Mee rebus - yellow noodles in sweet potato gravy

Dish #3 is a Malay noodle bowl I ate often as a kid but until recently, I didn't know what the dense gravy was made of. The words "mee rebus" literally means boiled noodles, which mildly describes the noodles, but says nothing about the distinctive taste of the gravy. If you've never tried it, see if you can imagine its taste: mashed sweet potatoes simmered with fermented black beans, dried shrimps, curry powder and blended aromatics of shallots, garlic, galangal and ginger.

Sounds like a challenge to the taste buds, no? So when our friend L asked me to babysit her sweet daughter A while she ran a quick errand, I decided to ask them (and her husband) to stay for dinner while I experimented with mee rebus. When I have good friends over for dinner and I am trying out a new recipe, I always warn them: we may end up with a pizza.

Thankfully we didn't tonight. My mum-in-law shared with me her recipe because I really like her version. I think what makes the difference is that she uses dried anchovies to make up for using less dried shrimp which results in the gravy tasting less shrimpy but without losing that umami taste. For the noodles, the ones we bought bore the name "pancit" on the packet. If you can't find them, try it with spaghetti - it's similar. Sometimes, home cooks add some fatty beef pieces in the gravy as it cooks to add to the flavor.

Mee rebus

1 ½ lb fresh yellow egg noodles
2 cups bean sprouts, blanched
18 oz sweet potato
6 tablespoons fermented black beans
4 tablespoons dried anchovies, cleaned
3 tablespoons dried shrimps
4 tablespoons coriander powder
1 tablespoon cumin powder
½ cup tamarind juice
(from 1 tablespoon of tamarind paste)
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
3 cups water
5 tablespoons oil

spice paste:
20 shallots
5 garlic cloves
2 inch galangal
1 inch ginger
8 candlenuts

garnish:
4 boiled eggs, cut into halves
3 tablespoons fried shallots
3 tablespoons spring onions, sliced
1 cup fried or firm tofu, cut to 2 by 1 inch pieces
2 limes, cut into wedges
3 green serrano chiles, de-seeded and sliced.

1. Peel and cut the sweet potatoes into chunks. Boil until soft, drain and mash.

2. While the sweet potatoes are boiling, peel the shallots, garlic, galangal and ginger. Grind them with the candlenuts with a blender or food processor until fine.

3. Pound the dried anchovies and dried shrimps with mortar and pestle (or use a blender/food processor too). Add a couple of tablespoon of water if the mixture is too dry to grind.

4. Heat oil in a pot to medium high. Saute the spice paste for about 3-4 minutes until the shallots are caramelized. Add the coriander and cumin powder, fermented black beans and the dried anchovy/dried shrimp mixture. Fry for about 1 minute and then put in the mashed sweet potatoes. Blend well. You will get a very thick mixture. Slowly add the water, stirring as you pour it in. Bring to a boil. Add the sugar, salt and tamarind juice. Simmer until fragrant, about 40-50 minutes. If the gravy is too thick, stir in water as necessary.

5. To serve, pour gravy over some noodles and bean sprouts in a bowl. Garnish with half of an egg, tofu, green onions, fried shallots and serrano chilies.

Serves 6, with possible surplus for 2nd helpings!

The Sambal Series - Sambal belacan kangkong

Kangkong is one of those vegetables which I've always known by its Malay name. I think in school we learned that its anglicized name is water convolvulus - not a name that rolls off the tongue easily (try saying it several times). Perhaps it doesn't like to be called that either because it's also known as water morning glory and water spinach. But no need to look for it in California by any of those monikers. If you go to the Chinese supermarket, it's labeled "on choy". It has more aliases than a secret agent. In fact, in might be one. According to this wiki, it is technically illegal to grow, possess or move kangkong (even interstate), but because it goes by so many names, it slips pass customs easily.

I am of course delighted that I can enjoy this leafy green here. And my favorite way to eat it is to cook it with sambal belacan (and ideally with savored sambal stingray). So I present sambal belacan kangkong as dish #2. Despite its frail appearance, the kangkong holds its own against the pungent sambal belacan.

This might seem strange but I added a picture below of how the kangkong is to be cut. The leaves shouldn't be stripped at the base of their stalks. Part of the stem should be included so that you get some crunch as well. I used the sambal belacan sent to me by mum, but I've provided a recipe for it below. Red serrano chiles are a little elusive where I am. If it's the same for you, use any red chilies like fresno or holland chilies. Neither are as hot as serrano and the sambal belacan will not taste exactly the same, but they make decent substitutes. It is also best to use kalamansi lime if you are able to get some; otherwise you can use reguar lime. Dried shrimps come in different sizes, but it does not matter which one you choose because they are to be chopped into small pieces.

