2015 New Year - Prawn Noodles (Har Mee) Cooking Session

We always seem to get together over food.  Must be an Asian thing!!!  I guess food and good friends go hand in hand.  The last Sunday  in December 2014 saw us having lunch at Shoya and some of the friendship shared across the table goes back as far as 40 odd years!!!  Everyone is busy with one thing or another, and whenever we meet up, it is always over food, so I guess in many ways, sharing good food and friendship is always fun.

Sharing good food with old friends

When we were leaving after a yummilicious Japanese lunch hosted by ANg, DW mentioned he wanted to learn how to make Har Mee.  Ever since I learnt this from a very old friend who now lives in Oakland, California I never go looking for it whenever I am back in Malaysia.  It is so yummy even if I have to say so myself and for those who have eaten my har mee cooked this way always raves about it and say its 'way above normal hawker/restaurant  standards".

It has been more than 2 years since I last made a batch for a "har mee party" so this time when I was in KL I was craving it and ate it twice, and twice I was disappointed - either with the stock which is not rich enough, lacked prawn flavour, or the bowl lacked condiments.

The process to make this humble noodle dish takes a long time and whenever I cook this, is it usually over 2 days.  Make the sambal (chillie paste) on the lst day and on the 2nd day is when I prep the stock and make everything else and its the "har mee party" day.  With only ONE pair of hands, its a big job for me.

When DW suggested  he wanted to learn to cook it my way, it was a good reason to pass on this "special" recipe to the next generation.  Don't know what happened, but before you know it, the cooking lesson kind of became a small "har mee party" - was supposed to have 3 students only but we ended up with 11 of us and I guess you could call the other 8 as food critics!!!



SN - shelling prawns 1st time in her life!!! 3 Har Mee students

The har mee students rocked up at 11am on New Year's day as the night before was a big nite for them ushering in 2015.

I figured if we were going to be having har mee for dinner at 6pmish I will still have to prep some bits and pieces before the students show up.

Prepping the prawn heads - hero of this dish!!!

Everything worked out well and although there was a bit of a panic scare along the way - not enough stock, the stock will not be rich enough ... I sent GK out to buy Campbell's chicken stock and the commercially ready made har mee chillie paste as standby just in case we need to use it.

I am glad to advise we did not use them and everything we made, we made from scratch and DW now has graduated with flying colours.  I guess the most important part of this dish is the sambal or the so called dipping sauce.  We tweaked the normal process a bit this time (as the numbers were growing but we only had the original amount of ingredients - 3kg of prawns) so we bought another 2kgs of the smaller prawns but shortcut the cooking process and we still managed to end up with the same results of a yummilicous har mee stock and the completed dish scored a consistent 5* rating from the guest food critics!!!


    

DR raved this Har Mee 5*




Some desserts after Har Mee - 2015 ... Sago Pudding with Gula Melaka & Santan,
Mangoo Mousse Cake, Lychee Jelly & fresh assorted fruit platter 

What a way to kick off 2015 ... busy busy cooking and then good friends coming together to eat and share the hard work put in by the graduate students - DW, SN and CL ... so now let the HAR MEE LIVE ON!!!

Har Mee graduates came up with this bowl of yumminess

Always room for improvement and the obvious one in this case is our presentation skills.  I guess we do eat with our eyes no matter how yummy we say it is, but I shall leave this in the capable hands of DW.  By the way, DW is a silent "fine dining home-chef" and I have seen some of his "creations" which is very impressive, so I am sure he will find a way to show off har mee and make it not only taste good but also look good!!! 


DW & SN showing off their hard work in one bowl of humble noodles