“Traditional Mee Hoon Kueh (面粉馃), made from scratch at home!”
Handmade noodle, a popular noodle dish in Singapore and Malaysia. There are many types and variations of handmade noodles, for instances, Ban Mian (板面), Mee Kia (面仔), and Mee Hoon Kueh (面粉馃), easily available at most food courts, hawker centres and coffee shops. I liked Mee Hoon Kueh (to pronounce in Hokkien dialect), because it is made with the “hand-peeled” method. However, for the commercial convenience, all handmade noodles are made with machine, instead. Ban Mian to be cut into flat noodles with about 0.5-cm wideness, Mee Gia will be rolled into long, thin & round strands, whilst Mee Hoon Kueh to be shaped into small flat squares. Those are for convenience as you would even be able to buy the raw machine-cut types at the supermarkets.. That’s why I still preferred the hand-made version from home. Real hand peeled and pressed version, with the home taste, mouthfeel and noodle texture you wouldn’t get from the machine made…. ~
This noodle soup recipe was adapted from my grandma’s original recipe from her hometown, Fu Zhou (福州), one of the province in China. I used clams for the soup base. Clam makes the soup tastier and sweeter with its seafood flavour. I would also add wolfberries as I loved its taste as well as the beneficial health values. Adding wolfberries not just enhances the look of your food presentation with it redish colour, it also creates additional sweetness and fragrance to the soup.
Another important ingredient to my handmade noodles soup is the Chinese Spinach (苋菜). Conventionally, vegetable to be used in this handmade noodle should be Sweet Leaf (Sauropus androgynus). In Chinese, we called it Mani Cai (马尼菜). However, Mani Cai is not commonly available in Singapore, Chinese Spinach, therefore, makes great alternative.
Making this homemade noodle also creates good bonding time for mummy and child. Get your young one to help you in kneading the dough a little. The main fun to her was to press and shape the dough into mee hoon kueh of different shapes and sizes. Well, it’s handmade.
Ingredients
For noodle dough:
500 g plain flour
2 tablespoon of corn starch
1 egg
175 ml water (about 1 – 1.5 small cup of water)
Pinch of salt
Side Ingredients and Soup Base:
200 gram of pork meat (lean shoulder butt part)
500 gram of clam (with shell intact)
1 handful of Chinese Spinach (苋菜 xiàn cài)
1 tablespoon of wolfberries aka Lycium barbarum (枸杞)
1 large pot of water, 50% filled (about 2000 – 2500ml)
1 tablespoon of corn flour (to coat pork meat for smooth texture)
2 slices of ginger
Pinch of salt and pepper
Optional:
1 handful of fried ikan Bilis
Method
1) Mix flour and corn starch with salt in large mixing bowl. Slowly stir in water. Add in egg, mix it with flour and water, and knead it into smooth dough.
2) Cover dough with clean damp cloth, let set for 1 hour until dough expanded. Reserve for later.
3) Place water in large pot. Bring to a boil over high heat. Add clams and ginger slices. Cover pot with lid. Reduce heat to medium fire. Bring it to a boil again for 10 minutes, or until clams open. Remove from pot with tongs or strainer, and remain clam stock as soup.
4) Remove clams out of shells with utility knife. Discard any clam that remain unopened.
5) Coat pork meat with corn starch. Mix well. Then, place pork meat, wolfberries and cooked clam meat into clam stock (soup). Reduce heat to low fire, simmer for 30 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste.
6) Remove the cloth and slightly flatten the dough with a rolling pin or using your palms, and then fold it over for a few times.
7) Tear a small piece from the dough, and knead & press into thin piece, and expand it with finger tips till about half the palm size or sized to your preference.
8) Place thin piece noodle into the pot. Repeat step 7, until whole dough is complete, or amount of noodles required. Add vegetables 1 minute before heat off. Serve hot.
So, it’s time to make your own handmade noodles! With a lot of loves, your handmade noodle dish would be the best one, trust me.
