客家板麺 Malaysian Hakka Pan Mee

Do you prefer Pan Mee or Mee-Hoon-Kuay?

Some says they are the same. Some argues that they are different, but that's due to the shape of the noodles. Pan Mee (板麺, pronounced as Ban Mian in mandarin) is a Hakka-Style noodle, originating from Malaysia. Some translate it as "flat flour noodle", while some, translate it as "board noodle".

Flour hand-kneaded into dough traditionally torn into smaller pieces of dough by hand, but such laborious work is conveniently replaced by machine that can produce variety of shapes. Pan Mee typically served in soup, together with dried anchovies, minced pork, mushrooms and leafy vegetables. In my hometown, 树仔菜 (aka pucuk manis / manicai 马尼菜) is used.

My grandmother used to cook this delicious noodles for us. Usually she will let us have our choices of Pan Mee or mee-hoon-kway, and she will prepare the dough accordingly. That's one of the sweetest childhood memory. All she need is pack of flour, some anchovies and vegetables. She can cook up a comforting bowl of soup dish for everyone in the house. My grandmother has 12 child. My mom is the youngest, the last amongst the 12th. I haven't even tell you the number of grandchild she have. You can imagine that now. My grandmother is a wonder woman!

Because this is a very simple noodle soup dish, the soup plays a very important role in the preparation of Pan Mee. I've seen variations in soup base preparations. But for my grandmother, she use only dried anchovies and soya bean for the soup. Yes. Only two ingredients, but it makes great and flavorful soup base. Sometimes, the simpler it is, the better it taste.

I'm very straightforward and I'm not afraid to tell you. I don't have my grandma's exact recipe. I only vaguely remember what are the main ingredients my grandma use. I found Alan's recipe is the closest to my grandma's simplicity. So, I just followed, but with minor modifications.

Ingredients (Serves 4)

(Source : Alan, with slight modification)

for Soup

• 65g Dried Anchovies (aka Ikan Bilis / 江鱼仔)
• 180g Soya Beans (黄豆）
• 10 cups of water
• 1 tsp salt (adjust to taste)

for Noodles

• 250g Plain Flour or All-Purpose Flour 
• 2 Eggs
• 1/4 tsp Sea Salt
• 5-7 tbsp water, adjust according to dough texture
• 1 tbsp cooking oil 
• flour for dusting

for Minced Meat Sauce

• 300g Minced Pork (绞肉), preferably ground pork belly
• 4 Chinese Mushrooms (香菇), soaked till soft, cut into strips
• 2 Black Wood Ear Fungus (黑木耳), soaked till soft, cut into strips
• 4 cloves Garlic, peeled, chopped finely
• 5 Shallots, peeled, chopped finely
• 2 tbsp Oil
• 2 tbsp Dark Soya Sauce
• 1/2 tbsp Oyster Sauce, adjust to taste
• 1/2 tbsp Sugar, adjust to taste
• 1/2 tsp Pepper
• 1 tsp Corn Flour, to be mixed with mushroom soaking water

other ingredients

• a bunch of 树仔菜 (aka pucuk manis) or Choy Sum 菜心 or any of your favorite green leafy vegetables that serves 4 sharing. 
• 4 Eggs
• Fried crispy anchovies 
• Fried crispy shallots (optional)

Variation

1. For the soup, there are some Pan Mee sellers likes to add pork bones into the soup to create extra sweetness. Some uses soya beans, some don't. But the general rule is... dried anchovies should be there.
2. My grandma will only provide minced meat sauce and eggs when her budget allows. Eggs are usually cracked onto the soup and cook together with the noodles. It would be too costly for her to add eggs on every serving. 
3. I personally prefers 树仔菜 (aka pucuk manis), but when first preference is not available, I shall go for my alternative Choy Sum 菜心.
4. Fried crispy shallots is optional. But most Pan Mee stalls provide this topping. 

Method (for the soup)

1. Give dried anchovies and soya beans a quick rinse.
2. Soak soya bean in hot water for 20mins. Using both finger tips, rub away the skin from the soya beans. This is quite tedious. You can choose to skip this step if you are feeling lazy. 
3. In a large soup pot, add 2 tbsp of cooking oil, add in anchovies, stir fry anchovies till fragrant. 
4. Add in water and prepared soya beans, and bring to a boil. Lower flame to simmer with lid on for 20mins. Season with salt, turn off flame and leave to steep. 

Using both finger tips rub away the skin from the soya beans.

