Mee Kedah (Kedah Noodles)

Finally, I am trying a recipe from Betty Saw's cookbook, Rasa Malaysia. I bought this book more than a year ago and as usual, all I ever did since then was flip the pages. And what a blessing this book has been as it features recipes from all the states in Malaysia.

Gravy, noodles and condiments

As I looked through dishes featured in the Kedah section, I decided to try the Mee Kedah. There are not many photographs featured in this book and I had to use my imagination to conjure images of this noodle dish. From what I could gather from the ingredients, the gravy derives it's main flavours from dried prawns.

Pounded dried prawns and spice paste

And this is the first time I am cooking a dish that I have never eaten before. The spice paste used is pretty simple. It is made of dried chillies, shallots and garlic. These are blended and then sauteed until fragrant before adding the pounded dried prawns. I must say that at this stage, my kitchen was exuding a heavenly aroma. I wonder if my neighbours were suddenly hit by pangs of hunger due to the wonderful smell. Hee..hee...

Beef slices and prawns in the red gravy. Yummy!

Once the dried prawns are sufficiently fried (garing), beef broth is added. And when I tasted the soup, it very much reminded me of prawn noodle soup (har mee). Instead of prawn heads and shells, this Mee Kedah gets it's robust prawn flavours from the pounded dried prawns.

I was very pleased with the outcome and I enjoyed the Mee Kedah very much. Imagine prawn mee with slices of beef, that's what Mee Kedah is like. Highly recommended!

Mee Kedah (Kedah Noodles)
Recipe from : Rasa Malaysia by Betty Saw (Page 229). My adaptations in red.

Ingredients :
- 600g Yellow noodles
- 1 tablespoon cooking oil (to oil the noodles)
- 300g beef, thinly sliced
- 1.5 liter water
- 4 tablespoons cooking oil
- 120g dried prawns, pounded
- 300g fresh prawns, shells removed
- 1/2 can (285g) tomato soup (I substituted with 2 tablespoons of tomato puree added with 250ml water)
- 1 teaspoon seasoning powder (I used 3 cubes of chicken stock)
- Salt to taste
- 300g mustard greens (sawi hijau)

Blended ingredients :
- 20 dried chillies, soaked
- 8 shallots
- 3 cloves garlic

Garnishing :
- 4 hard boiled eggs
- 2 pieces beancurd, fried and cut into strips
- 300g beansprouts
- 2 tomatoes, sliced
- 5 red chillies, sliced
- Fried shallots
- Spring onions
- Chinese parsley (daun sup)

Method :
- Blanch noodles in boiling water and drain.
- Toss noodles with 1 tablespoon cooking oil to avoiding them from clumping together.
- Boil beef until tender. 
- Heat 4 tablespoons oil and saute blended ingredients for a few minutes.
- Add dried prawns and continue to fry until fragrant.
- Add beef together with the water it was boiled in. Bring to a boil.
- Add fresh prawns, tomato soup, seasoning and salt.
- Add greens.

To serve :
- Put noodles in serving bowl.
- Pour soup over the noodles and garnish accordingly.

I am submitting this post to Malaysian Food Fest, Kedah and Perlis Month hosted by WendyinKK of Table for 2.....or More.