Home-Made Meen Fun Kueh

I'm a great fan of the well-known/common "meen fun kueh" a.k.a. "pan mee". I enjoy the dried version best, although I certainly won't mind having the soup version from time to time.

For today's lunch, I decided to try out making my own "meen fun kueh". It's been a long time since I've done so; the last time I did this was during my uni days, using the faithful rice cooker in the hostel room :P It's really easy to make the dough. As I didn't follow any recipe & often go by the "agak-agak"/estimation style (I think I used to watch my mum/grandma making it a LONG time ago, so that's where I would have learned from), here's a rough guide on how to make your own "meen fun kueh":

The "Meen Fun Kueh" Dough:
Ingredients:
* all measurements below are by estimation. Please adjust yourself accordingly.
Around 1 1/2 cups of all purpose flour
1/2 cup water
1/2 an egg (I just used the egg white, but you can use the mixed egg white+yolk too)
1/4 teaspoon of salt
1/4 teaspoon of cooking oil

Directions (for the dough):
1. Sift flour into a bowl.
2. Add in the salt & mix well.
3. Add in the cup of water slowly, stirring the batter as you pour until the batter thickens & could be made into a dough.
Note: You may not need to use all the water. You want a dough, not a watery batter.
4. Add in the egg & mix well.
5. Add in the oil & knead the dough together into a ball.
6. Take a small portion of the dough & flatten it with your fingers, stretching it gently.

Directions (to cook the dough):
1. Boil a pot of water.
2. As soon as its boiled, peel pieces of the flattened dough into the boiling pot of water. The pieces of dough will sink into the bottom of the pot.
3. Put some oil into the water so that your dough wouldn't stick to each other.
4. As soon as the dough floats up, it's pretty much ready to be removed from the pot.
5. Using a strainer/ladle, remove your "meen fun kueh" from the boiling pot of water.
6. Place the "meen fun kueh" into a bowl or plate, where it's large enough to mix with your meat & dark sauce later (for dry version).

Soup for the "Meen Fun Kueh":
Ingredients:
A small handful of ikan bilis
3 tablespoons of cooking oil
1 medium soup bowl of water (depends on how much soup you want)
Some vegetables
1 egg (optional)
1/2 teaspoon of sugar (optional)
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste

Directions (for the soup):
1. Wash the ikan bilis & dry them well.
2. Place unto a low fire non-stick pan to toast it.
3. Pour some cooking oil onto the pan & fry the semi-toasted ikan bilis.
4. Remove half of the ikan bilis from the pan for garnishing.
5. Pour in the water & allow to boil.
6. Add in salt & pepper to taste.
Note: If you want your soup to taste sweeter like those from the shops, without adding MSG, add some sugar into the soup.
7. Add the vegetables into the soup & cook 'til deep green.
8. Add the egg & simmer in low fire until the egg is cooked according to preference.
9. Remove pan from fire once done. The soup is ready to be served!

Meat as toppings:

Ingredients:

3 tablespoonful of minced meat (pork/chicken marinated with some corn flour, soya sauce, pepper, & sesame seed oil)

1 large piece of black fungus (Cantonese: "mok yi")

2 large Chinese black mushrooms (Cantonese: "fa ku")

1 teaspoon of chopped garlic

2 tablespoons of cooking oil

2 tablespoons of dark soya sauce

Soya sauce to taste

Salt to taste

Pepper to taste

Sesame seed oil

A small bowl of water

Directions:

1. Heat up oil in pan/wok.

2. Stir-fry the meat over medium flame.

3. Add in the chopped garlic.

Note: This prevents the garlic to be burnt.

4. Add the black fungus & mushrooms. Stir-fry for a minute or so.

5. Add in some water to make your sauce for the "meen fun kueh". Simmer meat & fungi for a minute or so.

6. Add in the dark soya sauce & mix well.

7. Add salt, pepper, & a dash or two of sesame seed oil to taste.

8. Top it over the "meen fun kueh" & mix everything together, coating every piece of the "meen fun kueh".

9. Garnish your bowl of noodles with the fried ikan bilis! ;)

YUMS! I had a lovely lunch today :D What a nostalgic one too....reminds me of my uni days once more....*gives nostalgic smile of satisfaction*

The "agak-agak" chef,