30 Minute Malaysian Mee Siam

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Grab yourself a large glass of water (ok, beer) because these noodles are waaaarm! I may have mentioned once or twice that I love spicy food - especially Malaysian, Indonesian, Singapore and Thai cuisine. Sweet, spicy, hot and sour - just make me something with those flavours - in pretty much any form - and I’ll eat it. This Mee Siam is based on the Malaysian version - which is a hot and spicy dry noodle dish.  There’s also a Singapore version that’s somewhat similar, but is served with a spicy gravy. Maybe I’ll make that one soon 😋 The dish is typically made with very thin rice noodles (vermicelli), and it has some big punchy flavours - such as chillies, lime, bean paste and tamarind.  My versions is not a 100% authentic version. I’ve tried to keep as close as possible to those authentic flavours, but I’ve modified it to use ingredients that are easier to find in larger supermarkets, and require minimal preparation. I LOVE going to the Asian supermarkets to pick out all of the amazing ingredients, but there aren’t any near me, so I wanted to create something that I could make when I was craving those Mee Siam flavours.

Now we pull everything together. Fry king prawns, tiny shrimp and beansprouts for a few minutes, before adding the paste mixture we made earlier.Stir fry it together, then add cooked vermicelli noodles and soy sauce. Cook, tossing it all together until the noodles are heated through.

👩‍🍳PRO TIP You can use ready-cooked vermicelli/rice noodles, or you can cook them yourself in boiling water for a couple of minutes. If boiling yourself, once you drain them, run them under the cold tap to cool them completely - this will help stop them sticking together.

First we make the base by frying up onions, garlic, chillies, ginger and shrimp paste and then blending them up to make a thick red paste.Once it’s blended, stir in yellow bean paste, tamarind paste, fish sauce and a little sugar and put to one side.

Now make the omelette, which is made from 2 eggs, whisked together with a little soy sauce and fried in the wok in a thin layer (I do this in two batches so ensure they’re extra thin).Once the omelette are cooked, stack them on a board, roll up and slice into strips.

Divide the mee siam between plates and top with slices of omelette, spring onions, lime wedges and some some strips of fresh chilli. Apart from the delicious spiciness to this dish, I think one of the reasons I like it some much is down to the toppings.  Spring onions, chillies and lime wedges are fabulous with any food of this type.  The omelette though? An absolute must.  It’s just egg, soy sauce and a little oil, but it works perfectly with all the other flavours.

Ingredient swaps I’ve used

Authentic Mee Siam would normally use dried tamarind, dried shrimp and Taucheo or yellow bean paste, which can sometimes be a little difficult to get hold of.I’ve swapped out the dried tamarind and shrimp, but I’m still using the yellow bean paste in my recipe. Here’s a bit of info on my swaps and a couple of alternatives for the yellow bean paste if you can’t find it.

Dried shrimp - You can always find these at Asian supermarkets, but I don’t have one nearby and can never find it in the supermarket.  They are tiny little shrimp that have been dried to extend shelf life and to give a really concentrated shrimp flavour.  They require soaking to plump them up again.  Since I can’t get hold of them, I use some tiny (1cm long) fresh shrimp, along with a little shrimp paste and fish sauce.  I also use larger shrimp (king prawns) in this dish.Taucheo or Yellow Bean Paste - This is a salty paste made from fermented yellow soy beans.  I found some of this in my local supermarket, but if you can’t find it, you can replace it with another soybean based paste - such as black bean, chilli bean (will be hotter) or even hoisin (will be a little sweeter).  I’ve made this previously with hoisin, and it still tasted delicious.

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