Sang Har Mee, or Sang Har Mein (noodles) as it is also known as, is a favourite delicacy among seafood lovers.

Featuring large, beautiful prawns atop a bed of crispy-fried noodles drenched with an eggy sauce, this dish is, admittedly, not one of the cheaper options on most restaurant menus.

Most Sang Har Mee dishes are served with the noodles swimming in a super starchy (but very tasty) eggy sauce, while others specialise in a drier variety.

This recipe has a tasty sauce that wets the noodles but doesn’t completely drench it.

Lim Soo Keat makes this at home and was incredibly generous to share his recipe and make it for us!

Ingredients: Serves 6

• 800g (about 8) Sang Har (also known as freshwater prawns or lobster, or udang galah)
• 400g Yee Mein (fried noodles)
• 14g garlic, peeled
• 16g sesame oil
• 14g msg-free chicken stock cube
• 25 litres hot water
• 3g cornflour
• 100ml water
• 2 eggs
• 1g ground black pepper

For garnish

• 2-3 iceberg lettuce leaves

Preparation

• Dissolve chicken stock cube in hot water.
• Rinse prawns for a few seconds under running water.
• Cut off the tip of the prawn head from right behind the eyes. Also cut off claws, swimming and walking legs, and sword. Do not remove the entire head or peel the prawns, you will want the skin to remain on.
• Lay prawn on its “belly” and using a sharp knife, cut through the top of the shell, from head to tail and about halfway through the flesh to remove and discard intestines.

• Mince garlic.
• Wash lettuce leaves and cut into neat squares. If you prefer more greens, use one lettuce leaf per plate, but cut the part that curves to the stem so your lettuce leaf can lay flat.

Cooking Sang Har Mee

• Set out two large woks or pots. The one you’re using for cooking your prawns will need a cover.
• Heat one wok on low heat. Add sesame oil and minced garlic. You don’t need to wait for the wok to get hot.

• Once the oil and garlic starts to sizzle, fry for about 20 to 30 seconds until aromatic.
• Before the garlic browns, arrange prawns in the wok. It doesn’t have to be pretty, but make sure the prawns are evenly laid out.

• After 1 minute when the prawn skin has just turned pink, flip to cook the other side.

• After another minute, add 100ml of dissolved chicken stock. Cover and bring to a simmer for 1 minute.

• Flip the prawns once again to make sure it’s evenly cooked. Cover and let it cook for 1 more minute.

• Remove cover and add 950ml chicken stock. Let it come to a boil, flipping the prawns as the gravy comes to a boil.
• Turn off heat.
• Put your second wok or pot on high heat and carefully transfer half the liquids used for cooking the prawns to the pot. For safety, use a ladle.
• Keep prawns and the rest of the liquids covered.
• Add Yee Mein and the rest of the chicken stock to the second pot. Stir noodles gently until softened or al dente.

• Turn heat off then line your dinner plates with one lettuce leaf. Equally divide noodles onto each plate.

Preparing the gravy

• Transfer prawns to a plate or bowl.
• Mix cornflour with 100ml water.
• Crack eggs into a bowl and whisk lightly.
• Turn the heat back on the first wok (with the gravy still remaining) on high and bring to a boil.

• Add cornflour mixture and stir through.
• Turn the heat off and add whisked eggs. Use a fork to lightly “scramble” the eggs into the sauce until it thickens and you get thin ribbons of eggs, for about 30 seconds.

• Pour the gravy over the plated noodles with a ladle. Add one cooked prawn and sprinkle a little pepper over the gravy.

• Serve while still hot. However, before you eat, separate the prawn head and use a small spoon to dig out the hepatopancreas (orangey innards contained in the prawn head, also known as tomalley in lobsters) and spread it onto the gravy. Mix the noodles to combine the gravy and hepatopancreas thoroughly, then, dig in!

Extra tips

• This dish is served individually, so get your dinner plates ready.
• Estimate at least 1 prawn per person, but a little extra is always good.
• The best Sang Har are wild freshwater prawns from the Danum river in Sabah. The heads contain a lot of hepatopancreas, making this dish extra tasty.

Alternatively, you can also find a similar variety in Ipoh seafood markets. If you’re having some difficulty getting your hands on it, look for juicy freshwater prawns with really big heads filled with hepatopancreas.

• Hepatopancreas isn’t roe. Nope, not at all, even if many Asian restaurants and recipes refer to that gunky orange innards contained within prawn heads (that tastes oh so good!) as roe.

Instead, hepatopancreas is very similar to tomalley in lobsters. Both male and female prawns have them, and they definitely don’t turn into baby prawns.

• You can also use your own or boxed liquid chicken stock. However, the flavour may vary. If your stock has zero salt, add 12g of soy sauce during step 23 to give the sauce sufficient flavour. However, add just a little at a time to ensure it doesn’t get too salty for your tastes.
• Sang Har Mee is a one-meal dish. You don’t need to serve it with anything else.

This article first appeared in butterkicap.com

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