Stir fry anchovies till fragrant before adding in water. Fried anchovies will give you more flavorful soup.

Method (for the noodles)

1. Combine flour and salt in a large mixing bowl. Form a 'well' in the middle and crack in the eggs.
2. Add cooking oil and begin to combine everything together, adding water slowly by individual tablespoons until a non-sticky dough is obtained
3. Dough needs to be kneaded repeatedly until smooth and uniform in color. 
4. Cover dough with cloth and set aside to rest for 30 to 40 mins to relax the gluten. 
5. After resting the dough long enough, go back to the dough by first dividing the dough into 4 portions. 
6. Using pasta machine, process individual dough portions by repeatedly laminating and thinning the dough into elongated flat sheets before cutting into taligatelle-like strands. Dust some flour on the noodles to prevent noodles from sticking together. If pasta machine is not available, simply roll dough with rolling pin, on a flat surface dusted with flour, into elongated sheets before folded the dusted sheets slightly and cutting into strips. 
7. If you are making mee-hoon-kuay, simply hand stretch the flat sheets dough into desired free-style shapes accordingly.

Method (for the meat sauce)

1. In a saucepan, heat up 2 tbsp cooking oil. Add chopped garlic and shallots, stir-fry until shallots turned translucent and aromatic. 
2. Add minced pork followed by all seasoning and stir-fry until meat is cooked and uniform in color. 
3. Add in mushrooms strips, black wood ear fungus strips, and some mushroom soaking water. Stir well and cover with lid. Leave to simmer over medium low heat for 10mins. 
4. Add some corn starch mixed with some mushrooms soaking water to thicken the sauce. 
5. Dish up, covered, and set aside. 

Everything is prepared for the meat sauce.

Meat sauce is well cooked and in uniform color.

Method (to cook pan mee)

1. Prepare two heavy saucepan. One side is 2 ladle cups of boiled water, another side is 2 ladle cups of soup base. Bring both to a boil
2. Add a serving of noodles into the boiling water saucepan, cook noodles for a minute. Transfer half-cooked noodles into the soup base saucepan, and add a serving of vegetables. Adjust your cooking time accordingly.
3. When noodles are cooked, crack an egg into the middle of the pot and leave it with lid on briefly for about 20 secs for the white to cook slightly.
4. Ladle everything into a serving bowl, try not to break the yolk. Garnish generously with one portion of meat sauce, fried crispy anchovies, fried crispy shallots and serve!

You can, of course skip the part of using boiling water saucepan. You can just throw in your noodels and just cook it in the soup straightaway. However, the noodles will make your soup broth looked cloudy and thickened a little. I personally prefers to half-cook the noodles in boiling water first, as this step allows me to have nicer and clearer broth.

Pan Mee... Long, flat striped noodles.

While mee-hoon-kuay is free-style shaped flat dough by simply hand stretch the flat sheets dough in organic forms. There's no rocket science. Everyone can do this. To me. it should look homely and comforting. There's no rules here.

Look at my Pan Mee soup. The soup is quite clear and less cloudy compared to those selling outside. Although there's extra effort in cooking process, but this will make your noodles taste better in overall.

In Kuala Lumpur, Klang Valley, there's a popular version of Pan Mee that is prepared dry version. Everything is the same, just that they are without the soup, fiery dry chillies flakes are added, topped with some spring onions and stirred into noodles. That's another great way of enjoying Pan Mee.

Maybe next time I will try making dried version of Pan Mee.

I love this soup noodles. I think everyone should make this at home at least once. This just involves a few ingredients, and I guarantee you that this is a great bowl of comfort food, and something easy to prepare for weekend lunch for family.

So.... do you prefer pan mee? or mee-hoon-kuay?

Annielicious Food Blogspot is 3 now!!!

Dear Readers, 

Today marked the 3rd year anniversary ever since I started writing Annielicious Food Blogspot.

For those who know me, you will know how hard I'd been trying to find work / life balance all along. For those who doesn't know me, for your info, I have a full-time job, and blogging recipes will only happen over the weekend. The intention of writing this blog is for my personal record, my way of penning down some of my tried and tested recipes, hoping to share knowledge with my future children (if I'd ever have one). If I'd grow old one day, I would worry that I'd forgotten what I've added into the dish and I'm not able to do knowledge transfer to my child.

And so, I never thought my recipes could go any further. But, I started to feel the change in society. Modern women's doesn't walk into the kitchen as much as our parent's era do. Eating out is so convenient nowadays. But I'm a person who always believes in... as long as there's food on the dining table, your family members will come home for you. 

