I swear many years ago I liked/joined a facebook page/group for people who like Wantan Mee without the wantan? I tried looking through my profile to find it again, but alas it no longer exists. So either it never existed in the first place or like me everyone has finally come around to wantan’s rendering it an unnecessary group/page? Has to be the latter.

During my fussy feeding years, this was the one dish my parents knew I would be happy with whenever we visited a hawker centre (lots of little food stalls). Thin egg noodles, tossed in a sweet and salty dark sauce, with sliced char siu (chinese BBQ pork) and choy sum. On the side, you would get a bowl of soup with wantan (wonton’s) or even you could get these dumplings deep fried. Made all the better with some pickled green chillies, sambal of course was an additional bonus.

I have some good memories associated with wantan mee. One is this photo of Dan and his best friend who was in town for our registration of marriage. We had gone to a food court so that our visitors could try a little bit of everything and yet this is what Dan and his best friend ended up fighting over – although they could very well have ordered some more. Which is why we have this photo.

The second is was sometime in February when we had my friend’s stag do. After a night on the town, we ended the stag do at a hawker stall having wantan mee with our own bottle of whisky in tow at around 3am. Not the most stereotypical way to end a stag do – but I suppose it’s the Malaysian equivalent to getting a kebab after a night out – just a thousand times better!

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So, given that I needed some comfort I decided I had to bring the wantan mee to myself (I may have also looked around to see if I could get this in a restaurant around me, but after my most recent lacklustre Malaysian dining experience I was not going to chance it!). However, I did not make the char siu and just substituted it for some chicken – mostly cause I was a bit lazy and also because I simply forgot to pick it up. And yes I am aware that it is sacrilegious, but cut a girl some slack – I’m currently operating with a skeleton kitchen and trust me when I say that it hurt me a lot more than it hurts you reading this. (For everyone else, it was good with the chicken but your mind will be blown when you have it with char siu!)

This recipe looks very complicated but trust me once you get going it really is ok and you can prep wonton’s ahead of time and freeze them.

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Wonton Recipe
Wonton Ingredients (yield 30 wontons)

1 packet Wanton pastry/ Dumpling pastry – check the frozen section
160gm prawns diced finely
200gm minced pork/mince chicken
1 stalk spring onion diced finely
2 cloves of garlic minced
1/4 tsp ginger powder (grated ginger is fine too)
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1.5 tablespoon Shaoxing wine
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
1 egg
1/4 tsp white pepper
Salt to taste

Method
1. If you have a food processor, dump everything (not the wonton pastry) into the food processor and mix.
2. I like mine to have some chunkier pieces so I prefer to dice it up and mix well.
3. About 1 tsp in the centre of the wonton pastry, dip your finger in water and wet the sides and fold the wonton. (Refer to GIF)
4. Bring Wonton Soup to boil, drop wontons in and let cook for about 2-3 minutes (till pastry turns white/luminescent). You may have to keep stirring just so they don’t stick to the bottom.
5. You can also deep fry them in hot oil until they are golden brown and let rest on some kitchen towel.

Wonton Soup
Ingredients
1 Chicken stock cube (you can also use homemade stock)
1 stalk spring onion
1 inch ginger sliced
2 cloves of garlic crushed
450ml water
1/4 tsp white pepper

1. Pop in a pan with water, and bring to boil!

Noodles (4 servings)

Mushroom sauce
Ingredients
8 dried Shiitake mushrooms/ dried Chinese mushrooms (most asian supermarkets have them)
3 cloves garlic crushed
1 tsp sesame oil
2 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp soy sauce

Method
1. Clean mushrooms, then soak in cold water for 30 minutes till soft.
2. Squeeze remaining water our of mushrooms.
3. Fry garlic in cooking oil to infuse oil together with mushrooms.
4. Once the garlic starts to brown, add in all the sauces together with 4 tablespoons of the water used to soak the mushroom. Let it come to a boil then let sit.

Noodle sauce
Ingredients
2 tbsp caramel sauce (Cheong Chan Thick Caramel Sauce/ Kecap Manis)
1 tbsp dark soy sauce
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tsp sugar
1 tbsp oyster sauce
4 tbsp water

Noodle sauce method
1. Combine all the above on a pan, add water and bring to boil then set aside.

** Usually they do each plate individually, but I cannot be bothered to measure it out for each portion of noodle, so I prepare both sauces before hand and divvy it up before serving**

Noodles
1. Use a sieve and cook noodles in boiling water. 2 nests (90 – 100gm) is plenty for 2!
2. After about a minute, remove from boiling water and run under cold water.
3. Heat up in boiling water again for a few seconds till hot. Then serve.

Serving!

1. 1.5 tablespoons of mushroom sauce with 2 tablespoons of noodle sauce on a plate.
2. Toss hot noodles in sauce on plate.
3. Garnish with char siu or some shredded chicken and some choy sum (just blanched in boiling water)
4. Serve with dumpling on the side deep fried or in soup.
5. Serve with pickled green chillies, spicy chilli sauce or sambal.

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Enjoy!

Egg Noodles I Used