Curry-ing Flavour

[caption id="attachment_482" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="You can Curry Mee anytime."][/caption]

My good friend Sumi who now resides in Perth, Australia  recently urged me to post more Asian recipes on my blog. Her ulterior motive -- if I perfected some popular Malaysian dishes, I could present them to her when she came visiting next March. I guess when you're away, you crave local food. Even in Asian-filled Perth?? Hmmm..

I laughed. And then I realised she was right. Which is strange because I generally prefer spicy Asian cuisine to Western food.

I decided to deliberately put away my oven mitts for a while and try some of my favourite Asian dishes. My first: curry mee/k.teow/bihun. I haven't ever tried it before and so I looked up some recipes and modified them to suit my vegetarian sensibilities -- namely, omitting the prawn paste, chicken stock and meat, etc.



It wasn't that difficult. I cooked for two: one vegetarian and one non-vegetarian. Instead of using chicken stock, I used purely vegetarian stock. Instead of cooking the chicken meat in the curry, I cooked it seperately (steamed) and shredded it and used it as a garnish, almost. In the end, the vegetarian version was more popular and I had to share my portion with the strict non vegetarian.

Victory? Nahhhh.... *wink*

♣ Curry Mee

Your choice of noodles: Yellow mee/k.teow/bihun (or mix)

2 big handfuls of taugeh, blanched

2 large sheets bean curd -- soaked for a couple of mins in water

Fried onions (for garnish).

For the curry

1 cup coconut milk (or milk/yoghurt if you prefer)

1 cm tumeric, cut

1 cm ginger, cut

2 pcs serai (the white part only), sliced

3 candlenuts

4 cloves garlic

1 medium onion or 7 shallots, sliced

4 or 5 dried chillies, blanched and cut

4 cups vege stock

4 taufu puffs, quartered

8 vegetarian fish balls, optional

vegetable oil

salt

Blanch noodles and taugeh, set aside.

(for non veg, shred the cteamed chicken and set aside)

Fry an omelette, cut into thin slices

Blend or pound turmeric, ginger, lemon grass, candlenuts, dried chilies, onions and garlic into a fine paste. Heat the oil and fry the paste until fragrant. Add in the stock and bring to boil. Add the veg fish balls and then 5 mins later,  the coconut milk and salt and cook on low heat. When it simmers, add the taufu puffs and bean curd. Bring to boil.

To assemble: Add the noodle (and chicken) in bowl. Pour as much curry as you wish. garnish with taugeh, egg and chicken and fried onions