Home Cooked Java Mee

This is a home-cooked version of Java Mee [my Ma's own recipe]. She used to sell this noodle during the 1970's to 1980's and her customers love it. When my Ma stopped doing the business, many of her customers were disappointed. Some even asked her for the recipe. Last Sunday, sister-in-law cooked this noodle for the family.

Ingredients for Soup

200 gm sweet potato paste [orange colour type]

2 litres water

1/2 cup tomato sauce

1 cube chicken stock

salt and sugar to taste

cornstarch for thickening

1. Remove skin of sweet potatoes. Wash and cut into big chunks and steam for about 25 minutes till soft. While hot, mash sweet potatoes quickly into a fine paste. Mix paste with about 1 litre water and strain stock into a boiling pot. Discard the rough and fibrous part of sweet potato.
2. Add remaining water to stock, chicken granules and tomato sauce. Boil stock for 15- 20 minutes add salt and sugar to taste [the soup taste sweet and sourish]. Thicken with cornstarch, bring to a boil and off fire. Double boil soup to keep the soup hot and prevent burnt base.

Ingredients To Serve Noodles

1 kg yellow noodles

1/2 kg beansprouts - wash and drain

2 potatoes - boiled/skinned and sliced

2 pieces firm beancurd - fried and sliced

2 hard boiled eggs - sliced

1 big tomato - sliced

some char siew - sliced

Lettuce leaves - cut shreds

1-2 limes - cut wedges

Fried shallots

Chilli Paste fried with some oil and salt

1. To serve noodles, prepare a pot of boiling water, cook noodles and beansprouts together [quantity depends on own appetite]. Drip dry the noodles after boiling and place on serving plate.
2. Top up with sliced potato, beancurd, tomato, eggs and char siew. Put 2-3 scoops of hot soup over noodles, top with lettuce, fried shallots and lime wedges. Add in fried chilli paste with oil.

Note: Can add more tomato sauce or any of the above ingredients according to own preference. Some people prefer to mix yellow noodles and rice vermicelli. All depends on own preference