Mee Rebus

Nothing fishy; just very savoury and meaty. The ingredients are not that expensive and to me, it is a rather humble-looking dish.

I have also added a home-made bergedil as an add-on to the dish, just because.

Ingredients:

• 150-300g fresh yellow egg or chowmein noodles
• 150g beef, thinly sliced into small pieces and boiled
• 6 cups beef stock used from the boiled beef
• 1 non-MSG beef stock cube
• 3 tbsp Vegetable oil
• 3 Candlenuts (I used abt 2-3 tbsp of raw peanuts, roasted in oven and grounded as a substitute)
• 3-4 tbsp Chili paste (blended from dried chillies)
• 1 tbsp Coriander powder
• 1/2 inch turmeric root
• 1 inch fresh galangal
• 20 Shallots or 4 mid-sized red onions
• 2-4 Small sweet potatoes, peeled, cooked and mashed
• Salt to taste

[My mom had mentioned taocheow or fermented soya beans can also be a good substitute to the nuts for a better taste. Will give it a go next time]

For Garnishing:
• Fried shallots
• Pre-fried tofu or soy bean cakes, cut into small cubes
• Bean sprouts, briefly blanched
• Hard boiled eggs, cut in wedges
• 3-4 limau kasturi (lime), cut into halves
• Fresh green chillies, thinly sliced

Method:

• Boil beef separately till tender and drain the liquid from the beef to use it as stock. Set aside both boiled beef and broth
• Grind candlenuts/peanuts, chili paste, turmeric root, shallots, galangal and coriander powder into a fine paste.
• Heat pot on medium flame, add vegetable oil.
• Cook paste until quite toasted.
• Add in the boiled beef earlier and mix in thoroughly
• Add some of the beef stock liquid and cube, bring it to a boil.
• Slowly add the mashed sweet potato to the stock, till a gravy-like consistency is reached.
• Add salt to taste , decrease the heat to low, simmer gently 8 to10 minutes
• Add more mashed sweet potato if gravy is too thin or more beef stock if the gravy is too thick
• Keep gravy hot on the low-medium heat, for serving.
• Take another pot and boil some water. This is used for blanching (dipping) bean sprouts and warming up noodles.
• When ready to serve, blanch a handful of bean sprouts with some noodles in a sieve into the hot boiling water
• Place them in a dish and ladle over the piping warm gravy over noodles.
• Top with a little of each garnishing.