A serving of my mee hoon kueh counts about 410kcal.
Tips: Garnish with fried ikan Bilis, if preferred.
* No standard shape of noodles required here, let your fingers do the “shaping” freely!
* Purpose to add corn starch into the dough is to create extra smoothness to the texture of the noodles.
…and you continually leave me in awe at the things you can actually do at home!!
and the best thing is, you make it look easy!
I don’t know.. It’s simple, I personally think it is!
Just be more daring and whack the kitchen! Haha…
Well, always be prepared to try and error.. Start with smaller amount as first trial.. You will be able to conquer the kitchen and master your culinary skill!
me just had ban mian for lunch hehe … wah you make mee hoon kueh from scratch … me impressed =)
HI Noobcook,
Try it. I know you can make it even better! :)
Today i just went over to the famous mee hoon kueh stall in ss19 subang jaya. From a layman’s view of the prepared dough, it seems like it is a bit different than the normal one. It seems very white in color, sticky and very smooth texture, something similar to the roti canai type of dough. Because the dough is pulled to be very thin, you could actually see some transparent area at the side.
And when you taste it in your mouth, it is just so delicious and springy…
Patricia, do you have any idea how to make that kinda mee hoon kueh? I wish that I could make those! Anyway, I’ll try making with your suggested recipe adn see the outcome…hopefully not too bad.
Hi Sam,
To make it so thin, I guess you have to have the noodle machine to help flatten it just like the one using at those stores. However, it is not expensive to purchase one. I saw it at NTUC here selling at S$15.90 only. Not sure how much it costs in Malaysia, should be even lower price I guess! Worth getting one if you like to make noodles. Unlike mine which uses hand kneading method, the thickness will be uneven and not so thin, or you have to be very ‘hardworking’ to knead it so thin one by one. :)
As for the smooth texture, I have a secret, beside plain flour, add some corn starch in it! It helps to create smoothness in your dough. Try it!
shenice here, instead of the clam stock wad can i use for more convenience ??? thks alot
Hi Shenice,
Guess the usual pig’s bone and chicken bones will do the job… You may even want to add some ikan billis (anchovie fish) for the soup base.
Share with you my tips.. Put the ikan bilis in the soup bag before adding to soup pot. After boiling, you may easily remove from the pot, take out the ikan bilis and dry it totally. Then, you can use these ikan bilis to deep fry till crisped as topping of your mee hoon kueh, just like what you have seen and eaten from outside stores. One ingredients, two usages. Sounds good?! :)
okok, thks pat…….
Hi would like to know, is La Mian a type of handmade noodle? Roughly how many calories are there in a bowl of sliced fish la mian, soup is served separately.
thank you!!
Hi,
My Mee Hoon Kueh counts abot 450kcal per generous portion with soup. So, I guess soup La Mien has similar calorie count, too, as I assumed La Mien is made with similar ingredients, that was made by a skillful noodle making Shifu to form the thin strands by hand. As for soup served separately which you mentioned, I am not sure if any other oil and condiments were added to the dry La Mien. If so, it’s to be loaded with extra 100+ kcal, easily..
Just my opinion.
Hi pat! May I know 500gram plain flour is for how many ppl serving?
Hi Nikki,
500gram shd be good for 4-5 person.
Hmmm. I think I did state the number of servings on the top right hand corner together with cooking time on each post, including this one. Double check.
Hi pat! Sorry now then I realize for your food post u will stare the no of serving n time needed on the top right corner!!! Thanks!!!!
Hi Pat! Can I ask you if I prepare the dough in advanced do I need to put the dough in fridge? Or I juz left it outside table will do?
Hi Nikki,
If you are not cooking it straight, seal the dough and store in the refrigerator.
In any case if the surface of the dough hardens, just peel the harden layer away before cooking.
Wow that was unusual. I just wrote an extremely long comment but after I clicked submit my comment didn’t appear.
Grrrr… well I’m not writing all that over again. Regardless, just wanted to say excellent
blog!