Joe's "Mee Rebus"

In January, I tried a new recipe - "mee rebus", which is a common breakfast meal in Singapore. Back home, my wife and I like the mee rebus sold by a Malay lady at the hawker stall in Clementi Avenue 3. Compared to the mee rebus sold in Singapore, I would consider mine to be a premium version because, in addition to mashed sweet potato, I also used mashed asparagus to thicken the gravy.

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What inspired me to think of this dish was some boiled sweet potato, leftovers from a dessert we had the previous day. So, whilst my wife was attending the Ice Cream 101 course, I stayed at home to do my internet research and prepare the dish. My plan was to surprise her with a warm bowl of "mee rebus" when she came home that evening.

My search on the internet came up with several versions of the recipe, which I adapted and improvised based on the ingredients we had in the fridge and pantry. Here is the recipe:

Ingredients: yellow noodles, bean sprouts, sweet potato (& asparagus), coconut milk, eggs, tofu, shallots (finely sliced), sour lime(or lime juice), dark soya sauce, green chili (sliced), chicken, fried prawn (fish) cakes

Rempah: garlic, dried chili, shallots/onion, tumeric, curry leaves, ginger, blacan(shrimp paste), coriander powder, fermented beanpaste.

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Preparation:
1. Boil chicken in a pot to make stock. Strain & set aside the chicken.

2. Peel and boil sweet potatoes (& asparagus), then mash.
3. Boil eggs, shell and cut into halves (or quarters)
4. Blend rempah mixture in a blender.
5. Cut tofu into small cubes and deep fried in oil.
6. Tear chicken meat into strips

7. Fry fish or prawn cakes.

8. Fry sliced shallots till crispy and fragrant.

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The gravy is what makes "mee rebus" so yummy!
Preparing the gravy:
1. Fry rempah in oil till fragrant, add chicken stock and bring to boil.

2. Add mashed sweet potato (& asparagus). Note: Most recipe will suggest adding sweet potato flour (first mixed with water) until the gravy become thick and creamy. I didn't. Instead, I boiled and blended some soyabeans into a paste and used that in addition to the mashed sweet potato and asparagus, as my thickening agent

3. To cream the gravy, I added evaporated milk (in place of coconut milk).

4. Bring to boil, simmer and season to taste with salt and sugar.

To serve:
1. Bring a pot of water to boil, blanch bean sprouts. For extra crunch, I added some iceberg lettuce.

2. Quickly blanch the yellow noodles.

3. Place noodles and bean sprouts in a bowl and pour gravy on top.

4. Garnish with tofu, egg, chicken, green chilies, fried prawn cakes & fried shallots.

5. Squeeze a small lime and add a few dash of black sauce.

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As you can see by the number of steps involved, it took me more than two hours to prepare this simple dish from scratch. A lot of hard work for just two bowls of noodle. Not something you will want to bother with, unless you are 10,000 miles away from home or you want to impress that someone special.

Verdict: Two chopsticks.

But she was not too impressed with the mess I left in the kitchen.