in warm water until they turn soft. Drain and set aside in a colander to rid of excess water.
In a small bowl, mix chicken slices with cornstarch and 1 tsp soy sauce then, set aside to marinate.
Heat 2 tbsp oil a frying pan or wok. In the meantime, whisk 2 eggs in a bowl and fry the omelette. Set aside to cool then, slice omelette into thin long strips. The omelette will be the finishing touch to the fried bee hoon.
Mix all the seasoning ingredients in a bowl and set aside.
In a frying pan or wok, heat 4 tbsp oil over medium-high heat. Stir-fry garlic until aromatic, then add chicken slices and continue cooking until half done.
Add in rice vermicelli to the frying pan/wok, then followed by the seasonings. Using a pair of chopsticks or tongs, stir and mix the rice vermicelli continuously to blend well with the seasoning. Continue cooking for a few more minutes until the rice vermicelli is soft and no longer wet. Then, add in the bean sprouts and chopped spring onions and stir-fry for another couple of minutes.
Remove from heat and serve on a sharing platter or in individual plates. Top with sliced omelette, a sprinkling of chopped spring onions and fried shallots.
Vietnamese Fried Spring Rolls (Nem rán / Chả giò)
To Prep
Boil water and soak noodles for 30 mins.
Combine all the ingredients for the filling together to form a sticky mixture.
Chop the soaked mung bean noodles into shorter threads and combine with filling.
To roll the cha gio, place a piece of spring roll paper on a clean, wet kitchen towel. Place 1 heaped tablespoon of filling on the moist rice paper, fold the rice paper over the filling, tuck in the sides, then roll to form a cylinder about 3 inches long.
Seal the wrap by dabbing a finger in the corn starch and lining the end of the wrap.
To Cook
Heat oil over medium heat in a wok or a large frying pan. When the oil is smoking, gently place a few cha gio in the oil. Fry them slowly until they turn lightly brown. Drain the excess oil by lining them over some paper towels.
Serve immediately with dipping sauce.
Ants Climbing on a Tree
To Prep
Marinade the minced beef or pork with pinch of salt. Soak vermicelli as per instructions on packaging, drain and set aside.
To Cook
Heat oil in wok and fry the ground pork until aromatic. Set aside.
Add doubanjiang, minced garlic, sliced ginger and chopped shallot in wok and stir-fry over medium fire until the oil turns red and aromatic. Return pork to wok and add soy sauce. Mix well.
Pour water and bring everything to boil. Add soaked vermicelli and sugar, and stir-fry to mix everything well. There is no need to cook off all the liquid as the vermicelli continues to adsorb liquid after transferring out of the wok.
Sprinkle chopped green onions and serve hot.
Nabeyaki Udon
To Prep
Soak kombu in the water for 30 mins in a pot and turn on the heat to medium. Remove from heat when water begins to boil.
Add bonito flakes then return to heat. Allow the water to simmer for another 1 min.
Strain the stock into a clean bowl.
To Cook
Boil the spinach in the water and drain when done. Divide into 4 portions and set aside.
Add the mirin, soy sauce, and salt to the dashi stock. Portion a quarter of the dashi stock into 4 individual sized clay pots.
Add the chicken to the soup and simmer until it has cooked through.
Add in the udon noodles, and let it cook for a few mins as per packet instructions.
Place the kamaboko and a portion of boiled spinach on top and simmer in the soup for a few mins.
Drop in an egg into the broth. Then add a few slices of leek on top.
Remove the clay pot from the heat and serve hot.
Laksa Johor
To Prep
Poach the fish until cooked. Then separate the cooked flesh from the bone. Keep the cooking liquid and bones.
Finely blend the bones, fins, and tails together with the cooking liquid using a blender.
Strain the fish stock through a fine-mesh sieve and set aside.
Clean and gut your prawns but reserve the head and shells. Blend the prawn flesh into a paste and reserve for later.
Boil the prawn heads and shells in 3-4 cups of water then transfer into a blender and finely blend.
Strain the prawn stock through a fine-mesh sieve. Set it aside.
Meanwhile, blend the dried shrimps and salted fish with some water until you get a paste. Reserve for later.
Finely blend the shallots, garlic, galangal, ginger, and dried chillies in a blender.
Dry toast the anise and coriander seeds in a frying pan until fragrant. Then, rind using a mortar and pestle.
Heat up some oil in a large pan or wok. Sauté the blended aromatics together with the stalk of lemongrass.
When fragrant, add in the ground herbs and curry powder. Sauté until the oil splits.
Next, add in the fish stock, followed by the prawn stock. Bring the soup up to a boil and add in the coconut milk.
Then add to the soup, the blended dried shrimp, blended salted fish, blended prawn flesh, and cooked fish flesh.
Allow the soup to simmer then add in the slices of asam keping, palm sugar, toasted coconut, torch giner, Thai basil, and Vietnamese coriander.
Season with salt and sugar to taste. Bring the soup up to a boil and allow to thicken slightly.
To Cook
Prepare the spaghetti according to packet instructions, and portion in a soup bowl.
Toss the snake beans with Thai basil and Vietnamese mint until uniformly mixed.
Garnish the noodles with cucumber, bean sprouts, and snake beans and herb mix.
Ladle the hot soup over the noodles. Serve.