Mee Siam

Ingredients

Noodles

• 300 gdried bee hoon, thin rice vermicelli

Rempah

• 10dried chillies, soaked
• 8shallots
• 4 clovesgarlic
• 2 stalkslemongrass
• 1 tspbelacan, toasted
• 50 gdried shrimp, soaked

Gravy

• 3 tbsptaucheo, fermented soybean paste, mashed
• 100 gtamarind pulp in 800 ml warm water
• 80 gpalm sugar
• 1 litreprawn or chicken stock
• 5 tbspoil

Toppings

• 300 gprawns, cooked
• 200 gfirm tofu, fried and sliced
• 4hard-boiled eggs, halved
• 150 gbean sprouts, blanched
• 1 bunchgarlic chives, cut in lengths

To serve

• calamansi or lime halves
• sambal

Directions

1. Soak the bee hoon in cold water for 20 minutes until pliable, then drain it. Soak them in cold water, never boiling. Boiled vermicelli goes soft and breaks apart in the gravy, and it needs to stay springy.
2. Squeeze the tamarind pulp in the warm water with your fingers, then strain it and discard the seeds and fibres. Work the pulp properly with your hands rather than just stirring it, because most of the sourness is locked in the flesh around the seeds.
3. Pound or blend the soaked chillies, shallots, garlic, lemongrass, dried shrimp and toasted belacan into a fine rempah. Blend it genuinely smooth. A coarse rempah gives a gritty gravy, and mee siam gravy should be silky.
4. Heat the oil in a wide pan and fry the rempah over a medium heat for 10 to 15 minutes. Fifteen minutes sounds excessive and it is not. Set aside about a third of the fried rempah for tossing the noodles. Add the mashed taucheo to the pan and fry 3 minutes more.
5. Pour in the stock and the strained tamarind water and bring to a simmer. Add the palm sugar and simmer 20 minutes. It must be sour first, then sweet, then savoury, in that order of prominence. Keep tasting and adjusting the tamarind and the palm sugar against each other until it makes you salivate. The gravy should be thin and pourable, not thick.
6. Toss the drained noodles in a wok with the reserved rempah and a splash of the gravy over a medium heat until evenly orange and heated through. Dressing the noodles separately in rempah is what stops them being bland under the gravy, and skipping it is why home versions taste flat.
7. Pile the noodles into bowls and top with prawns, fried tofu, blanched sprouts, chives and half a boiled egg. Ladle the hot gravy over at the table rather than in the kitchen. Pour the gravy at the last moment. Noodles left standing in it turn to mush within minutes.
8. Squeeze calamansi over and serve with sambal on the side. A dry version without gravy exists in Malaysia and is a legitimate variant rather than a mistake.

Technique

• Taucheo is sold as fermented soybean paste or salted soybeans in Chinese and Malay shops.
• The gravy can be made a day ahead and improves overnight.
• Calamansi is sharper and more floral than lime and is worth finding.

Substitutions

• Miso thinned with water at a pinch, in place of taucheo, which is not the same.
• Lime for calamansi.

Variations

• The dry Malaysian version, without gravy.
• Vegetarian, with mushroom stock and no dried shrimp or belacan.
• With chicken as well as prawns.

History

A Malay dish named for Siam but developed in Singapore and Johor, topped with egg and lime.

Frequently asked questions

What is Mee Siam?

Mee Siam is a main from Singapore: thin rice noodles in a sweet-sour tamarind and fermented bean gravy. A Malay dish named for Siam but developed in Singapore and Johor, topped with egg and lime.

How long does Mee Siam take to make?

Mee Siam takes 40 min of preparation and 40 min of cooking. The recipe makes 4 servings. It is rated hard to make.

What can I substitute in Mee Siam?

Yes, within limits. Miso thinned with water at a pinch, in place of taucheo, which is not the same. Lime for calamansi.

What is the most important thing to get right in Mee Siam?

Soak the bee hoon in cold water for 20 minutes until pliable, then drain it. Soak them in cold water, never boiling. Boiled vermicelli goes soft and breaks apart in the gravy, and it needs to stay springy.