Mee Rebus Johor - (MFF-Johor) #2

Mee Rebus Johor is my 2nd dish for Malaysian Food Fest (MFF) Johor Month. I really love this! And I don't think I will ever forget it's taste. To me, this is a deluxe version of mee rebus! Hahaha..

I love mee rebus. Max loves it too. When I cooked Mee Soto Johor, Max asked if there's Mee Rebus Johor too. I said "Yes!", and he immediately request me to cook it.

Mee Rebus Johor is the least well known but special and well received dish. It is a noodle dish which consist of mee (yellow noodle) and served with tangy, spicy brown gravy, and then topped with condiments.

This might be a simple meal, but it gives you lots of satisfaction!

I had been living in Singapore for almost 15 years. So far, I couldn't find any mee rebus stall that makes me wanna revisit them. It's either their gravy are too bland, watery, or too salty. This version of mee rebus Johor is not the ordinary mee rebus that has peanut sauce in there. This is really different, and I love this version of mee rebus gravy more than the usual ones.

The preparation is easier than Mee Soto. I assure you. Lesser ingredients, not that time consuming too. I adapted the ingredient from Masam Manis, source from Iza Akma, but did minor modification.

Recipe (Feed 6 to 7, generously)
(Recipe Source :  Masam Manis, with minor modification)

Ingredient for gravy

• 300g Minced Beef
• 1 tbsp Corn Flour
• 250g Orange Sweet Potatoes, cook till soften, drained, mashed.
• 35g Dried Shrimp, washed, drained, finely grinded.
• 2 stalks of Lemongrass, cut into 5 inch length, bruised
• 8 pcs Star Anise
• 4 tbsp Pre-Packed Chilli Paste (You could grind your own fresh chilli paste too)
• 2 tbsp Curry Powder
• 1 tsp Tumeric Powder
• 1 tbsp Chicken Powder (Original recipe ask for 1 cube Beef Stock)
• ½ cup Tamarind Juice / Asam Juice (35g Tamarind Paste + ½ cup Water)
• 70g Grated Palm Sugar / Gula Melaka, or more. Adjust to suit your own. 
• 1 tbsp Salt, or adjust to taste.
• 800ml Water, or more
• 4 tbsp Cooking Oil

Spices for gravy (for grinding)

• 3 Onions
• 4 cloves Garlic
• 1 inch Ginger
• ¾ inch Galangal 
• 1 pc Candlenut / Buah Keras

Noodles and garnishing

• 800g to 1kg Yellow Noodles
• 200 to 250g Bean Sprout
• 1 piece Tofu, Fried, cubed
• 3 to 4 hard boiled eggs, halved
• 3 to 4 Calamansi, halved. I used Lime, and cut into wedges.
• some Celery Leaves / Daun Sup
• some Red and Green Chillies, sliced.
• some Fried Shallots

This is the main influential ingredient for the kuah (Gravy) for Mee rebus johor - Minced beef, Sweet Potatoes, Dried Shrimps and Chillies.

The irreplaceable spices that we usually found in Malaysian dishes

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Preparation

• Cook potatoes till soften, mashed, set aside.
• Grind onions, garlic, candle nut, ginger and galangal, set aside.
• Grind dried shrimps, set aside.
• Mix beef with 1 tbsp corn flour, form into small beef balls, set aside.
• Lemongrass, cut into 5 inch length, bruised.
• Rub the tamarind pulp, strained, discard the seed. Keep the juice.
• Grate palm sugar, set aside.

Make sure everything is ready before you start cooking the gravy.

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Method

1. Heat oil in a wok, under medium heat, add in star anise and lemongrass, fry till fragrant.
2. Add in grinded spices, fry till fragrant.
3. Add chilli paste and fry till you could smell the chilli aroma.
4. Add grinded dried shrimps and mix well.
5. Add curry powder and tumeric powder, mix well.
6. Add water, chicken powder and bring to a boil.
7. Add in meat balls, stir, don't let it stick together. Don't break the meatballs, stir gently.
8. Under medium low heat, add in mashed sweet potatoes, tamarind juice, palm sugar and salt. Continue to stir until the mashed sweet potatoes incorporated with the gravy.  
9. Let it simmer for awhile until gravy thickened. If you wants your gravy more watery, add more water. I prefer my gravy to looks really thick.
10. Taste, and adjust accordingly. If too spicy, add more palm sugar.

It's a simple meal. But I have to be frank to you that this is quite alot of ingredients to prepare.

I love the color of the gravy. It looks thick and curry-ish, but it totally doesn't taste curry at all. It's sweet and spicy. This Mee Rebus has got meatballs in it and a whole ladle full of sauce sitting on top of the noodles. How to describe such a dish? Perhaps the word that comes to mind is - Power!

Look at the noodles incorporated with the thick gravy.... Oh my! My saliva dripping while I writing this!

I will definitely repeat this recipe if I were to cook mee rebus again :)


Do refer to my Begedil recipe and Mee Soto recipe too.