Milky Seafood Noodle Soup (Mee Tai Mak)

“Express Homemade Milky Seafood Soup using a LOW-FAT Evaporated Milk .”

We were having packed Mee Tai Mak Soup from hawker stores as dinner for the past two days, as we wished to have just something hot, soupy, light and fast. And, I was still fanatical over the same noodle soup, for tonight’s dinner. Not the same again, we had the home-cooked one, I cooked as I was inspired by the blogger of My Memories, posting her Milky Fish Soup. It built the urge of having it cooked with a different kind of soup base, the milky type instead of my usual clear soup. With much variances, I’ve came out with the noodle soup recipe of my own.

Besides fish slices, I have added with other seafood as well as some minced pork meat, to make my soup dish more plentiful. Assorted soup (什锦汤) has always been my favourite as I’ll get to eat in varieties, despite having to cook only 1-dish meal.

And, Mee Tai Mak, to spell it exact, it should be Bee Thye Mak, according to the packaging, I love this chewy rice noodle. It is made short, to have it easier to scope using just a spoon when eat it. Unlike yellow noodle, bee hoon or rice vermicelli  its texture is much more chewy. It looks crystal white when cooked. Taste of Mee Tai Muk is rather bland. So, it is best to go with rich flavoured soup, or thick gravy. I’m going to show you my flavoursome soup base now:

Ingredients
700g Mee Tai Mak aka rice noodles (in Chinese: 米太目)
200 gram of medium prawns, trimmed
4 crab sticks, halves lengthwise
8 fish cakes, cut into bite size
8 pork meatballs
1 cup of minced pork meat, about 200 gram (season with 1 tablespoon each of light soy sauce, pepper and corn starch, marinate for 15 minutes)
1 piece of boneless fish fillet, 1 cm thick sliced (season with 1 tablespoon each of sesame oil, pepper and Shao Hsing Hua Diao rice wine, marinate for 15 minutes)
1 cup of Chinese cabbage, cut into bite-size

For soup base:
Handful of dried ikan bilis (aka dried anchovies)
2 tomatoes, halves
1 tablespoon of white pepper corns, lightly crushed
2 cloves of garlic, coarsely chopped
1 slice of ginger, about thumb size
1 small onion, coarsely chopped
1 small cup of low-fat evaporated milk (about 200ml)
Slabs of salt and pepper
1 tablespoon cooking oil
1 pot of water, 50% filled (about 1500ml)

Method:
1) Heat large stock pot with oil over high fire. Add the onions, garlic and ginger. Stir-fry till fragrant, and add dried ikan bilis. Stir-fry for another 1 minute.

2) Pour in water. Bring the pot to a boil again. Add pepper corns and tomatoes. Allow the soup stock to simmer for at least 40 minutes, with lid on. Keep the soup slight bubbling with medium-low heat, when simmering.

3) Remove lid, add in cabbages, minced pork, fish cakes, meatballs and crab stick. Sprinkle salt and pepper. Increase heat to high fire. Bring all ingredients to a boil.

4) Then, add in prawns and fish slices. Stir in evaporated milk, and let it boil for another minute before heat off.

5) Divide noodles into 4 – 5 bowls. Ladle soup with ingredients into each bowl. Serve hot.

I loved pork meatballs. Whenever I cook noodle soup dish, I will try adding it, just for her. You may vary the ingredients such as mussels, squids and etc, as wished, as long as they don’t affect the taste of the soup.

As for the choice of fish, I used Sea Bream fish fillet. It’s boneless and less fishy scent.

Simply loved the soup with milk even just a little, as it made the soup extra tasty!

Just because it is assorted (seafood + pork meat) soup with (low fat) milk, this noodle soup dish yields about 400kcal. I used low fat milk, it helps a little here by reducing 50kcal. If desired, change it to pure fish slices noodle soup (with milk), it’ll reduce calorie by 60kcal. Without milk at all, the noodle soup counts only 340kcal. I’ll leave the choice to you!

I am not too fussy over the ikan bilis in the soup. If you mind, put the ikan bilis in a soup bag when boiling, for easy removal after boiled.

Tips: Increase or reduce the amount of evaporated milk, to your desire.