The Making of Handmade Mee Sua....

My mee sua neatly rolled up in small batches to be dry under hot sun........


Recently, while browsing through Lilian's blog on Penang Food about the Hock Chiew Ang Chiew Mee Sua (mee sua in red wine).....it reminds me of my intention of posting up some pictures of how the traditional way of handmade mee sua are produced back in my hometown.

Mee Sua is a type of thin salted chinese noodles made from wheat flour which is made by a special method and skills in pulling the noodles to a very thin threadlike strands and then it is dry out in the hot sun. Mee Sua can be cook in many ways according to the different chinese ethnic cultures and you can see mee sua dishes at important chinese festivals and birthdays because to the Chinese it signifies long life...(the strands will be as long as 2 to 3 meters in length)..here are some pics of the production of the mee sua in my hometown....courtesy of a friend.

First the wet dough or paste made from a mixture of wheat flour, water and salt are rolled circularly in a pail.

Then, the rolled strands of dough were woven in between two bamboo sticks in a bow pattern.

It is then left to ferment hanging in a special box for a few hours.....

The sticks of fermented mee sua are then push into holes in specially made poles in an open space outside the house.

The noodles are then pulled skilfuly to a long thin strands without breaking them.....and then push into holes on the other end of the poles to be left to dry under the sun......

The sun dried mee sua are then folded up and are ready to be sold in rolls or for distribution to sundry shops. The ones we bought from sundry shops are not really very dry and it had to be dry out in the hot sun again if the mee sua is to be kept in tins for a period of time (2 to 3 months)or else a damp mee sua will not keep for long.

There are some mee suas in shops which are made by machines and oven dried which do not really tastes as soft and as nice as the handmade ones. There are two versions of these handmade mee sua.....one is thinner and the other is the thicker version which is taken from the lower part of the pulled mee sua and the price is much cheaper too.

I have a recipe of this lovely mee sua cook in 'ang chiew' (rice wine) in my blog here.

My Ang Chiew Mee Sua..aka..Red Wine Noodles....!

The handmade mee sua.......white noodles....from Ayer Tawar.

The bottle of red wine .............made by my mum.

The delicious bowl of 'ang chiew mee sua'......................

For the Chinese hokkiens and hock chiews....a bowl of mee sua cooked with red wine or 'ang chiew' is a must for birthdays....i will blog about the making of the mee sua and the red wine in my later post...but for now i will share with my readers how i cook my 'ang chiew mee sua'........specially for Lena.

Ingredients:

8 -10 slices of old ginger

2 tbsp sesame oil

1 cup chinese red wine (ang chiew)

1 free range chicken- cut into bite size pieces

5 -6 bowls water

salt to taste

Method for soup:

1. Fry the ginger slices in sesame oil til very fragrant.

2. Add in the chicken to fry til half cook (about 2 to 3 mins).

3. Pour in 1/4 cup of the red wine and stir-fry til dry.(a little at a time)

4. Add in 1 tsp salt to fry and pour in another 1/4 cup of redwine..cook covered for about 5 mins.
5. Then add in water and the rest of the red wine to simmer in low heat for about 20 mins.

Cook til chicken is tender.

Pour in red wine........................

The bowl of red wine soup.......................

For cooking the mee sua:

Boiled a big pot of water. When water boils ....put in the mee sua and stir the mee sua with a chopstick til cook...about 1 min. Then take out mee sua and put in a bowl. Pour red wine soup over mee sua when ready to serve only...because the mee sua will double in size or' bloated 'when soup is pour in.

The Hock Chiews cook this red wine noodles for the mothers after they give birth...... almost every meal they have to eat this during their confinement .....it is said to be nutritious!