Noodles Penang Curry Mee

Servings: About six bowls
Adapted from: Famous Street Food of Penang (A Guide and Cook Book)

Ingredients:

Chili Paste:

10g dried and seeded red chilies
25g shallots
3 cloves garlic
50g fresh seeded red chilies
20g dried shrimp
4 tablespoons oil

Penang Curry Mee Soup-Base:

Ingredients:

(A) Spice Paste:

10g belacan (Malaysian shrimp paste)
100g shallots
50g garlic
3 stalks lemongrass
10g dried and seeded red chilies
20 white pepper corns
4 heaped tablespoons coriander powder
5 tablespoons oil

(B) Stock:

7 cups water or shrimp shell stock (preferred)
75g rock sugar
200 ml coconut milk
2 tablespoons chicken bouillon powder
Salt to taste
12 whole tofu puffs
Cooked pig’s blood cubes (cut into small cubes)

Other Ingredients:

Yellow noodles (scalded)
Dried rice vermicelli (scalded)
Fresh beansprouts (scalded)

Toppings:

Shrimp (cooked and shelled)
Soaked cuttlefish (sliced and scalded)
Cockles (shelled and scalded)

 Method:

Preparing Penang Curry Mee Stock

Roughly cut up the fresh red chilies, lemongrass, shallots and garlic. Blend all spice paste ingredients (except oil) until fine. Add some water to aid the blending process. Heat the oil and fry the paste until aromatic, on medium heat, for at least 5 minutes. Add water (or shrimp shell stock) and bring the broth to boil before adding coconut milk, chicken bouillon powder, rock sugar and salt to taste. Add the tofu puffs and cook for a few more minutes, stirring continuously to prevent the coconut milk from curdling.

Preparing Chili Paste

Blend all the ingredients to a fine paste. Heat up the oil and fry the chili paste until aromatic over medium heat, for about 5 – 8 minutes. Dish out and set aside.

Serving Penang Curry Mee

Place some noodles, rice vermicelli and bean sprouts in a bowl. Ladle the curry mee stock over, along with a couple of tofu puffs and pig’s blood cubes. Add the toppings and serve immediately with 1 teaspoon (or more) chili paste. Mix the chili paste well with the noodles and broth and eat immediately.

Cook’s Notes:

Penang Curry Mee comes with various toppings, but the usual suspects are the above I featured. Some are served with fish balls and fish cakes, even char siu slices, and some are topped with refreshing mint leaves.

I used shrimp shell stock for my curry mee stock because I have heard that some of the most famous stalls use shrimp shell stock as the base, which makes perfect sense because it’s just more flavorful.

Contrary to most beliefs, Penang curry mee doesn’t use curry powder for the broth. The only spice is coriander powder, which lends that unmistakenly subtle but not over-powering curry flavor in the broth.

Trust me, there are really noodles and vermicelli at the bottom of those toppings. The bowl is too small and I love lots of toppings on my Penang curry mee.