If you often cook prawns/shrimps at home, do reserve the prawn heads & shells (they can be kept in the freezer for months so just keep accumulating) so you can make prawn stock in the future. Nothing ever goes to waste!
Fried Hokkien Prawn Mee is a very popular hawker fare in Singapore and it’s extremely tasty especially if you use crispy pork lard to fry the noodles and then braise in concentrated prawn stock like what most hawkers here do. For my own ‘healthier’ version, I have left out the pork lard and since I don’t like yellow noodles (as they cause a lot of wind in the stomach), I use thick beehoon (rice vermicelli) entirely. It doesn’t look like your conventional hokkien mee but does it matter so long it tastes yummy.
Hokkien Prawn Mee Recipe
Ingredients (serves 2-3 pax)
500g thick beehoon (you can also mix with yellow noodles)
2 medium-size squids, cut into rings, blanched in hot water
12 grey prawns, shelled & deveined, blanched in hot water
200g pork belly, boiled & cut into strips with skin & fats removed
3 cups chicken stock (fresh or store bought – I use leftover chicken soup)
3 eggs, beaten
heads and shells of approx. 30-40 prawns
1/2 tbsp minced garlic
1/2 tbsp fish sauce
dash of white pepper
1 tsp sesame oil
bunch of spring onions, chopped
6 limes
sambal chilli
Instructions
1. Fry the prawn heads & shells with a tablespoon of olive oil till they are cooked and fragrant. Pour in chicken stock and bring to a boil. Using a wooden spatula, crush the prawn heads to release their juices. Simmer for at least half an hour. Strain and set the prawn stock aside.
2. Heat oil in a wok and saute garlic till fragrant. Add in beaten egg and scramble.
3. Add in thick beehoon and fry at high heat for a few minutes.
4. Pour in half of the prawn stock and season with fish sauce, sesame oil and pepper. Fry the noodles till the stock almost dries up. Add in the pork belly and remaining stock and braise the noodles on medium heat, covered for 5 minutes.
5. Stir in the prawns, squids and spring onions. Serve with your favourite sambal chilli and limes.
The noodles are surprisingly rich in flavour despite no pork lard is used. Just remember to fry the prawn heads & shells and then crush them to squeeze all the essence out. Your prawn noodles will never go wrong with a good prawn stock like this. Enjoy! =)