Fried Black Hokkien Mee

I really miss eating KL Hokkien Mee, and I mean the real thing. Thick yellow noodles braised in a dark soy-based gravy, with nothing more than some cabbage, pork slices and lard, and served with sambal belacan, it's one thing that I have to eat whenever I visit KL.

My version of it has no lard (of course if you could throw in some lard, that would be perfect). It's simple to prepare and my kids love "black noodles". A little like Asian style squid ink pasta. Perhaps a little squid ink in the dish might enhance the flavour.

Ingredients:

500g thick yellow noodles, softened in hot water

4 cloves garlic

Prawns/fish cake/calamari

Sliced pork/chicken, seasoned with soy, pepper, sugar and cornflour

2 cups cabbage, roughly chopped

Sauce:

2 tbsp soy sauce

5-6 tbsp thick dark soy sauce

2 cups stock

2 cups water

1 tsp chicken/ikan bilis stock powder

Salt, sugar, pepper for seasoning

Method

1. Fry the prawns/fish cake/calamari until cooked, remove and set aside.
2. Heat up oil and fry garlic, then fry the meat. Add cabbage and stir-fry for a while, then add sauce ingredients and bring to a boil. Add noodles, cover and braise for about 10 minutes or until noodles and cabbage have softened and gravy is thick and starchy. Add more water/stock if necessary to cook the noodles further.
3. When cooked, add the prawns/fish cake/calamari, mix it through and it's ready to serve with some sambal belacan.

Note: I find that this dish usually tastes better the next day after the noodles have soaked up the gravy.