Mee rebus

Often, when it comes to street food, it's all about the noodle. Mee rebus is a popular hawker-stall dish in Malaysia and Singapore. Yellow noodles are served in a sweet gravy, made with mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes (or sometimes just regular potatoes). Garnished with fried tofu, hard boiled eggs, and various bits of greenery, it makes a tasty almost-veggie meal. To make it full veggie, just omit the shrimp paste.

Recipe

Using sweet potatoes and regular potatoes to thicken the sauce results in a naturally quite sweet tasting dish. If you're not such a big fan of the sugar rush, use just regular potato.

1 tsp oil
1 onion, finely minced
1 tsp minced ginger
2 tsp minced garlic
2 tsp minced galangal
1 tbsp peanut butter
1 tsp curry powder
1/2 tsp shrimp paste, or 1/4 cup dried small shrimp, pounded in a mortar until broken up
1-2 tsp minced chilli (optional)
1 tsp soy sauce
1/2 medium sweet potato, peeled, cooked until soft, and mashed
1/2 medium potato, peeled, cooked until soft, and mashed
1 cup celery, sliced (optional)
1 tsbp fermented soy bean paste (substitute Miso, the Japanese equivalent, if necessary)
Yellow egg noodles or Hokkien noodles
1 cup bean sprouts
A few pieces of deep-fried tofu, sliced
2 hard boiled eggs, peeled and halved
Lime juice
Thinly sliced fresh chillies, to garnish
Crispy deep-fried shallots, to garnish

Heat the oil in a large, heavy saucepan. Add the onion, ginger, garlic and galangal, and cook until soft.

Add the peanut butter, curry powder, dried shrimp or shrimp paste, chilli and soy sauce. Cook another 2 minutes, then add the mashed potato and sweet potato, celery, and enough water to make a thin liquid, stirring until the potato dissolves in the sauce. Simmer for 15 minutes or so, until the celery is cooked and the sauce is thickened.

While this is happening, prepare the noodles according to package directions.

Add the soy bean paste to the sauce, and adjust the seasoning to taste.

Divide the cooked noodles, bean sprouts and tofu between 2 large bowls. Pour over the sauce, and top with hard boiled egg. Garnish with chillies and crispy shallots, and add lime juice to taste.

Serves: 2
Preparation and cooking time: 40 minutes, including preparing sweet potatoes
Note: the celery isn't a traditional part of this dish: I just had some in the fridge to use up. The chilli is also non-traditional, but I just like chilli.
Note2: if you're worried about eating undercooked beansprouts, add them to the pan 2 minutes before the end of cooking.