Hokkien (Char) Mee

It turned out that I have forgotten about a Hokkien Mee recipe tucked somewhere in one of the folders on a word document, and I have recently stumbled upon it again while I was trying to find something else. For the life of me, I can't quite remember where I found it to give due credit as it was quite a while ago, but I must say, making Hokkien Mee is really one of the easiest meal I have ever tempted so far.

This was my second attempt at making it for dinner. All in, it took me less than 20 minutes to get it done. Very palatable and definitely a must-have recipe to include in a busy mom's repertoire.

Count on the recipe being bastardised by yours truly and modified to the way I like it!

Ingredients:

• 2 packets of yellow egg noodles
• Some bak choys or spinach
• A handful of bbeansprouts
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 300 grams of beef or chicken , sliced
• 3 tbsp of dark soy sauce
• 2 tbsp of light soy sauce
• 3 tbsp of oyster sauce
• 2 pieces of chilli padi (bird's eye chilli)
• 1/2 inch ginger
• 2 tspn brown sugar
• 1 and half cube non-msg chicken stock cubes
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• salt & pepper
• 1 tbsp dried Italian basil

Note: If using beef, I will usually boil the beef first for about 20 minutes to tenderise it and set aside

Method:

1. Marinate (boiled) beef or chicken in soy sauce and half a (pounded) garlic set aside
2. Pound the remaining garlic together with ginger and chilli padi and set aside
3. Heat up oil, and when hot enough, fry the pounded ingredients till it turns slightly brown
4. Add in the meat and stir for a minute of two
5. Add in the sauces, stock cubes and the vegetables
6. Add about 2-3 cups of water
7. After about 5 minutes, add in the noodles, the rest of the seasonings and mix them altogether
8. Simmer for a minute or two before serving
9. If leave in for a bit longer, the noodles will absorb all the liquid (I don't really mind it)

[The original version of the recipe just uses garlic and no ginger, bird's eye chilli and dried basil. The method is just to press the garlic and saute it in a hot wok, skipping Method #1 & #2 altogether]

Enjoy and have fun trying!