The recipe is pretty simple. Follow the usual pan meen basics : flour, an egg, pinch of salt, a little oil and water, knead until firm consistency, keep some flour for dusting. I used the pasta maker to roll the dough and roll it to strips.
My little assistant at work :
Working, very hard ....
Then for soup base, I cooked the following :
1kg tiny baby lala (baby clams), soaked in salt water and rinsed till water runs clear
shreds of ginger
1 chicken breast
chives (kuchai or kow choy)
*fishballs - optional
Make stock with the following :
fry ginger in little oil, add in lala, fry till lala starts starts 'open'
add 1.5 liter of water
salt to taste
Turn off fire when stock boils up. Do not overboil lalas otherwise they'll turn out chewy
Remove lala shells and discard. Separate meat and set aside.
Add chicken breast to soup base and boil in slow fire till cooked. Shred meat
Boil pan meen (fresh wheat flour noodles) till al dente in a separate wok with kuchai, drain
Scoop in soup, add de-shelled lala, chicken shreds and drizzle with onion oil.
Like it ? See the tiny clams ?
A simple n nourishing noodle. Lala makes very tasty soup base, you don't even need ikan bilis or chicken bones for your soup base. My only gripe is getting lala when I feel like eating this dish. Lala is seasonal and it really depends on tides and fisherman's moods.. If you chance upon tinny lalas, do try out this dish. Yumz to the max. My favourite among all types of pan meens.