Sambal belacan kangkong

1 lb kangkong
1 oz dried shrimps, chopped
2 shallots, minced
3 cloves garlic, minced
3 tablespoons of sambal belacan
3 tablespoons of water
2 tablespoons oil

Sambal belacan
5-6 fresh red serrano chilies, sliced and do not de-seed completely
2-inch piece of belacan, toasted until fragrant
4 teaspoons of lime juice
peel of ½ a lime, sliced thinly

1. Pound all the ingredients of the sambal belacan but not too finely.

2. Put 2 tablespoons of oil in a wok over medium high heat. Fry the shallots until they are caramelized - about 3-4 minutes. Add the dried shrimps and the garlic. Stir-fry for 1 minute then add the sambal belacan and continue frying for 1 minute. Put in the kangkong. Mix it well with the rempah or spice paste already in the wok. Add the water. Cook until the kangkong leaves are wilted.

Serve with rice.

When sambal belacan means she loves me

See that container with the masking tape wrapped around its cover? It's chockfull of sambal belacan my mum made from one kilo of fresh red serrano chilies and flown more than 8000 miles in the good hands of our friend R. I redistributed it into smaller containers - one goes into the fridge and the rest go into the freezer for future use. I think I know what's for dinner tonight.

Tau pok - Stuffed fried tofu with rojak sauce

I chose tau pok as the first of my everyday singaporean dish because it's one of my hawker center favorites. It is fried tofu stuffed with green leaf lettuce, bean sprouts and thin slices of cucumber, and then grilled. What makes the dish is the sauce - it's like a savory version of molasses. To eat it, you can sprinkle the sauce over the tofu or you can choose to dip it in the sauce. Either way, this simple dish entrances the taste buds. You have the crispiness of the tofu and the cool crunch of the cucumbers mingling with the funky taste of the shrimp paste which makes the sauce. It's a great side dish or a snack in the afternoon.

The version of shrimp paste used is called petis udang in Malay or hae ko in Hokkien. You can get it in Asian supermarkets. The ingredients - fresh prawn extract, sugar, flour and salt. It is a very thick paste and usually needs to be thinned, in this case with tamarind juice. The petis udang can vary among brands, so you should taste it as you mix the ingredients. Grilling is preferred but you can also cook it over the stove on a grill pan like I did. I chose not to stuff the tofu before grilling like the hawkers do it because I don't have the dexterity to prevent the filling from spilling out. I also used an English cucumber. Since it has to be sliced thinly, it's best that the seeds are as small as possible.





Tau pok with rojak sauce

10 medium sized fried tofu
½ cup bean sprouts, blanched
½ cup English cucumber, thinly sliced
3 green lettuce leaves

Rojak sauce
3 tablespoons petis udang (hae ko)
3 tablespoons powdered sugar
3 dried chilies, de-seeded and blended/pounded or 1 tablespoon of sambal oelek
¾ cup tamarind juice
juice of 1 lime
3 tablespoon roasted peanut, roughly crushed

1. Place the tofu on paper towels and let them dry as much as possible. Put the tofu on a dry grill pan over medium high heat. Press down the tofu with a grill press or, if like me, you don't have one, use a glass container over a paper towel. Turn over after 3-4 minutes, or until golden brown. Let the tofu cool a little, then use a paring knife to slit three sides of the tofu.

2. Tear the green leaf lettuce into smaller pieces, put it in a tofu with together with a few bean sprouts and slices of cucumber. Repeat with all the tofu.

3. To make the sauce, combine all the sauce ingredients together, except the peanuts, until the sugar is well incorporated. You can heat the sauce to make sure the sugar is dissolved. Taste - see if you need to add additional sugar or lime juice. Add the peanuts just before serving.

Haberdashery

My two favorite map blogs.

Did you know every state in the US has an Official State Animal. Artist Amy Ruppel has an series of pictures based on each animal. Everytime I read "Official State Animal", I imagine them wearing suits and carrying a suitcase. (via mirrormirror)

I have many books on maps, but this is my current favorite.

"All Streets" is an image made of 26 million individual road segments in the lower 48. (via apartmenttherapy)

Remember the cat named ISBN? This is a map of libraries in the world that have cats.

An edible map.