I love mee siam with gravy for the sweet, sour and spicy flavour but it is a very tedious job to prepare the gravy and sambal at home. To prepare a quick and simple meal for my guests last week, I cooked the Dry Mee Siam version instead. I adapted the recipe from Yummy Bakes for the simple ingredients, not so spicy and with no belacan (dried shrimp paste) used ~as most foreigners can’t stand the smell/taste of it. Everyone enjoyed this simple meal for an afternoon tea and asked for the recipe to bring home. I was too busy talking about the ingredients and almost forgot to take pictures LOL!! Please excuse me for the poor garnishing because these pictures taken were from some leftovers. ^_^
Fried Mee Siam
Ingredients:
original recipe source from Little Teochew serves 3-4 persons
250g Rice vermicelli
120g Bean sprouts
15 Shrimps, shelled and deveined (marinated with a dash of pepper and little soya sauce)
1 piece Tau kwa (firm tofu), cut to strips and fried till slightly golden
3 stalks Chinese chives, cut to 1 inch length
1 teaspoon Sugar
Salt to taste (optional) ~ I did not add
Soy sauce or fish sauce to taste
3 tablespoon oil
Spice Paste
2-3 red Chillies ( remove seeds, if you don’t want it too spicy)
5 Shallots
5 Garlic
2 heaped tablespoon Taucheo, aka fermented yellow bean sauce
2 Eggs, lightly beaten and fried into omelette
Green limes and cut red chillies when serve
Method:
- Soak the vermicelli in water till soft for about 30 minutes (I used chilli brand), Drain and set aside.
- Using a food processor, grind the spice paste till fine and set aside.
- Heat wok with some oil and make the beaten eggs into an omelette. Fold and slice the omelette thinly. Set aside.
- Heat up the wok and add 3 tablespoons of oil. Once the oil is heated, fry the spice paste until aromatic and the oil separates. This ensures that the chillies are cooked through and you will not get that ‘grassy’ taste of raw chillies. Add shrimps, stir-frying until half done, then add the fried tofu pieces.
- Add the vermicelli and keep stirring until the spice paste has spread evenly. (you may add about half cup of water to it if you find the rice vermicelli is still quite dry when frying) Add sugar and salt to taste, if requred, followed by bean sprouts and chives. Continue to stir-fry until the vegetables are cooked. Taste and adjust the seasoning by adding more salt or sugar to taste. If the noodles taste bland, add a little soy sauce/fish sauce to taste.
- Garnish with shredded omelette, green lime and some red chillies on mee siam when serve.
Happy Monday!