Braised Mee Siam 干烩米暹

The soup version of this sweet, tangy and spicy rice noodle dish is more popular. But the preparation of this dry version, to me, is simpler and faster. And it involves only a few main ingredients, mainly the sambal chili paste, salted soya bean, and the rice noodle. 

Yield: 2 servings 

Ingredients 

100g dried brown rice noodle/vermicelli 

60g mung bean sprout

1 egg

2 tsp salted soya bean

1/2 tsp garlic, chopped

1 tbsp yellow onion, chopped

1 tbsp nasi lemak sambal chili paste

2 tbsp raw sugar 

80~90 ml water

Salt to taste 

1 small lime

Garnishing

Green scallions

Red chili

1 small lime

Directions

1. Soak rice vermicelli in water for about 20 minutes, or till it softened.

Drain away the water and cut it into shorter length. Cover and set aside.

2. Rinse the salted soya bean and mash into paste. Set aside.

3. Rinse and soak the mung bean sprout for about 15 minutes.

Drain away the water and blanch with hot water. 

Drain away the hot water after about 5 minutes. Cover and set aside.

4. Add seasoning powder or chicken stock powder, and 1 tsp of fresh milk to an egg. Beat to mix well.

Pan fried the egg mixture into an omelette roll. Cut into stripes after cooling down. Set aside.

5. Add about 1 tbsp of olive oil in a medium hot frying pan. When the oil is hot, add in garlic and chopped onion.

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If you're adding prawns, you can cook the prawns at the edge of the pan while browning the onion and garlic. Remove the cooked prawns from the pan when the they curled into a "C" shape. When they curled into an "O", the prawns would have been overcooked.

Marinate the prawns with a little sugar, salt and pepper before cooking.

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When the garlic has turned golden; and the onion has turned translucent, add in the salted soya bean paste and sambal chili paste.

When the mixture is fragrant, add in raw sugar and stir-fry till the sugar melts.

Pour in water and bring to a light boil.

Add salt to taste, follows by lime juice.

6. Add in the rice vermicelli and mix well with the gravy.

Close the lid and let the rice vermicelli simmer in very low heat till it soaks up all the gravy and softens.

Do not cook in high heat!

7. Mix in the blanched mung bean sprouts.

8. Serve with omelette, green scallion and cut red chili. Drizzle 1/2 a lime juice over and serve :)