Terengganu Lor Mee (Noodles with Gravy)

Lor Mee is another one of my grandmother's specialities. It is basically yellow noodles with a thick gravy made with sliced pork, prawns and crabmeat and garnished with cucumbers, beansprouts and fried shallots. And it is accompanied with a chilli sauce made with fresh chillies, shallots, garlic, sugar and vinegar.

The only hard work involved in making the gravy is peeling the prawns and yikes...the crabs. These days we are a lucky lot because frozen crabmeat is available in most supermarkets. And so are the prawns. However, do refrain from using the frozen prawns because you do need the prawns shells and heads to make the soup stock.

A tip I learnt from my Aunt is to make the gravy a bit thicker or else it will become watered down once added to the noodles as the vegetables will bleed water and dilute it.

I don't have exact measurements for the recipe below but will give you my best estimates :)

Lor Mee

Ingredients :
- Yellow noodles (blanched and drained)

For the gravy
- 1 pork belly
- 30 prawns (shelled and keep shells and heads to make stock)
- 300g crab meat
- 3 cloves garlic, crushed and finely diced
- salt to taste
- sugar to taste
- light soya sauce to taste
- Kayciap or Sweet Soya Sauce/ABC Sauce for colour
- About 1 litre water (adjust for consistency of gravy, can use more or less)
- 1 tablespoon Tapioca flour mixed with a little bit of water to make a paste to thicken the gravy
- Cooking oil

For chilli sauce
- 5 red chillies
- 3 shallots
- 1 clove garlic
- Vinegar
- Salt and sugar to taste
- kayciap or kicap manis (optional)

For garnishing :
- 10 shallots, peeled, sliced and fried until golden brown
- Cucumber and beansprouts

Method :
For the gravy
- Boil pork belly until 3/4 cooked, slice and set aside.
- Bring water in a pot to boil and put in all the prawn shells. Boil for about 45 minutes.
- Strain the soup stock and set aside.
- In a pot, heat oil and saute garlic or a few seconds.
- Add sliced pork belly and fry for about 5 minutes.
- Add prawns and fry until cooked
- Add crab meat and pour the strained stock into the pot.
- Bring to a boil and then lower the heat to a simmer.
- Add soya sauce, kayciap/sweet soya sauce, salt and sugar to taste.
- In a small bowl mix the tapioca flour with water to make a paste.
- Bring gravy to a boil and add the tapioca flour. Stir to thicken the gravy. If it is not thick enough, add more tapioca flour.
- Remove from heat.

For the chilli sauce :
- pound the chillies, shallots and garlic (need not be too fine)
- add vinegar, salt and sugar to taste.
- can also add some kayciap or kicap manis for extra oomph!

To serve :
- put noodles into a serving bowl.
- add gravy and garnish with cucumbers, beansprouts and fried shallots.
- eat with chilli sauce.