Tomato Bee Hoon @ Mee Siam

We have been in Hershey for almost half a year. When I recap the time that we have spent here, I have discovered my another new hobby— to fulfill KC’s craving For instance, few days ago when he told me that he missed ‘tomato Bee Hoon’ very much (Bee Hoon is rice vermicille), I knew I got to look for the recipe or at least figured out the recipe from his description. I am actually happy whenever he tells me what he will like to eat because a lot of time, I am out of idea what to cook.

Talking about ‘tomato Bee Hoon’, I had totally no idea what it was. According to KC, it’s stir-frying the Bee Hoon with tomato sauce. Hah, that’s easy but would it be tasty?! I googled and I found something very similar to KC’s description— Mee Siam. Mee Siam or “Siamese noodles” is basically spicy fried rice vermicille with various toppings such as shrimp, chicken, fried firm tofu, and shredded omelet. It is usually served with a piece of kalamansi lime (the juice gives an extra tangy kick to the noodles). This dish is said to originate from the north of Malaysia where the culinary influences of Thailand (formerly Siam) sometimes fuse with Malaysian food.

I went through a few recipes and decided on one interesting one which used dried prawns, tomato sauce and tamarind juice. As usual, I would love to share with you my recipe but don’t worry, the original recipe can be found here

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Ingredient

• 250g or half pack rice vermicille (soaked in warm water and drained when soft)
• 4 dried chilies
• 1 onion (shredded)
• 4 cloves garlic (finely chopped)
• 100g dried prawns (finely chopped)
• 10-12 prawns (shelled and deveined)
• 4oz. Char Siew or pork (shredded)
• 5 pieces fried bean curd or firm toufu (cut into pieces)
• 4-5 pieces Chinese long cabbage (shredded)
• 1 cup water

Seasoning

• 2 tbsp. Tau Cheo or salted soy bean paste
• 3-4 tbsp. tomato ketchup
• 2 tbsp. chili sauce
• 1 tbsp. tamarind Juice
• 2 tbsp. lime juice
• 1 tbsp. soy sauce
• 1 tbsp. fish sauce
• salt and sugar to taste

Garnishing

• 2 eggs (lightly bitten, seasoned with a pinch of salt and black pepper)
• 2 stalks scallion (chopped into 1/2-inch length)

Method

1. Heat up a pan with some oil and make the beaten eggs into an omelet. Fold and slice the omelet thinly. Set aside.

2. Heat up pan and add 3 tablespoons of oil, fry the dried prawns until fragrant. Add dried chilies, onion, garlic, salted soy bean paste and fry until golden brown.

3. Add prawns, Char Siew, fried bean curd, Chinese long cabbage and stir fry until the prawn and Chinese long cabbage are half done. Add seasoning and bring to boil with 1 cup of water.

4. Add softened rice vermicille and stir fry until all ingredients are evenly distributed. Taste and adjust the seasoning by adding salt or sugar to taste.

5. Transfer the Mee Siam onto a big serving bowl and garnish with the omelet strips, chopped scallions. Serve immediately.

Notes: I can’t get kalamansi limes where I am, so I use only the lime juice. Oh, how I miss squeezing the kalamansi lime and its smell on my fingers *sniff sniff *

Oh, another must have for the extra extra kick is THE sambal belachan which goes very well with this!!