There is always that one special dish that reminds you of your childhood and this is one of mine. I was so tempted to add additional ingredients to it but then decided I want it to be true to THAT nostalgic taste of my youth. So today we have this simple stir-fry Mi-Hoon, Bi-Hoon or Mai Fun in Cantonese for the day. I say for the day because we have it for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Luckily though hubby a white British male, has adapted to Malaysian food like a duck to water, so to speak.
I have decided to blog this because I did not agree with something I read the other day. A lot of the time whether a dish comes out good or bad depends on how we handle the ingredients. I often heard from mostly, not Asian I have to say, that they can never fry rice vermicelli well and that they followed all the instructions on the package, but their stir-fries all came out mush, breaking and terrible. So, I hope the TIPs I give here will help.
TIP 1 – Make you egg pancakes first. I used seasoned oil (garlic and shallots lard oil). Do not add anything dark to your eggs and do not beat them so vigorously. It is nicer to see the yolks and whites, rather than just a patch of mustard coloured.
TIP 2 – Rinse your tin out well. It cost about £10 for a tin to buy in UK so do not waste a single drop of taste.
TIP 3 – Your rice vermicelli only needed to be soak in cold water till just soften. Do NOT use hot water. Remove and drain your rice vermicelli as soon as they have loosened. Do NOT let them sits in the water till soft. This is because you want the rice vermicelli to soak up the braised stew sauce. You do the same if you want to use for stir-fry. NOTE: You only soak your rice vermicelli in hot water if you are making a noodle soup because then the noodles are served directly.
TIP 4 – Let your rice vermicelli noodles soak all the sauce before you turn the heat off and then, only then do you add in your beansprouts. It is awful to eat mushy, wet and overcooked beansprouts. Crunchy just without that ‘raw’ taste is the best!
