Heritage food series - Mee Hoon Kueh

I was in George Town having wonton mee for lunch after doing community service (at the George Town World Heritage Office) when I got the text message from Vivian asking for the recipe for Mee Hoon Kueh. Coincidentally, I had planned to cook the same tonight so I promised to post it on myblog. Consider this an updated version of the recipe. I probably have written about it before. It gets better with practice.

This is the delicious Mee Hoon Kueh, served with chilly. Eat with chopsticks. Not fork and spoon.

Well, I consider it a heritage food because I have been eating this since I was a kid. My mom and sisters and in-laws and even my brothers would chip in to help because if you are feeding a biggggg family like ours, we have to cook a very big pot, involving a lot of dexterous hand work to tear the kueh or dough straight into the soup. You can't do this before hand.

The story goes that during the Japanese Occupation, there was little rice but a lot more flour. But Chinese families don't have ovens and definitely don't have the skills to bake bread. So, they thought up ways to be imaginative with the flour. And Mee Hoon Kueh was born. I remember some 30 or so years ago when we wanted to cook Mee Hoon Kueh for my wife's family, her sister-in-law said "no thanks". Apparently, she had eaten a version which is involves throwing small lumps of dough into the soup. But after one try of our Muar version, she was hooked.

So, here's passing the know-how.

I used to be quite terrible at this, i.e. knitting (oops, kneading) the dough. So, I passed the hardwork to my wife. (Hahah, probably just an excuse). You will need to do this a few times to get the feel but I hope this works for you.

I use a half cup of all purpose flour per person. That's one and half cup in the big bowl. Crack an egg, and add a pinch or two of salt. Some white pepper. And a splash of cooking oil (any type your like); maybe about a table spoon is good.

Don't add any water yet. Mix the flour up thoroughly. Feel the moisture. With one egg, it is probably very dry and powdery still. Add a bit of water as you go. Very slowly. See the cup of water in the picture above? I ended up using only half of that. So, not much water.

Use both hands if you need. Or one hand is good. You need to apply some pressure to work the dough (unlike making the dough for noodles).

This is after adding water but it's still dry.

When you pour the water in, you might find the dough very wet on the outside. Just keep kneading until the dough feels smooth on the outside.

If the dough feels hard, add a bit more water. Keep kneading for about 10 minutes. When it feels a bit softer but still firm, you can stop.

Make it into a flat pancake, leave it in the bowl and cover with cloth to sit for about 30 minutes (this important).

What do you put in the soup? Up to you. You can also do a vegetarian version. In the old days, my mom used to put ikan bilis (anchovies) in to sweeten the soup. Or add bee cheng hoon, which is some kind of taste enhancer almost like MSG.

My standard ingredients are green leafy vegetables (choose you own preference but Chai Sim is our favourite; mani chai is good; so is spinach), dried mushrooms, prawns and pork.

Of course, you should fry some shallots (Hey Vivian, this important! Haha) and garlic to add some zest. I do it straight in the pot but you can use a frying pan to do it separately.

Fry shallots, garlic, mushroom, prawn and pork in the pot.

 I prefer to give the prawns and the pork a quick stir with the shallots and garlic then I remove the prawns and pork (seasoned with light soya sauce, pepper and cornflour first). Leave the rest in the pot and pour in three bowls of water and bring to boil. Then add the fish ball.

You don't need much for three.

When the water is boiling, that's when you need your dexterous hands.

If the texture of the dough is elastic, you can stretch it to almost transparent. You can decide how thin or thick you want your kueh.

Pull a ball of the dough and work with both hands. Hold with left hand, and slowly stretch the dough with your right hand (or vice versa). Than pull out small pieces and drop them straight into the boiling water. This takes time and in the beginning if might be very slow.

Make sure the dough is thoroughly boiled to cook it.

All the dough stretched and boiling.

If you are cooking a really big pot, you might want to now and then scoop up the dough or they will  over-cooked.

Finally, add the vegetables and don't forget the prawns and pork. Salt and white pepper to taste.

Best eaten piping hot! The measure of enjoyment for me, in the old days, was the amount of sweat pouring off my back, gobbling down the hot soup, to the last drop.