I asked myself how much I could do to change it? At least some little effort from me? How I could encourage fellow young women's in this modern society to cook and bring some joy to their family? I thought, maybe improve my way of writing my blog to ensure every details are recorded down? I don't know. But this might be one possible or better way to encourage readers to start cooking. But at the same time, things are getting tougher when my I set expectations on myself in writing recipes. I read more, I learn more, and I'm still learning. And you guys are the one who gave me the reason to do this. 

My writing is not detailed enough is something I worry always. I don't know why. But if you wonder what I did in order to come up with a recipe post? Read this :

1. Finding the right weekend schedule to cook (I'm not a full-time blogger)
2. The right time to go to the right place or market to get the fresh ingredients (Sometimes I need to run a few places just to gather all the specific ingredients I wanted), 
3. The right amount of food to prepare for the total hungry tummies,
4. The right cooking or baking heat and time (Especially first attempt on new dishes or bakes),
5. Penning down every possible details in the kitchen to ensure nothing is forgotten later,
6. Take photos of every preparation and cooking steps, while ensuring my food is not over-cooked (I have poor memory sometimes),
7. Wishing for the best natural light to take better photos (If the sunlight is not good on that day, it kills the photo taking, and it's as good as killing me!), 
8. Photo taking must be quick, so as to ensure hungry tummies doesn't eat cold dishes, 
9. Time spent on photo editing and writing every details on the blog (It's quite time-consuming actually).
10. Proof-reading before hitting the "Publish" button, so as to ensure no wrong information is written (although I admit that I didn't do proof-reading during busy times)
11. Did I left out anything?

The road is never easy, but till now, I'm still learning.... 

I'm surprised that I'd actually able to persevere until now, and still, continue blogging recipes. But looking back, I don't think this blog is possible without these people :

My Husband, Max - He is the driver who drives me around to source for ingredients without even complain once until today. He is the supporter, the encouragement, the guinea pig, the audience, the judge, and my biggest fan! He would finish all the left-over food that I cooked. He spoilt me with lots of kitchen toys, wash all the dishes after I messed the kitchen (this is unconditional love!). He can even go all way out to buy good ingredients for me wherever he go. The time when he lugged 1kg of Prosciutto Di Parma from Germany. Ohh... I love this man more than my life!

My Mother, Mdm Chai - She gave me lots of classic recipes, cooking tips that doesn't teach on cookbooks and online. Her recipe always appear on my blog if you noticed. She taught me lots of lessons in life that can never be found in textbooks. She's my absolute inspiration and aspiration!

My Mother-In-Law, Mdm Leong - She always loves promoting my cooks and bakes to her friends. Although sometimes I couldn't understand why she'd want to give-away my failed bakes (yes, I do fail sometimes, I'm not afraid to tell you.), but I know she'd probably feels proud of her daughter-in-law who bake, cook, and write. 

Alan, Travelling Foodies - This guy is the best (male) cook that I've ever met in SG so far. Very detailed and precise person in cooking and baking. I've learnt alot from him. And not to mention, he'd probably the one who's there to listen to most of my nonsensicality and ranting through the entire 3 years of blogging. Developing a strong friendship is never easy and it takes alot of effort. Thank you for being with me through good and bad times, my friend. I love you man! 

Wendy, Wendyinkk Blogspot - This woman is amazing! She's my most respected recipe blogger ever! If I were to nominate someone to go for Master Chef competition, she would be the one. We have complicated relationship here. She is my school-mate, my senior in Secondary School Girl's Brigade. Her mom knows some of my family member during our young days. Back in 2012, we found each other on Facebook, we reunite, and she is the one who encourage me to start writing down my recipe on blogspot. She taught me alot along the way. She seems to know everything that I can't even find it online! She pushed me hard to learn even more! I love you Wendy!

All Readers - Thank you for loving my recipe. Knowing that my recipe may not be the best, but you guys choose to believe me and give it a try. Everytime when I receive feedback from you guys, telling me how much your family members enjoyed the food, it makes me smile, and all the tough times (being a recipe blogger) is all gone. With both palms pressed together, I thank every one of you. 

Coming forward, I wish I would have more time to come up with more recipes and many more years to come. It is about how much I could do to encourage women in the society to cook and bring joy to their family. Thank you everyone for loving me. 

Lots of Love, 

Annie Mok