Chinese Braised Noodles (Lor Mee) – 卤面

INTRODUCTION

Sour and starchy are the two main characteristics of this bowl of noodles. I do know among my circles of friends, most of them craved for the gravy rather than the noodles. For me,  I like to add in some home made chilli sauce, when it become spicy, sour and starchy, it will definitely wake up my palate. 

I was told that this is a Hokkien dish, but varies from regions to regions. This is the type of braised noodle that are common in Singapore hawker stalls.

This post has been queuing up in my list of posts to be issued for quite a while. I did not issue because it will be quite a long post and preparation is rather laborious. However, if you separate the entire preparation process into 2 sessions, it will be more manageable. That is what I was doing all this while. I will braise my meats and eggs today for dinner and use the meat broth to prepare the noodle dish the next day. Of course reserve some meat and eggs for the noodles..

I learned how to prepare this dish from my neighbour and prior to this, I have never ever tasted this noodle dish until I came to Singapore more than 15 years ago. This dish is not common in my hometown, Sarawak…

Though it is not a dish that grows up with us, my wife was “hooked” on this noodle dish because of the sour starchy gravy.. She will definitely order a bowl of this starchy noodle whenever she saw stalls selling this noodle. She will order a bowl with extra vinegar and minced garlics. My love of this noodle was influenced by her.. She “forced” me to try the noodles…. After a few tries, I gradually get used to the taste and started my own adventure of cooking this noodle dish…Whenever I cooked, I will gave my neighbour (master) some and general feedback is  a good bowl of noodles…

---

WHAT IS REQUIRED

Servings: 5-6 adults servings

For braising of eggs and meats

• 500 grams of sliced pork belly meat
• 2 pieces of dry bean curd (optional)
• 4 hard boiled eggs
• 5 cloves of garlics cut into slices
• 2 cm long gingers cut into slices
• 1 medium size rock sugar (about 4 cm in diameter)
• 1 cup of dark soya sauce
• 3 cups of water (or water adequate to cover the meat)
• 1 teaspoon of 5 spice powder

Preparing the gravy

• 3 cups of Meat broth (from braising of meat above)
• 3 cups of plain water
• 1 cup of Chinese black vinegar
• 1/2 cup of tapioca/corn/sweet potatoes starch
• 3 eggs lightly beaten

For assembly and garnishing

• Braised eggs cut into halves (as above)
• Braised meats cut into slices (as above)
• 500 grams of yellow noodles
• 250 grams of rice vermicelli (optional)
• 100 grams of beansprouts
• 100 grams of fish cake cut into slices (ready made)
• 200 grams of deep fried fish fillets (optional)
• 6 deep fried wantons (ready made)
• 1 Chinese meat roll – cut into slices (Ready made)
• 1 whole garlic – minced
• 2 stalks of Chinese celery – minced
• Some deep fried shallots (not in picture) (Ready made)

 

---

STEPS OF PREPARATION

Braising The Meats

• In a sauce pot, put the water (estimated to be 3 cups to cover the meat), the garlics and gingers, dark soya sauce, rock sugar, five spice powder and bring to boil. Add in the pork belly meat and let in simmer for 15 minutes or until the meat is soft. How long it needs to be simmered will very much depends on the thickness of your meat. The thinner it is, the faster it will be.

• After 15 minutes, add in dry bean curd and hard boiled eggs and let it simmer for another 10 minutes. Close the lids and let it rest in the pot for another 15-30 minutes.

• Cut the eggs into halves and the meat into small slices.

 

---

Preparing the Gravy

• In the same sauce pot, add about the same quantity of water (about 3 cups) to dilute the meat broth. Add in one cup black vinegar (Note that you may want to gradually add in the vinegar if you are concern it may be too sour for your taste buds). Bring to boil.

• Beat the eggs lightly, when the gravy is boiling, gradually add in the beaten eggs and use a big ladle or spoon to stir it in a circular motion as fast as possible. It will become an egg drop or egg flower soup. Put about 1 cup of cold water into the starch to form a solution. Stir well and gradually pour to the hot boiling gravy. Keep an eye on this process. If it is too sticky, stop the addition. If it is too watery, add in more starch. Remember to stir the gravy continuously. Add seasonings such as salt and sugar and off the heat. Set aside for later assembly.

 

---

Preparing for Assembly

• In a pot or sauce pan, bring some water to boil. Add a few drops of cooking oil. Blanch the bean sprout (about 1 minute), rice vermicelli (about 3 minutes) and yellow noodles (about 3 minutes) in this order. Drain and set aside.. If you wish, you can wash your rice vermicelli and yellow noodles with cold water to prevent it to become soggy.

• Minced your garlic and Chinese celery. Cut your eggs into halves and meat into slices. Sliced your meat rolls (ngoh hiang) and fish cake into small slices. If you want to prepare your own ngoh hiang, please refer HERE

 

---

Assembly the Noodles

• In a serving bowl, put some yellow noodles, rice vermicelli and bean sprouts. Add in the gravy just enough to cover the noodles and bean sprouts. Put some braised eggs, wanton, meat rolls, fish cakes on the noodles. Add a teaspoon of minced garlic, some minced Chinese celery and deep fried garlics. Based served hot with some chilli sauces..

---

CONCLUSION

Preparation is not difficult but a bit laborious. If you just braised the meat and buy all the others from the stores, it will save you a lot of time. It is my sincere advise to braise a bit more meat and eggs for the dinner the day before and reserve the broth, some meats and eggs for the next day’s noodle dish… The broth will also be more tasty..

This recipe was included in Page 26-29 of the “One Pot Noodle E-book”. For more One Pot Noodle Dishes, you can have a copy of “Easy One Pot Noodles  – A step by step guide” that was packed with 30 recipes, 60 pages at a reasonable convenience fee of USD5.00. The recipes covered various recipes from curry laksa, prawn noodles to fish head beehoon and etc. Of course not forgetting the well like Economy Bee hoon and Mee Rebus . You can purchase by clicking the link above.You can either pay using Pay Pal or Credit card account. Please ensure that you have an PDF reader like Acrobat or iBooks in your mobile phone or iPad if you intended to read it in your ipad or mobile phone. Should there be any problems of purchasing, feel free to contact me at kengls@singnet.com.sg and separate arrangement can be made.

Hope you like the post today. Cheers and have a nice day.

---

For more recipes, you can refer to my RECIPE INDEX here and you can follow me at PINTEREST or visit this blog’s FACEBOOK PAGE .  

 

If you are a Pinterest user and you are interested to have more recipes, you can join or follow this Pinterest Board set up by me  where there are more than 1000 recipes worldwide and pinned by various bloggers: FOOD BLOGGERS AND FOODIES UNITED PINTEREST BOARD