A taste of home

One of the things that I miss being away from Singapore is the food. Many people I have met often rave about the variety of food found in Singapore. Whenever I go back for a visit, I often feel like I'm on a food safari (ie hunting down my favourite food and devouring it!).

Being away from Singapore, I can't just go to the nearest kopi tiam for my cravings when it hits me. I've had no choice but to start to learn how to cook some local dishes. One of our favourites is 'hae mee' or noodles with prawns. On my last trip back, I was upset to find that the 'hae mee' stall near our place had closed down. I felt short changed.

I recently had a whole bunch of prawn heads and shells (my maid thought I was strange for not throwing it out) and decided to cook 'hae mee'. I even have extra big bowls for it so that TH can have an extra portion and slurp to his heart's content.

It's actually pretty easy to prepare just a little time consuming because I grind the prawn heads and shells before straining the stock. I love it when there is a red film to the stock. It's all the yummy sweetness from the prawn heads.

Ingredients:

1-2 kg prawns (de-shell and keep the heads and tails)
10 cloves of garlic
500g pork ribs
bean sprouts
kangkong
2-3 tablespoons of sugar
salt to taste

Fried shallots for garnishing

Method:

Fry the garlic with the prawn heads and shells till shells are a bit burnt around the edges.

Transfer prawn heads and shells to 1 litre water. Simmer. Add pork bones. Simmer for about an hour. Add salt and sugar to taste.

Scoop out prawn heads with stock and blend.Take out pork bones and put aside.

Strain the stock and add pork bones back to strained stock.

Simmer for 15 minutes. Add shelled prawns. Scoop out when cooked.

Add stock to egg noodles, bee hoon and serve with bean sprouts and kang kong.