Birthday Noodle (Seh Jit Mee or Lam Mee) 生日面/淋麵

My family hails from Penang, Malaysia where this dish originated from; this noodle dish is a family tradition. I used to look forward to this every year. It is a hawker dish that you seldom see outside of Penang. Thankfully it is very easy to cook, basically boiling a soup and blanching everything in it. (Hence quite a low fat dish too, bonus!) Well it was my birthday yesterday, mum not being here, I had to make this for myself didn't I?

Ingredients (serves 4)

         

200g Hokkein noodles, blanch for about 5 minutes

200g Rice vermicelli noodles, soaked in cold water, then blanch for 5 minutes

100g Fresh bean sprouts, blanch for 2 minutes

100g Chinese greens, blanch for 5 minutes

100g garlic chives, blanch for 2 minutes

300g fresh prawns, shelled (reserve the heads and shells) and deveined, blanch for 5 minutes

200g pork neck/fillet

200g chicken breast

3 cloves of garlic

3 eggs, beaten lightly

2 tbsp of soy sauce

2 tbsp tapioca starch

2 tbsp cooking oil

3 cups water

Salt and pepper

Garnish

1 fresh chilli, sliced (optional)

4 sprigs of spring onion, finely chopped

3 tbsp of fried shallots

Method

1.          Sauté prawn heads and shells with a tbsp of oil in a large soup pot.

2.          Add water and garlic and bring to the boil.

3.          Turn the heat down to a simmer; add the pork neck (whole strip) and the chicken breast.

4.          I blanch everything in the soup instead of using a separate pot of boiling water.

5.          In a flat pan, heat a tbsp of oil and make a thin omelette with the beaten eggs. Slice the omelette into thin strips when cooled.

6.          When the pork and chicken are cooked, fish them out of the soup, cooled, and slice thinly.

7.          Lay out all the blanched ingredients on a platter.

8.          Remove the prawn shells from the soup and skim all the impurities.

9.          Make a paste with the tapioca flour with a little water, add into the soup and add soy sauce, salt and pepper to taste.

10.      Boil it for a little while till it thickens slightly.

11.      To serve, put the noodles and vermicelli in the bowls, add the veges, then the meat, eggs, the garnishes.

12.      Lastly scoop some thickened soup over and enjoy!