A typical hawker staple that we often had, and I think this has to be the only kind of food that we can have for any meals of the day. But it’s not often that people tend to cook this from home, probably because of the much efforts involved, especially if it doesn’t make economical sense if were to prepare this on a small volume to feed a few mouths.
However, I had this cooked for a serving for one only and I thought it was still pretty manageable. The only setback was that you probably had de-froze a larger portion of the meat but realised you only get to use a small bit of it for this dish eventually. Well, what I did was to use the balance meat and prepare a simple stir fried for a later meal at the end of the day. No food goes to waste in that way and you need not worry about having to re-freeze an already defroze meat too.
In fact, if I wasn’t that hungry to begin with, I would have simmered the mushrooms longer such that the flavours are more immersed as what you often seen from the Bak Chor Mee stalls at the hawker stalls. Very often than not, they have had a slow cooker that’s used to simmer the mushrooms for hours and are kept warm all the time so that the mushrooms just gets more tender and soft only.
Being a dried version of the Bak Chor Mee in this case, I likened my noodles to a combination of tomato ketchup and chilli paste so that it doesn’t get too overwhelming. Some others love a touch a black vinegar as well, but since I have never had a liking for black vinegar, so I have steered clear of that.
Although it might seem too cumbersome a dish to prepare at home, but all in all, I took less than an hour to serve up this dish from simmering the mushrooms, to boiling the soup to preparing the noodles. It’s not as intimidating as it seems after all.
Hope everyone will enjoy this hawker staple that can be prepared from home too ! Enjoy !
Get all your fresh ingredients from PurelyFresh online to serve up this favourite hawker delight today !
- 1 bunch of chinese noodles
- 4-5 pcs meatballs
- Some prawns (optional)
- Some fish cakes (optional)
- Some lettuce (optional)
- 4 pcs dried mushrooms, rinsed and soaked in some water overnight. Remove the stem and sliced thinly
- 250ml mushroom water, retained from soaking the mushrooms
- 200ml water
- 1 tbsp oyster sauce
- 1 tsp light soya sauce
- 1 tsp dark soya sauce
- 15g rock sugar
- 1 star anise
- 3 pcs ginger
- 3 pcs garlics, slightly crushed
- 1 pc dried orange peel (optional, to add some tanginess to the sauce)
- 50g minced pork
- 50g pork collar, sliced thinly
- ½ tbsp light soya sauce
- 1 tsp corn flour
- 1 tsp sesame oil
- Dash of pepper
- 300ml stock
- 400ml water
- 1 tbsp shallot oil
- Dash of salt + pepper
- 1 tbsp chilli paste + tomato sauce (up to individual preferences)
- 1 tbsp shallot oil
- 2 tbsp braised mushroom sauce
- ½ tsp dark soya sauce
- 1 tbsp of soup base
- Some black vinegar (optional)
Combine the mushrooms and the braised sauce together and simmer over medium low heat for at least 30 minutes or more. Top up with more water if the sauce gets dry out too fast. You can also braise the mushrooms over a slow cooker for at least 2 hours.
Combine the meat together with the marinade ingredients, mix well and set aside in the fridge.
Combine the stock and water with the shallot oil and pepper to make the soup base. Cook till it boils.
Add in the meatballs, fish cakes and prawns if using. When all has float to the surface of the soup, drain them and set aside.
Add in the sliced pork into the soup. Cook it briefly till done and drain.
Same goes for the minced meat. When it's done, drain.
Heat up another pot with some water and blanch the noodles in the boiling water till it softened, approximately 2 minutes.
Rinse the noodles over tap water before placing the noodles in the soup base to heat up briefly. Drain the noodles.
Add the noodles sauce to the noodles and stir to mix well.
Combine the noodles together with the rest of the cooked ingredients to a bowl and serve hot immediately.
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