Get it out of the way…

For the mum’s birthday earlier this month, first thing in the morning, we had the traditional Foochow red wine chicken soup and of course, I had our longevity noodles, the mee sua, with that but that is not gluten-free so my girl had hung ngang (the big bihun)…

…instead and the mum likewise.

I’ve eaten that outside time and time again but I do not remember cooking it myself and I discovered that one cannot just soak it in hot boiling water like bihun – it will have to be cooked like instant noodles and once, it has turned soft, one would have to rinse it well in running tap water to remove the excess starch or when it has cooled down, it will all stick together in a clump, quite unlike bihun. Ah well, as they say, you learn new things every day and who says you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. LOL!!!

I only cooked a bit that morning so there was still quite a lot left, two-thirds of what was in one packet and of course, it gets on my nerves everytime I see something sitting idle in a container taking up space in the cabinet or pantry. That was why I took it and cooked it that day, just to get it out of the way.

I wanted to try whipping up what I would call sambal hung ngang, along the same lines as sambal bihun that one can get at some places here but of course, I can’t afford to use our very unique straight Rajang hay bee/udang kering (dried prawns)…

…not at over RM100 a kilo, so I decided to use the very very much cheaper bubuk (dried krill shrimps)…

…instead. I soaked a handful of it in hot water and when it has softened, I pounded it with a little bit of belacan (dried prawn paste) and I also pounded the usual suspects – shallots, garlic, ginger, kunyit (turmeric) , lengkuas (galangal) and cili padi…

…and I also got a few stalks of serai (lemon grass) from my garden and bruised them at the ends.

I also found something like fish cake in the freezer, only a bit left so of course, I had to get it out the way too. I sliced those and chopped some spring onions and tore some cangkuk manis leaves, both from my garden and took out two eggs from the fridge for use…

I fried the pounded ingredients and the serai first till fragrant and then I added the bubuk, followed by the fish cake after which, in went the hung ngang. After mixing the noodles well with the ingredients, the cangkuk manis followed and I added a bit of salt according to taste. Finally, the eggs went in and once done, I sprinkled the chopped spring onions…

…before taking it all out of the wok.

Yes, it was nice – my missus said it was not as nice as using hay bee/udang kering but I thought it was all right. I particularly liked the fragrance of the ingredients used and there was quite a lot from what was left of the packet of hung ngang, enough for lunch for the two of us, and also our dinner that night, together with the meatballs that I got from the roadside stall in the kampung that day.