Penang Hokkien Mee Recipe (Prawn Mee / Har Meen / Mee Yoke / 福建虾面)

Add 15 cups of water into a pot and bring it to bowl. Add in all the shrimp heads and shell and simmer on low heat for about 2 hours or longer until the stock becomes cloudy and tastes really prawny.

Strain the stock through sieve and transfer the stock into another pot. Discard the prawn heads and shells. Scoop up and discard the orange “foam” forming at the top of the stock.

Bring the stock to boil again and add in half of the chili paste. You can add more chili paste if you like it spicier.

Add in the pork ribs and continue to boil in low heat for another 1-1.5 hour until the pork ribs are thoroughly cooked.

Add rock sugar and salt/fish sauce to taste.

To serve, place a portion of yellow noodles, rice vermicelli, water convolvulus and bean sprouts in a bowl. Ladle hot stock over. If desired, add a few pieces of pork ribs. Top with meat slices, sliced shrimp, egg quarters, and sprinkle with shallot crisps.

Serve immediately with more chili paste to taste.

Cook’s notes:

Traditionally, the shrimp heads and shells are stir-fried with oil until aromatic before adding them into the boiling water. I tried this step before and found that my “cheated” method works equally well.

The hawkers in Penang also blended the shrimp heads and shells after they are briefly boiled to extract all the flavors from the shell. Again, I tried this step before and found that my method works as well if you have plenty of shrimp heads and shells.