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.



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