Mee goreng or mie goreng is a classic fried noodle dish found commonly in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia, sold by street vendors by the roadside, in food courts and hawker centres, and even in restaurants. This unassuming noodle dish uses very simple ingredients, but packs a powerful spicy kick. Mee goreng uses thick yellow noodles (‘mee’ is the Malay word for noodles), cooked in a spicy rempah and thick sweet and savoury sauces, then added with fish cakes, vegetables, prawns, squid and eggs. This seafood mee goreng recipe uses the same ingredients with a homemade rempah (chilli paste).
There are a few types of mee goreng. The indonesian version, more commonly called Mie Goreng Jawa, can be using any types of noodles, whether thin, thick or curly. The Indian Mamak style is reddish in colour and comes with potatoes and fried bean curd, and served with sides of cucumber and onion slices drizzled with tomato ketchup. There is also the Mee Goreng from Malay food stalls that’s cooked with thick yellow noodles cooked in a concoction of sauces, seafood, and vegetables. Regardless of which style, they all deviate by a few ingredients, I love them all as they are so delicious!
Making this seafood mee goreng only requires 3 main steps:
- Make the rempah. Hydrate some dried red chillies in hot water, make some tamarind (assam) juice, then blend with a few tablespoons of vegetable oil. I will sometimes make this in advance and store it in the fridge until ready to use. Making your own rempah also means you can control the level of spiciness in the chilli. The same rempah can be used to make dry mee siam.
- Prepare the ingredients. Firstly wash and cut the leafy vegetables, I used bok choy in this recipe but you can also use kailan, caixin, beansprouts, cabbage, and other vegetables. Prepare the meat or seafood. I used fish cakes, prawns deshelled and deveined, and squid.
- Once the above are done, just get ready the noodles, egg and sauces and you are ready to serve it in less than 15 minutes time.
It’s best served with a squeeze of fresh lime juice and enjoyed immediately. The yellow noodles absorbs most of the moisture and becomes dry very quickly, thus I do not recommend to keep any leftovers. But if there is any, simple store it in an airtight container in a fridge and consume within the next day. To serve it hot again, heat some oil in a pan or wok and quickly stir fry it.
Like another noodle dish? Do check out my vegetarian fried bee hoon or my all-time favourite laksa.
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Watch how to cook seafood mee goreng on YouTube
Seafood Mee Goreng 海鲜马来炒面
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
- 3 cloves garlic
- 1 small onion
- 10-15 prawns about 260g
- 1 squid about 120g
- 100 g fish cake
- 420 g yellow noodles
- 2 eggs
- 30-50 ml water if required
- 3-4 bunch bok choy or other leafy vegetables
- Salt season to taste
- Fresh limes
Seasoning sauce
- 1 tbsp oyster sauce
- 1 tbsp kecap manis or dark sweet soy sauce
- 1 tbsp tomato ketchup
Chilli paste
- 15 dried red chillies
- 2 tbsp tamarind pulp about a golf ball size
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
- ½ cup water
Instructions
Prepare the ingredients
- Peel and slice 1 small onion. Peel and mince 3 cloves of garlic.3 cloves garlic, 1 small onion
- Wash 3-4 bunches of bok choy. Trim off the bottom of the stem and cut into halves.3-4 bunch bok choy
- Slice 100g of fish cake thinly.100 g fish cake
- Wash the prawns. Remove the head and shell, and keep for other uses. Optional to leave the tail intact. Then remove the veins.10-15 prawns
- Remove the head and innards from the body by firmly pulling apart with a slight twisting motion. Remove the tail tube and the cartilage, which looks like a thin clear piece of glass, from the body.Wash the inside of the body tube, using your finger to pull out any residual innards. Peel off the spotty dark skin (optional).1 squid
- Trim off the tentacles by cutting off from just above the eyes. Remove the beak from the squid tentacles (a soft bony piece). The tentacles and body tube are edible, but the head above the tentacles and the innards are not. Slice the squid into 1cm thickness.1 squid
Make the chilli paste
- Soak 10 dried red chillies for 30 minutes in hot water until softened. Note: add more chillies if you prefer it more spicy. If you can't take the heat, you can reduce the amount of chillies, or remove the seeds in the chillies.15 dried red chillies
- Combine 1/2 cup water with 2 tbsp of tamarind pulp. Squeeze the tamarind pulp in the water. Then sieve out the pulp and seeds.2 tbsp tamarind pulp, 1/2 cup water
- Add the hydrated dried red chillies, 1/2 cup of tamarind juice, 2 tbsp vegetable oil into a blender and process until well-blended.2 tbsp vegetable oil
Cook the mee goreng
- In a pan over low heat, warm 2 tbsp vegetable oil. Add in the chilli paste and sauté constantly until the oil separates. The paste will become drier and darker in colour.2 tbsp vegetable oil
- Add in the onion slices and minced garlic. Sauté until aromatic and the onions are caramelised.
- Add the fish cake, prawns and squid. Sauté until the prawns turn orange.
- Add 420g yellow noodles, 1 tbsp oyster sauce, 1 tbsp kecap manis and 1 tbsp tomato ketchup. Mix well.420 g yellow noodles
- Push noodles to one side of the pan. Add about 1 tsp of vegetable oil if required. Crack in 2 eggs and keep scrambling the eggs. While the eggs are still watery, quickly fold over the noodles and mix well.2 eggs
- Add the cut bok choy and stir fry until the vegetables wilt.Season with salt or add more chilli, according to your taste preference.3-4 bunch bok choy
- Add 30-50ml of water if the noodles are getting dry. Turn off heat.30-50 ml water
- Squeeze some lime juice over the noodles and serve immediately.
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12 October 2022 at 8:19 pmThis mee goreng is too good that I don’t need to try the others.
13 October 2022 at 12:00 pmThanks John for visiting!