Busy Bee Cafe

Whenever you see the word ‘mee’ on any of my post, it stands for noodles. That’s what we call it in Malaysia and that’s what I call it where ever I am.

It has been freezing lately in London. Too cold for it to be March. So cold that a nice bowl of soup would be lovely indeed… and guess what? It was lovely. So lovely that Little Bee picked every sweetcorn up with her chopsticks!

There are many recipes for mee soup. Some are very elaborate but when you’ve spent the whole day at work and then dragging your child home and getting you child ready for the evening, all you want is something really simple, and this is very simple!

Oh… I used capelli d’angelo as I didn’t have egg noodles but obviously you could swap it with egg noodles or any other noodles that you fancy.

Ingredients:

Capelli d’angelo, cooked, drained and leave to the side in cold water
1 tbsp oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 boneless chicken breasts
1 inch fresh ginger, peeled and sliced
1 cube vegetable stock
500ml water
1 carrot, jullienned
2 large Chinese cabbage leaves, sliced
1 small tin of sweetcorn
2 spring onions, sliced

1. Heat oil in a pan, add garlic and fry for a minute. Add the chicken and let it seal which takes about a couple of minutes. Add the ginger, vegetable stock and water. Bring to boil.
2. Reduce the heat and add the vegetables. Cover and let it simmer until the chicken is cooked.
3. Drain the pasta/noodles and put it into the bowls to be served. Ladle the soup into the bowls. Put the chicken breasts on to a chopping board and chop them into bite size. Put the chicken into the bowls on top of the noodles.

You can garnish it with corriander leaves, sliced chilli and sprinkle soy sauce over it. But I like it as it is

Little Bee was asking for bubur (rice porridge) yesterday but as the cupboard was bare, I promised her that we’ll do grocery shopping and will make it for her lunch tomorrow… which is today. So, I was all ready to make her bubur and told her so, when she said that she wanted noodles.

OK.

I wasn’t planning to make any noodles this week and I know that she’s asking for egg noodles which I don’t have… I have flat rice noodles and rice vermicelli noodles but no egg noodles… but I did have have some capelli d’angelo which I usually use as substitute for egg noodles.

Disaster diverted!

Little Bee also specified that she wanted cauliflower, carrots, green beans and prawns in the noodles.

OK. This will now, not be the traditional mee goreng mamak but will be mee goreng cincai (whatever will do) which is how I cook anyway.

As I was grabbing things out of the fridge, I remembered the tempeh (soya bean cake) that came through the letter box on Friday. I haven’t had tempeh in this country. I couldn’t bring myself to buy the frozen tempeh in the Chinese supermarkets. But I decided to purchase fresh tempeh online after chatting with a fellow Malaysian over lunch a couple of weeks ago and will order some ragi (tempeh starter) and try make my own in the new year!

Anyway, the tempeh is another ingredient that got thrown into my mee goreng. So for those who asked for the recipe, this is not the traditional mee goreng mamak, so don’t be to disappointed if it taste nothing like the mee goreng you tasted, plus it is very mild as Little Bee’s taste bud is still developing so I don’t want to ruin it yet!

Ingredients:

1 tbsp corn oil
1 tsp belacan (shrimp paste)
1 tsp chilli paste
1 carrot, julliene
a handful green beans
a cup of cauliflower
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp dark soy sauce
1 tbsp tomato sauce
1 tsp sugar
225g raw prawns
half cup of thinly sliced fried tempeh
2 eggs
100g capelli d’angelo (this only takes two minutes to cook in boiling water)

1. Heat wok on high heat and add the oil. Add the belacan and fry it for a minute (unless you have a pre-fried belacan). Add the chilli paste and fry until fragrant or ‘pecah minyak’ (the oil and paste is separated).
2. Add the vegetables and fry for two minutes. Add the soy sauce, dark sauce, tomato sauce and sugar. Stir to mix it all up, reduce the heat slightly, cover and let the vegetables steam for a minute. Add the prawns, stir and cover it again for another minute.
3. Add the fried tempeh, make a well in the middle and add the eggs. Whisk the eggs in the well with your spatula or whatever cooking utensil you’re using, until the eggs are half cook and stir into the rest of the ingredients.
4. Add in the cooked capelli d’angelo. Mix well… and ta dah… it’s ready.

