Yesterday, we were rummaging through our kitchen to find out what we have which we could cook for lunch. In most Chinese homes, dried chinese mushrooms and dried prawns / shrimps are commonly found. So are bee hoon (rice vermicelli).

This is what I did :-

Ingredients

• 250 grammes bee hoon (pre-soaked till soft and drained)
• 4 pieces chicken frankfurters (cut diagonally - or whichever way you like)
• 5 pieces dried chinese mushrooms (pre-soaked in one bowl (about 250 ml) of water till soft and slivered. Remove stalk)
• 50 grammes dried prawns (pre-soaked in about 150 ml of water)
• 100 grammes chinese mustard (more if you like)
• 2 eggs
• 4 bulbs garlic (minced)
• 3 tablespoons cooking oil (preferably palm oil)
• 3 pieces Lime

Seasoning

• 3 teaspoons light soya sauce or to taste
  
• Dash of white pepper powder to taste
  

Method

Heat oil in wok. Fry the chinese mushrooms for about 30 seconds and remove from oil.

Proceed to fry the dried prawns for 30 seconds. Add garlic followed by the frankfurters and eggs. Stir-fry till eggs are done and add back the chinese mushrooms.

Add bee hoon and stir fry for about 3 minutes, gradually adding water which was used to soak the mushrooms and dried prawns a little at a time to keep the bee hoon moist. Add seasoning followed by chinese mustard.

Continue stir-frying till chinese mustard and bee hoon is cooked.

Serve with a squeeze of lime.

This recipe serves 3 to 4 persons.

When I go to mamak stalls, I sometimes order mee goreng (fried noodles). Most of the time, the noodles are cooked in slightly dark coloured gravy due to the use of dark soya sauce. As for me, I have not been able to replicate the same type of mee goreng probably because I do not use the same type of ingredients.

I do, however, have my own recipe for mee goreng in which I use yellow noodles, tomatoes, fried beancurd, bean sprouts, chinese mustard (sawi), onions, garlic and fried fish cake (see photograph on right for ingredients used). If I have left over fried chicken, I will also put it in for extra flavour.

My mee goreng is basically sweet, sour and hot in taste as I use tomato and chilli ketchup. Do try it as it is not difficult at all.


Ingredients

• 500 grammes of yellow noodles
• 1 large onion (chopped)
• 3 bulbs garlic (minced)
• 2 cups of bean sprouts (remove root)
• 200 grammes of chinese mustard (sawi) (cut into bite sizes)
• 2 pieces hard beancurd (cut into strips)
• 1 large tomato (cut into 8 wedges)
• 2 large eggs
  
• 2 pieces fried fish cake (cut into strips) (you can also use any form of pre-cooked meat eg. fried chicken, fried beef, etc)
• 3 pieces lime (halved)
  
• 4 tablespoons of cooking oil (preferably palm oil)
• 1 cup warm water
  

Sauce

• 3 tablespoons of tomato ketchup
• 2 tablespoons of chilli ketchup
• 1 teaspoon of light soya sauce

Method

Fry beancurd strips in wok till golden brown. Remove from oil.

Whilst the oil is still hot, fry the onions, garlic and fish cake strips (or meat) till fragrant. Add eggs and stir fry till eggs are semi-cooked. Add noodles gradually whilst stirring. (Cook at high heat to ensure noodles do not stick on wok)

Having stir fried the noodles for about 1 to 2 minutes, add fried beancurd strips and cut tomatoes. Continue to stir fry, add beansprouts and sauce (adjust amount of ketchup to taste). Add a little bit of water to keep noodles moist.

After 1 to 2 minutes, add chinese mustard and stir for 1 minute (chinese mustard cooks fast and gets limp easily in yellow noodles).

Serve with a squeeze of lime.

Roti Canai is essentially a type of bread wherein the dough is kneeded, flipped, stretched, laid thinly and finally folded into a square or slightly round. It is then cooked on an iron skillet till brown.

It is usually served with dhall or curry (chicken or fish). I like mine with curry and I usually start off by laying curry on the plate, followed by the Roti Canai and topped with another layer of curry.

Roti Canai is available in Malaysia and Singapore. I have not travelled to other countries in Asia ...so I am not in a position to comment on their availability elsewhere.

Enterprising and creative cooks have come out with variants of the Roti Canai and have put in various types of fillings such as egg, sardine in ketchup, bananas, cheese, onions and kaya.

No Roti Canai will be complete without the Teh Tarik (or "pulled tea"). For more information on Roti Canai, check out the Wikipedia.