Name: Healthier Hokkien Mee Recipe
Prep time: 1 h 10 min
Cook time: 10 min
Yield: 4 Servings
Ingredients: Chicken Bones: 1.5 chickens; Onion: 1; Parsley: 1 packet; Coriander: 1 packet; Carrot: 2; White peppercorns: 1 tsp; Ikan Bilis: 50g; Hot Water; Fresh Yellow Noodles: 1 pack; Thick Bee Hoon: 1 pack; Thin Bee Hoon: 100g; Big Wild Sea Prawns: 8 pcs; Squid: 2; Lean Pork: 200g; Egg: 2; Fishcake: 2 pcs; Spring Onion: 1 packet; bean sprouts: 200g; Cai xin: 200g; Hua Diao Wine: 1 tsp; Soy sauce: 1 tbsp; Sesame Oil: 1 tsp; Salt: 1 pinch; Garlic: 4 cloves; Shallot: 4; Cai bo: 2 tsp; miso paste: 1 heaped tsp; Fish Sauce: 1/2 tsp; Dark Sauce: 1 tsp; Olive Oil: 4 tbsp

Ingredients

Stock

1.5 chickens Chicken Bones

1 carcass, 4 leg bones, 4 feet

1 Onion

cut into 2

1 packet Parsley

washed and roots chopped off

1 packet Coriander

washed with roots

2 Carrot

chopped into chunks

1 tsp White peppercorns

50g Ikan Bilis

fried

Hot Water

Enough to cover over ingredients by 1 inch

Noodles

1 pack Fresh Yellow Noodles

1 pack Thick Bee Hoon

100g Thin Bee Hoon

Protein

8 pcs Big Wild Sea Prawns

shelled and de-veined

2 Squid

Or known as sotong. Cleaned, skin removed and sliced to rings.

200g Lean Pork

Sliced then cut to 1cm wide.

2 Egg

2 pcs Fishcake

sliced

Vegetables

1 packet Spring Onion

or chives cut 2 inch long

200g bean sprouts

rinsed and dried

200g Cai xin

optional

Pork marinate

1 tsp Hua Diao Wine

1 tbsp Soy sauce

1 tsp Sesame Oil

1 pinch Salt

Aromatics

4 cloves Garlic

chopped

4 Shallot

sliced

2 tsp Cai bo

1 heaped tsp miso paste

1/2 tsp Fish Sauce

to taste

1 tsp Dark Sauce

to colour

4 tbsp Olive Oil

2 squeezes White Pepper

to taste

6 ladles Stock

As above, as needed

Condiments

as needed Sambal Belacan

4-6 Lime

Directions

I love hokkien mee. Thus i am happy to share this Hokkien Mee recipe that tastes great yet is healthier.

Hokkien mee, or sotong mee, or cha hae mee, as commonly known by locals is a favourite amongst seafood lovers in Singapore. However, sad to say, it is a dish that we should not consume too often as it is not so healthy. What is so unhealthy about hokkien mee, some people may wonder… It looks pretty innocent. Not oily like it’s equally famous char kway teow wor… Well, to those who may not be aware, hokkien mee is usually cooked with a pork and prawn stock and prawn stock is unfortunately quite damning on your cholesterol levels and I learned that the hard way and you can read more about that in the link above. And there is the pork lard topping and the pork belly fried with the noodles. On top of that, it is usually a rather carb heavy, fibre light starchy dish.

With this healthy and tasty Hokkien mee recipe, you can enjoy this delicious favourite more often sinlessly and in the comfort of your own home.

The secret behind a good hokkien mee in my humble opinion is that each mouthful is packed with a punch of umami and right balance of savoury with a little wetness from the flavourful broth with the tasty and fresh seafood. It is elevated further with the accompaniment of quality sambal belacan and a squeeze of lime. And this recipe attains the addictive taste that would whet my appetite no matter how full I was when I was a kid. Here I will attempt to mimic the umami without using prawn heads and shell but with the use of vegetable and chicken stock, miso and cai bo as well as seafood.

One thing missing from this dish is the lard. So it will not have a strong porky taste. It will still have some pork aroma from the pork slices in the noodles, but not as strong which I find I am totally fine with. And of course, there is no wok hei. But having said that, it is tasty enough that you may not miss the wok hei a lot. In any case, sad to say I can no longer find wok hei in a lot of hokkien mee selling out there…

In the main photo I had kept the prawn shells on. I was in a hurry and decided to leave the shells on but healthier version should just she’ll the prawns before cooking per above.

First step to this hokkien mee recipe is to prepare the stock. I used chicken bones in this case as it is what I have at home. But you can use big pork bones as well. Regardless of what bones are used, it is always a good practice to boil the bones for 4-5 minutes to get rid of the gunk and blood before preparing the stock with brown onion, carrots, fried ikan bilis (I usually place the ikan bilis in a small bowl of oil and fry with air fryer, toaster or microwave oven till golden brown. Reserve the oil for frying noodles later), white peppercorns, parsley and coriander.

Traditionally, the stock calls for the prawn shells and head to be fried with garlic, shallots and some ginger then added to the stock with big pork bones and ikan bilis. I am using the vegetables to replace the prawn stock.

I used a pressure cooker to save time, but you can use a regular pot to prepare the stock and boil till the soup is opaque. i think it used to take me 1 hour or so. With the pressure cooker, it probably takes me 30 minutes and a lot less gas as what i do is boil it till the pressure is built to max, turn off the fire to let it lose pressure then turn on the fire and repeat this process again.

And while it is doing all this, I will be preparing the rest of the ingredients. Shelling, cleaning and cutting the prawns and squid, preparing the pork, fish cake, chives or spring onions and the bean sprouts. You can also use cai xin if you wish. I did not have that, so I just used spring onions and big headed bean sprouts. Of course you can use regular bean sprouts, but Ed and I recently are into big headed ones, so these are what we have at home.

