My Homemade Mee Hoon Kueh.

I haven’t done a food post in a long, long while! I spent the weekend was cooking at home so I thought, why not share it?

I don’t cook very often. The hubby much prefers to eat out because it is a lot faster and fuss free. He doesn’t get a tired wife or a dirty kitchen that needs cleaning thereafter so it is perfect for the OCD him. I honestly prefer home-cooked, healthy meals so I try to cook whenever I can.

So, presenting my (self proclaimed) awesome mee hoon kueh!

Looks yummy anot? It is actually a really simple dish to cook, but prepping it takes a bit of time. While I was cooking this, I got reminded of a mee hoon kueh “party” that I had some time ago where my friends were over at my place learning how to cook this… and I am going to share the recipe!

I only remember to take pictures of the process half way through, so I’ll try and describe as best as I can!

Ingredients required:

• Plain flour
• Eggs
• Salt
• Spinach or any other vegetables you prefer
• Ikan bilis (anchovies)
• Garlic

First, we make the dough. I work off from my kitchen table top but if you prefer, you can work off a big tray to contain the mess.

1. Pour the flour onto table or tray in a heap.
2. Dig a hole in the centre of flour and crack in an egg (or 2 eggs if you are making a big portion or prefer your flour to taste more eggy).
3. Sprinkle some salt. I usually put 1/5 of a teaspoon, just for taste.
4. Fold the flour into the egg and knead the dough.

It will get a little messy at this point, and sticky. Just continue kneading. Add a bit of water if it gets too dry, add a little bit of flour if it is too sticky or wet. Knead till you get a nice, stretchy dough that doesn’t stick to your hands. Once you get that ball of stretchy dough, you are about done. Knead a while more just to make sure it is even, and leave it to rest for a while. I cover my dough with a clean, damp cloth so that the dough doesn’t dry out. I usually leave it to rest for at least an hr if I can. You can also cook it immediately, but I was told it wouldn’t taste as good.

Once it is done resting, you pluck the dough into small balls and roll them. If you like the ban mian version, then roll the entire thing flat and cut it into noodles. Here, I pluck out gum ball sized dough and roll them with my rolling pin, one ball of dough at a time. Be sure to coat the rolling pin with flour, and the dough with flour before rolling it flat, otherwise, it is gonna be pretty sticky business!

Thickness of the dough depends on individual preference. The thicker it is, more cooking time is required. I like to roll my pretty thin – fast to cook and easy to eat!

I set this aside first and work on the broth. I don’t really have the time to work on thick, yummy broth that requires hours to prepare but I reckon my cheat method works all the same! But before the broth, I deep fry some anchovies for garnishing and as a side. Deep fried anchovies taste really crunchy and awesome! I usually deep fry a whole bunch so that I can snack on it too.

Once they are golden brown, I fish them out to dry on a kitchen towel to drain the oil. The oil left in the pot is goodness, because it will be super fragrant from the anchovies. I use part of it to prepare the broth.

Broth sounds really thick, I guess my version is just called soup. Here’s how!

• Use the same oil, throw some garlic as well as some anchovies for frying.

• Once they are about golden brown, throw in your spinach. I use spinach because it adds flavour to the soup and I like how they are soft and yummy! Put on the pot cover and let the vegetables cook a while till they are about half cooked.

• Remove pot cover and add water into vegetables and wait to boil.
• You can taste soup at this point and see if it is to your liking. Add salt to taste. (I normally skip this)

• Put in the pieces of rolled dough into the boiling soup and stir to make sure the pieces don’t stick together.

• Continue cooking until dough is semi translucent and it’s ready to serve!

I did it the fuss free way but if you like your soup to be clear, then cook the dough separately in another pot of boiling water. The flour from the dough will make your soup a little thick and cloudy if you cook them in the same pot. You can also add other items like egg or fish balls if you like to have your mee hoon kueh with those. And there, easy, home-cooked mee hoon kueh.

Serve in a bowl and add some crispy anchovies on top. Always warms my tummy and is one of my favourite comfort food.

I don’t have the exact servings of each of the ingredients. I use “agaration” (rough estimates) quite a bit in my cooking. My mum does the same too so I sort of inherited it from her. I grew up eating this mee hoon kueh and it was one of the first things I wanted to learn how to cook.

I hope you find this recipe useful. I had friends over who tried and they liked it so I don’t think it’s any too shabby. Do share your feedback if you use the recipe, and let me know if you have any cooking tips for this or own mee hoon kueh recipe. Would love to experiment when I have the time.

Thanks for reading!

XOXO.

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