Wantan Mee

Ingredients

The noodles

• 400 gfresh thin egg noodles
• wantan mee noodles
• or thin Chinese egg noodles

The wontons

• 24wonton wrappers
• 200 gminced pork
• 100 gprawns, chopped
• optional
• 1 tablespoonsoy sauce
• 1 teaspoonsesame oil
• 1 teaspoonShaoxing wine
• or dry sherry
• 2spring onions, finely chopped
• 1 teaspoongrated ginger
• half a teaspoon sugar
• white pepper
• 1 teaspooncornflour

The sauce

• 3 tablespoonsdark soy sauce
• 3 tablespoonslight soy sauce
• 2 tablespoonsoyster sauce
• 1 tablespoonsesame oil
• 1 teaspoonsugar
• 3 tablespoonsshallot oil
• with the crisp shallots
• white pepper

To serve

• 300 gchar siu
• sliced thinly
• shop bought is normal
• 200 gchoy sum or gai lan
• blanched
• pickled green chillies
• in vinegar
• spring onions, sliced
• a bowl of the wonton broth

Directions

1. Cook them very briefly. Fresh wantan mee needs twenty to thirty seconds. Shake the nest apart with your fingers. Rinse them in cold water immediately. That stops the cooking instantly. Shake them thoroughly. Wet noodles dilute the sauce.
2. Slice shallots thinly and evenly. Put them in a cold pan with oil. Turn the heat to medium-low. Fry them slowly. Take them off while still pale gold. This takes twenty minutes of low patient frying. Strain them and keep the oil and the shallots. Combine the pork, prawns and seasonings. Mix it in one direction for two minutes.
3. Put a small amount in the centre of a wrapper. Use a teaspoon, no more. Wet the edges with water. Press out the air. Pinch it closed. Press it out as you seal. Lay them on a floured tray. Cover them so they do not dry out.
4. Boil them in plenty of water. They take three or four minutes. Season it lightly. Add a little white pepper. Slice it thinly across the grain.
5. Lay it over the noodles. Give them a minute or two. Slice green chillies into rings. Cover them with rice vinegar. Add a pinch of sugar and salt. Let them stand an hour. They keep a month refrigerated.
6. Put the sauce in the bottom of each bowl. Add the hot drained noodles. Toss them thoroughly. Toss immediately and thoroughly. Lay the char siu over. Add the blanched greens. Scatter crisp shallots and spring onion. Serve the wontons in a bowl of broth alongside.
7. Serve pickled chillies on the table. Assembled bowls do not keep. Freeze them on a tray before bagging. Boil them from frozen with an extra minute.

Technique

• Cook fresh wantan mee for twenty to thirty seconds only. They are thin and already partly cooked, and longer makes them soft — losing the springy bite the whole dish is judged on, which is the commonest failure here.
• Loosen the nest with your fingers before it goes in the water. A tight nest overcooks outside while the centre stays raw.
• Rinse them in cold water immediately, then dip them back in the hot water for two or three seconds. The cold shock stops the cooking and washes off surface starch that would clump them; the hot dip reheats without cooking further. Stalls do exactly this, repeatedly, and it firms the noodles considerably.
• Shake the noodles thoroughly dry. Wet noodles dilute a sauce that is deliberately sparse.
• Use very little sauce — a tablespoon or two per portion. It coats rather than pools, and too much makes the noodles soggy and salty.
• Dark and light soy do different jobs: dark for colour and slight sweetness, light for salt and savour. Using only one gives a poorer result, and dark soy should not be substituted for light by volume.
• Put the sauce in the bowl first and toss the noodles into it. Sauce poured over the top sits there, and noodles left sitting clump.
• Fry the shallots slowly over twenty patient minutes and take them off while still pale gold — they darken off the heat, and waiting for brown in the pan gives burnt bitter shallots that ruin the oil. Keep both the oil and the shallots.
• Use a teaspoon of filling per wonton and press the air out as you seal. Overfilled or air-filled wontons burst in the water, and a wonton is mostly wrapper by design.
• Mix the wonton filling in one direction for two minutes until it turns tacky. That is what binds it.
• The ruffled loosely-gathered Malaysian wonton shape is deliberate — those ruffles catch the broth.
• Char siu is normally bought from a Chinese barbecue shop rather than made, which is what almost everyone does. Its red edge is usually food colouring, though traditionally it came from red fermented bean curd.
• Pickled green chillies in vinegar are essential rather than a garnish. Their sharpness is what cuts the rich sauce and pork, and they are on every table where this is sold.
• This contains wheat, egg, soy and often shellfish — oyster sauce included. Say so plainly.

Substitutions

• Thin Chinese egg noodles replace wantan mee noodles; dried ones lack the springiness.
• Shop-bought char siu replaces homemade and is what most people use.
• Crisp fried shallots from a jar replace homemade, though the oil is harder to buy.
• Prawns in the wonton filling are optional; pork alone is common.
• Choy sum, gai lan or any Asian green serve.
• The soup version puts everything in broth rather than tossing the noodles dry.

Variations

• Wantan mee served in soup rather than dry is the other standard way.
• Kolo mee in Sarawak is the related dry noodle dish.
• Hong Kong wonton noodle soup uses a prawn-forward wonton and a shrimp broth.
• Char siu rice serves the same pork over rice instead.
• Sarawak laksa and other noodle dishes come from the same coffee shops.
• A version with dumplings fried rather than boiled is offered at some stalls.

Frequently asked questions

What is Wantan Mee?

Wantan Mee is a main from Malaysia: springy noodles with char siu and wonton dumplings.

How long does Wantan Mee take to make?

Wantan Mee takes 40 minutes of preparation and 30 minutes of cooking. The recipe makes serves 4. It is rated medium to make.

What can I substitute in Wantan Mee?

Yes, within limits. Thin Chinese egg noodles replace wantan mee noodles; dried ones lack the springiness. Shop-bought char siu replaces homemade and is what most people use. Crisp fried shallots from a jar replace homemade, though the oil is harder to buy. Prawns in the wonton filling are optional; pork alone is common. Choy sum, gai lan or any Asian green serve. The soup version puts everything in broth rather than tossing the noodles dry.

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

Put a small amount in the centre of a wrapper. Use a teaspoon, no more. Wet the edges with water. Press out the air. Pinch it closed. Press it out as you seal. Lay them on a floured tray. Cover them so they do not dry out.