If you can’t go to hawker stall, why not bring the hawker stall to you?
My boss gave prawn paste from Penang, so we decided to cook this.
A popular hawker dish in Penang, the broth is made from a combination of prawn stock and pork bones. As you would need a really big batch of prawn heads to make a truly delicious soup – ready-made prawn pastes like this come in handy for homecooks like us.
The soup is then served with noodles and topped with fresh prawns, sliced meat, hard-boiled egg, kankung (water spinach), and a side of chilli paste.
For this recipe, we used pressure cooker to reduce cooking time – but it can be adapted for stove-top as well.
To enhance the prawn taste for the soup, we sauteed and added the heads and shells from a few tiger prawns. We also added some pork ribs to provide added sweetness to the soup.
This paste is quite good – it has a nice spicy kick to it but it tones down after awhile. There are plenty of ready-made prawn noodles in the market. It certainly makes preparation a lot easier – but it is key that you find a prawn paste that suits your taste buds.
The prawn aroma when cooking is just so heavenly!
A good bowl of prawn noodles should have a rich, spicy, prawn-y broth topped with fresh succulent prawns and a good sambal on the side.
If you are even in Penang, popular places to check out prawn mee (simply called Hokkien mee in Penang) include Green House Hokkien Mee Corner, Old Green House Restaurant, and Bridge Street Prawn Noodles.
For somewhere less touristy, check out our review for Fettes Park Cafe.
Our absolute favourite place for prawn mee in KL are San Peng Prawn Mee (our review here) and the stall at Restoran Yong Len in TTDI.
For stories and step-by-step process, check out our Instagram post here.
![Penang Hokkien prawn mee [Pressure cooker recipe]](https://thokohmakan.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/20200403190645_IMG_6224-Copy-530x530.jpg)
Penang Hokkien prawn mee [Pressure cooker recipe]
Course: Lunch, BreakfastCuisine: Chinese, MalaysianDifficulty: Easy4
servings30
minutes30
minutesA pressure cooker recipe to make Hokkien prawn mee.
Ingredients
12 tiger prawns
400g pork ribs (or loin)
250g ready-made prawn noodle paste
6 garlic cloves, minced
400g yellow noodles/bihun/kuey teow
2 litres of water
- Toppings
4 hard-boiled eggs
a bunch of kangkung (water spinach)
1 cup of bean sprouts
Directions
- Blanch prawns
- Clean, de-vein and deshell the prawns. Keep the prawn heads and shells to use as additional stock for soup.
- Boil a pot of water and blanch the prawns until cooked (Takes less than a minute, be careful to not overcook it). Set aside. These prawns will be served along with the noodles at the end.
- Blanch pork
- Boil a pot of water and blanch the pork until it turns colour. Set aside.
- Making soup base
- Turn on saute mode on pressure cooker. Add oil and saute garlic with prawn heads/shells until fragrant and change colour.
- Add the prawn paste and 2 litres of water (or follow your packet’s instructions). Turn on pressure mode, and pressure cook for 20 minutes. Let pressure release naturally if possible. Adjust taste if necessary. Remove the pork and cut into slices if necessary. [ *For stove top, let it simmer for about 1 hour until pork softens].
- Prepare noodles, eggs and kangkung
- Bring a pot of water to boil and blanch the kangkung and bean sprouts separately. About 30 seconds to 1 minute each. Run under cold water and set aside.
- Blanch the noodles as well if necessary.
- Also take this time to cook your hard-boiled eggs.
- Combine for single serving
- Place an egg, noodles, kangkung, pork slices (or ribs) and bean sprouts into a single serving bowl.
- Ladle the soup over the soup over the noodles and serve. Repeat for next serving. Enjoy with a side of chilli paste.
