Claypot Yee Mee Noodles (Prawn)
15 minutes are all you need to whip up this sumptuous claypot yee mee noodles (prawn) (煲仔鲜虾伊面). This recipe is a very local style of cooking and serving noodles in a claypot. Making this dish at home has two benefits for me as compared to eating it at the hawker center or coffee shop. For one, there is no MSG in the soup and two, I use premium large prawns (shrimps) to make this dish.
Related Recipe:
See Also:
- Claypot Glass Noodles (Prawns) Recipe
- All About Claypot + Cooking Care
- Easy Delicious Claypot Recipes
The advantage of cooking & serving in a claypot is that the dish remains hot throughout the meal. There is also one less bowl to wash up :p
This is the yee mee (yi mein/伊面) I used. They are actually dry egg noodles. The usual packet comes in bigger bundle of noodles of about 75g each. I prefer this “shabu shabu” pack as the noodles come in smaller bundles. With the one I bought (pictured above), one bundle of noodles is about 35g. For small eaters like me, one bundle is enough. For people with normal appetite, use two bundles instead or buy the other bigger pack.
This is the prepared prawns. With the sharp edges are trimmed, only the body shell is removed for ease of marinating and eating. Leaving the head and tail on helps the prawns remain plump after cooking.
Keeping the prawn head while cooking has another benefit: The umami of the prawn head provides an additional oomph to the soup.
Claypot Yee Mee Noodles (Prawn) Recipe
Cooking and serving the dish directly in a claypot ensures the dish is piping hot throughout eating. If you don’t have a claypot, you can also use any single-sized casserole, such as the light aluminium pans sold at daiso. You can also use any regular pot and dish out the noodles in a bowl to serve.
Ingredients:
- 2-4 prawns for 1 person; see cooking note(s) below
- 300 ml water
- half chicken stock cube (preferably MSG-free)
- 1 serving “yee mee” (yi mein/伊面) (40-80g)
- 1 Shanghai green (bok choy) 上海青 quartered lengthwise
- 3 slices carrot cut to flower shape if desired
- 1 egg
(A) Marinade
- 1/4 tsp sesame oil
- 1/2 tsp light soy sauce
Garnishing Suggestions
- chopped spring onions
- saucer of cut chilli padi in soy sauce
You also need:
- a personal-sized claypot (or casserole)
Directions:
- Prepare the prawns. Using kitchen scissors, trim the prawns of all the sharp spikes. Remove the shell body, while leaving the head and tail shells still on. Marinade the prawn flesh in seasonings (A) for 10 minutes in the fridge.
- Cook the dish. Add water and stock cube in a personal size claypot. Bring to a boil. Then add noodles, prepared prawns, bok choy and carrot. Cover with lid and simmer for 2 minutes, or until the prawns are cooked. Crack an egg while the soup is bubbling and remove from the heat. Garnish with spring onions and serve immediately in the claypot with a side saucer of chilli padi.
Cooking Note(s):
- I’m using 2 large tiger prawns (about 70g each) for this recipe. You can use about 4 smaller tiger prawns instead.
- If you prefer the egg yolk to be cooked, eat it towards the end of the meal. If you want it slightly runny, break the yolk with chopsticks while eating.
- Dish out to a bowl when serving to young children to prevent them from accidentally touching the hot claypot while eating.
- You can substitute with other vegetables such as Chinese spinach (菠菜) & choy sum (菜心).
- Instead of soup cube, you can use any home made soup stock, a mix of tetra-pak chicken stock & water or simply use water & soy sauce.