BTW… I’m writing this from memory as a couple of G+ members asked for the recipe. I might have to edit it later in case I missed out anything… but I don’t think so. Anyway… this should only be a guide as traditional Malay cooking doesn’t really use measurements as everything is ‘secukup rasa’ (to your taste) or ‘agak-agak’ (about that much maybe if I have to guess). So, do add or reduce any ingredients as you think fit

Tonight I decided to make Mee Bandung, a noodle soup dish which originated from Muar, a town in my state of Johor. I remember when I was a child, I always wondered why it was called Mee Bandung, when no one in Bandung (a town in Indonesia) seem to know about this dish… until I realised that the word bandung is not the one with the capital ‘b’ as in the town, but a small ‘b’ where bandung means ‘pair’.

You can find Mee Bandung everywhere in Malaysia now but obviously, the best ones are still in Muar itself.

So, tonight, I decided to make Mee Bandung Muar… but when I opened my cupboard, I realised that I don’t have all the ingredients so I’m making Mee Bandung London instead

Ingredients:

1 sweet potato
2tbsp vegetable oil
1tsp belacan (shrimp paste)
3 dried chillis deseeded
1 large onion
2 garlic cloves
150g beef thinly sliced
200g raw prawns devined
1 cup of beef stock
100g peanuts (roasted and grounded)
100g spinach
2 eggs
100g capelli d’angelo

1.  Boil and mash up the sweet potato. Leave it to the side.
2. Put the belacan, chilli, onion and garlic into a blender and blend them into a paste. Heat up the oil and fry the blended paste until fragrant and the oil separates.
3. Add the beef and stir fry for a minute then add the prawns and fry for another minute before adding in the stock. Bring it to a boil and add the mashed sweet potato and ground peanuts.
4. Let the sauce thicken slightly and add the spinach.
5. In another saucepan, boil some water and cook the capelli d’angelo (the reason I used this is because I didn’t have any egg noodles in my pantry and it is a good substitute )
6. Once the spinach has wilted, break the egg one at a time and let them poach in the sauce to your liking. I like the yolk soft in the middle.
7. Drain and put the noodle/pasta in a bowl and pour the sauce over it.

For those Malaysians, especially from Muar, who will argue that this is not Mee Bandung recipe as it doesn’t have any dried shrimp… well, it’s not as easy to get here unless you live next to an oriental shop… that why this is Mee Bandung London style… cincailah

This is a very simple, yummy noodle dish. It is also one of my favourite dish to order at a hawker stall apart from char koey teow.

As any Malaysian dishes, everyone has their own recipe… this is mine.

Ingredients:

2 tbsp light soy sauce
2 tbsp sweet soy sauce
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1/2 tsp ground white pepper
200ml water
2 tbsp oil
4 cloves galic, sliced
175g king prawns
100g fish cake, thinly sliced
200g pak choi, sliced (separate the leaves and the stalk)
2 eggs, beaten
400g fresh yellow egg noodles
2 red chillies, sliced

1. Make the sauce by combining the light soy sauce, sweet soy sauce, oyster sauce, white pepper and water in a bowl and set aside.
2. Heat the oil on high heat in wok and stir fry the garlic until glodlen brown.
3. Add the prawns and the fish cake and stir fry for a couple of minutes.
4. Add the sliced stalk of the pak choi and stir fry for a couple of minutes.
5. Add the sauce and bring it to a boil before adding the sliced pak choi leaves.
6. Pour in the beaten eggs in the middle of the wok and leave it to semi set for 30 seconds before stiring it into the sauce.
7. Add the noodles and sliced chillies and cook for a further 3 minutes before serving.

You can garnish it with fried shallots but I didn’t as I forgot to get some when I was at the Chinese supermarket… oh well…