Recipes: Penang Prawn Mee

Cooking prawn mee from scratch has been on my mind eversince I saw one of my friends posted this on FB sometime last month. When I searched for the recipe online, most of them called for a lot of prawn shells and heads to prepare the stock.

So that's what I did - collecting my prawn shells and heads painstakingly for about 3 weeks before I have 1 kg worth. In order to reach this 1 kg goal, I bought in total 1.8 kg worth of prawns, all of these in batches because it's only two of us and there's only so much prawns that 2 people can eat over one to two seating. And each time, I shelled, cleaned, bagged and freezed the shells and heads until I think I have just about enough.

So without much futher ramblings, here's the recipe. :)

Penang Prawn Mee (serves 4)

To prepare a day before:

Prawn stock
1 kg of prawn heads and shells
3 cloves garlic, chopped
100 gm dried shrimps, soaked in some water to soften
1 chicken carcass
1 onion, sliced
5-6 cloves garlic, smashed
1 inch ginger, smashed
4 liters water
8 pcs of rock sugar or to taste (I used the cubed type)

Method:
1. Heat up some oil in wok and fry garlic and dried shrimps till fragrant. Add in prawn head and shells and fry until the shells turn red
2. In a big pot, bring water to boil and add in chicken carcass, onion, garlic, ginger and cooked prawn head and shells. Bring to boil over high heat before reducing the heat to simmer for 2 hours.
3. Cool and refrigerate overnight.

To prepare on actual day of serving:

Sambal belacan
20 pcs dried chillies, boiled to soften and deseeded.
20 pcs fresh chillies
1 bulb garlic
10 pcs shallots
10 tablespoons water
20 gm belacan, toasted
Salt and sugar to taste

Method:
1. Blend both types of chillies, garlic, shallots, belacan and water until turn into smooth paste.
2. Heat up enough oil to fry the chilli paste. Pour in the paste and keep on stirring on medium heat to prevent burning. Fry until paste turn fragrant or when it turns from bright red to dark red colour.
3. Add sugar and salt to taste.
4. Set aside to cool.

Prawn toppings
300 gm prawns, shelled and deveined

Method:
1. In the same wok used to fry sambal belacan (unwashed), heat up some oil to fry the prawns until cooked.
2. Dished up and set aside.

Prawn mee soup
Prawn stock
15 - 20 pcs bite-sized pork ribs
3 tbsps sambal belacan
1 tbsp fried shallot crisps
Salt and rock sugar to taste

Method:
1. Bring prawn stock to boil.
2. Add in pork ribs, sambal belacan and fried shallots. Simmer for about 45 minutes or until pork is cooked.
3. Take out the pork ribs and set aside.
4. Strain the soup of prawn heads and shells.
5. Season with salt and rock sugar to slightly saltier than your usual taste.

Condiments
Yellow mee and/or mee hoon, scalded and drain of excess water
Kangkong, scalded and drain of excess water
2 hard-boiled eggs, halved
Pork ribs
Prawn toppings
Fried shallots crisps
Sambal belacan

To serve, place a portion of mee/meehoon, kangkong, pork ribs, hard-boiled egg halves, and prawn toppings in a bowl. Ladle hot prawn soup over. Sprinkle with some shallot crisps and one teaspoon of sambal belacan.