I used lean pork meat near the front leg (my butcher at Eunos market calls it 飞机肉 for some reason) and it is tender with a little tiny bit of fat on top which you can also shave off if you like. I love to use this cut for minced meat too as it is less dry. But you can also use pork loin or other lean pork cuts of your choice.

Once the stock is ready, using a sieve, blanch the prawns and squid in the stock like you would in a steamboat. Remove once you see that it is cooked. Do not over cook as they will be added to the noodles later and be subject to heat again. Here, I must highlight the use of quality seafood. I use wild caught big prawns for this and only need to have 2 pieces per pax. For squid, it is best to pick firm ones with bright eyes and no fishy smell. Ok, pleasant fishy smell. That is why I like to buy seafood from the wet market as the super market ones are sometimes wrapped up and you sometimes do not know if the prawns are wild or reared. It is ok to freeze the fresh seafood once you are home so that you can defrost and use whenever you want. However, the best is still to use them on the same day.

Strain the stock and keep the clear stock for our noodles. This will create extra stock that it enough for maybe 10 pax, but then you can always use this stock for noodle soup of frying other vegetables later.

Now we are ready to fry. Add oil left from frying ikan bilis, chopped garlic and shallots to the wok. I also added some chopped cai bo (those used in cai bo omelette) in to add flavour. Then add the marinated pork pieces and fry till partially cooked. Then move them to one side of the wok, making space to fry the scrambled eggs. I only used 2 eggs for 4 persons. If your pan or wok is too small or you don’t feel comfortable doing this, then you can fry the egg, remove from pan then fry the garlic and shallots. I usually scramble the eggs in the pan to save work. Once the eggs are almost done, mix in the garlic, shallots, pork, etc and stir it all up and add the spring onions.

Next, add the noodles. I used 1 packet of yellow noodle and 1 packet of thick bee hoon and like 1/5 of a big pack of thin bee hoon. Add 2 ladles of stock and using a pair of thongs or chopsticks and a spatula, fry the noodles and mix them all up at the same time. Add another 2-3 ladles of stock as you go along, mixing continuously, till the bee hoon is somewhat softened. Yes, I used dry bee hoon here so that it can soak up the maximum flavour of the stock. Then add a drizzle of soy sauce and dark sauce and 1 heaped tsp of miso paste, dissolving it in the stock in your wok.

Add the bean sprouts and mix in carefully. This is gettign to be hard work as it is rather heavy. Once the bean sprouts are visually softened, add the prawns and squid and mix it in too. Add one last ladle to stock if necessary and depending on how wet you want your hokkien mee to be. Give it one last stir and turn off the fire.

Serve with limes and good quality sambal chilli sauce and enjoy!

As mentioned earlier, this Hokkien mee recipe is to give an idea on how the prawn stock was replaced and the steps to fry hokkien mee. Do feel free to make your adjustments be it adding more eggs, less noodles or increasing or decreasing the seasoning or stock used in the noodles. Hokkien mee is rather personal. Some people like it wet, some like it drier. Mine was mildly wet with soft noodles packed with umami and savoury goodness.

If you like other healthy recipes, please feel free to browse around our blog site. However, there are also a couple of not so healthy recipes like our mei cai kou rou and hokkien bak zhang, but then, it is ok to indulge once in a blue moon isn’t it? Life is about balance!

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Steps

1 Done 5 minutes	Boil chicken bones to clean Boil a pot of water and add in the bones. Boil till you do not see any more gunk coming appearing. This usually takes about 3-5 minutes.
2 Done	Prepare stock Remove the bones from the pot and place into a new pot of water. Add ikan bilis, onion, carrots, parsley, coriander and peppercorns into the pot and bring to boil. Simmer partially covered till the stock turns milky. Or use a pressure cooker and boil under pressure for 20-30 minutes.
3 Done	Marinate pork After cutting up the pork to small pieces, marinate with a drizzle of soy sauce, hua tiao wine, sesame oil and a pinch of salt. Set aside.
4 Done	Blanch prawns and squid Once stock is done, using a sieve, blanch prawns and squid in stock and remove once it is cooked. Set aside.
5 Done	Sieve the stock Using a sieve, sieve out the clear stock and set next to hob.
6 Done	Fry egg Add some oil in wok and crack 2 eggs (optional how many you want to use) into the pan and scramble it. Remove from pan and set aside.
7 Done	Fry the aromatics Add the rest of the remaining oil used to fry ikan bilis (refer to blog body on ways to fry ikan bilis) over big fire. Add garlic, shallots and cai bo. Stirring and frying till the shallots are see through.
8 Done	Add pork pieces, spring onion, egg and fish cake Add the marinated pork to the pan and stir fry. When almost done, add the fried eggs, fish cake, spring onions and incorporate with the pork.
9 Done	Add noodles and stock Add all the 3 types of noodles into the pan and 2-3 ladles of stock. Stir using a pair of chopsticks of thongs to lift the noodles up so that the 3 types of noodles can be evenly mixed with the ingredients. Add in a ladle or 2 of stock as required to soften the thin bee hoon and have some excess stock.
10 Done	Add miso and beansprouts Make a hole in the noodles and add the miso and dark sauce to the stock, stirring to dissolve. Add the bean sprouts and optional cai xin, mixing it into the noodles evenly.
11 Done	Add seafood Add the prawns and squid into the noodles and give it a few more heaves. Simmer as necessary. Taste and adjust with seasoning accordingly.
12 Done	Serve with condiments Dish up the noodles with a lime and a scoop of sambal belacan by the side.