Foodie

Saturday, June 11, 2005

Mee Siam

Mee Siam is cooked with rice vermicelli or meehoon although it is called mee. Siam is the ancient name for Thailand where their cuisine is noted to be spicy, sourish and sweet. This dish has all these tastes, that's how the name derived.

Image hosted by Photobucket.com

Ingredients:

250g rice vermicelli or meehoon, soaked for five minutes and drained
200g beansprouts, remove root tips
250g prawns
2 pieces fried beancurd (tau kwa), sliced
100g chives, cut into 4cm-5cm lengths
1/4 cup oil
1 tbsp of assam jawa, add 1/2 cup warm water, squeeze and strain
2 cups of water(for cooking the prawns)

Pound:
3 cloves garlic
6 shallots
1 tbsp preserved soya beans (tau cheong)
50g dried prawns
12 dried chillies, soaked
2 pieces buah keras(candlenuts)
1 stalk serai (lemon grass) - sliced
1 sq inch belachan


Seasoning:

1 tsp sugar or to taste
1 tsp chicken stock granules
1/4 tsp pepper
1 tbsp Nampla (fish sauce)

Garnishing:

Chinese celery (kan choy) chopped
2 limes, cut into wedges
2 hard-boiled eggs, sliced
1 red chilly, sliced
Shallot crisps


Method:

Bring the 2 cups of water to the boil and add in the prawns, remove prawns as soon as they are cooked and put them in a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking. When cooled, peel the prawns and leave aside for garnishing.

Heat oil in a wok and stir-fry ground ingredients until fragrant. Add tamarind juice and 1 cup of stock from cooking the prawns. then bring to a boil and simmer for five minutes.

Add meehoon and stir-fry. Mix in beancurd slices and toss the meehoon well. Add seasoning and a squeeze of lime juice. Lastly add in the beansprouts and the chives toss until breansprouts and chives are just limp.

Dish mee siam onto platter. Garnish before serving.

Serves

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Lily

I tried your recipe and it was very good. Tasted quite close to the mee siam that is sold in the hawker centres.

Do you think adding crushed peanuts might make it a little better?

Unknown said...

ANONYMOUS

glad you like the taste. Pad Thai has crushed peanuts and since mee siam must be originated from Siam, adding crushed peanuts will be good too.

Amrita said...

hi lily....madethis today, but mine does not look like urs at all...it is a much lighter colour.....:(

Anonymous said...

Lily:
Is this dish the same as Pad Thai?

Unknown said...

speedolight

the pad thai noodle is specific to the dish so is mee siam. although it is called mee it is cooked with rice vermicelli only.

taste wise too is very different.

Cakes n Nosh said...

hello Lily what a lovely, mouthwatering blod you have! I'm so glad to have found your blog. Pictures looks great!

Unknown said...

amrita

the color of the noodles depends on the type of tau cheong, dried chillies used. The taste is more important

Anonymous said...

Lily,

Great site! Do you have a recipe for 'wet' mee siam? That is what I grew up with.

Thanks...

Unknown said...

mb

you must be singaporean. there is a sauce of tau cheong and chillies to serve with mee siam.

Anonymous said...

Hi Lily,
Yesterday I made ur meesiam for dinner and it was delicious. I used almost the 3 out of the 4 bundles and it was wiped out....haha
i am making baked otak otak now...

June

Unknown said...

june

i would like to make otak otak but without the daun gadok the kick will not be there

Anonymous said...

Hello Lilyng, do you have a sambal belchan recipe, similar to an indonesian style. My email is gregerri@hotmail.com. I'm from australia and love asian food.

Cheers greg

Unknown said...

greg

do you want a sambal belacan for cooking or as a condiment

Anonymous said...

Hi Lily,

First of all, I would like to thank you for all the wonderful recipes you have posted. Knowing that those of us living abroad can still get a little taste of home is priceless.

I would like to know what is the brand of tau cheong did you use for the mee siam.

Unknown said...

anonymous

i am not very brand concious. i will use any brand, at the moment i am using the korean bean paste

Unknown said...

Hi Lily,

I am gonna try this dish :D

I am wondering whether the belacan, candlenut and lemon grass are necessary ingredients? Out of the 3, which one would be the most important one? I have not seen candlenuts here and i am not sure how often i would use belacan if i were to buy it.

Also, instead of pounding, you think putting it in the food processor will work? I know the flavor would not be as good as pounded.

Thanks!

Yimnmeng

The belacan is the most important ingredient. The candlenut/buah keras is there just to thicken the sauce. Lemon grass is added flavor.

yes, the food processor does a good job in fact better than pounding.

Ian Low said...

i happ to come here by accidient and wow, nice site and great recipes! love yr mee siam

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...