Ipoh Hor Fun 怡保河粉 - "Malaysian Monday 24"

Ipoh is famous for many things; it's amazing caves, bean sprouts (yes mung bean sprouts!!), hor fun (rice noodles), lovely colonial buildings and beautiful women (Michele Yeoh being one of them). Apparently it's natural spring water plays a big role in it. We would go to Ipoh very regularly to visit relatives or simply to top up things that we couldn't get in the highlands, eating was a very big part of those visits of course. Ipoh hor fun was one those must have, being a greedy child it was hard to choose among all other wonderful food being offered then.

Another chilly night in Melbourne, bowls of homemade Ipoh hor fun should do the tricks for us. If you prefer the dry version check out my rice noodles with shredded chicken (雞絲河粉).
P.S This is a revamp of an early post I did when I first started my blog with step by step instructions.

makes 8 to 10 serves
you'll need;
1 free range chicken
1/2 kg of prawns
1 head of garlic
1 large onion, peeled
5 cm knob of ginger, bashed
2 tbs of rock sugar
4 l of water
white pepper and salt to taste
fresh thin rice noodles
bean sprouts
2 spring onion chopped
1/3 cup of cooking oil
1 head of garlic, chopped
3 tbs of hot chili flakes
1 tbs of sugar
salt to taste

Add onion, ginger, garlic to 4 l of water and when it comes to a boil add the chicken. When the water returns to a boil; put the lid on and turn off the heat, let the chicken steep in the hot broth for 3 hours.

After 3 hours; remove chicken from the pot and tear chicken into nice neat slivers. Discard the chicken skin but reserve the bones.

Bring the stock back to a boil and cook prawns for 3 to 5 minutes. Shell prawns and halve lengthwise, reserve the heads and shells.

To make the chili oil - Fry chopped garlic with 1/2 cup of cooking oil till golden, remove garlic and drain well. Add reserved prawns heads and shell and fry for 5 minutes, press the shells lightly with a masher, remove shells and set aside.

 Add chili flakes to the same pan and fry for a minute, add salt and sugar and remove from heat.

To finish the broth - add reserved chicken bones to the stock and simmer for 30 minutes then add the fried prawn shells and simmer for a further 20 minutes. It is ready when red oil starts to appear on the surface. Strain broth and check for seasonings.

We are ready to serve with everything now ready to assemble.

Blanch noodles and bean sprouts for 20 seconds, drain well and place in a large bowl.

Pour stock over and garnish with chicken, prawns, crispy garlic, spring onions and some of the chili oil. Mix well and enjoy!

My friend Sharon from Test With A Skewer will be hosting the first event of 2011. Please send all your  January entries to its.sharon.gmail.com, to find out more about the event please click HERE.