Kolomee

I've been asked on a few occasions for my recipe for kolomee so here is a step by step for those keen to know how it's done (my way).

First slice shallots and fry them in lots of oil with a sprinkle of salt. When shallots are lightly browned and crunchy, remove them to a bowl with some of the oil. Leave some shallots in the remaining oil in the pan.

To the remaining oil in the pan, add the following: oyster sauce, dark soy, white pepper, sugar, sesame oil and water. I also add a little light sweet soy sauce which I buy from HK but if you don't have this, its ok. Boil gently to reduce slightly. Keep aside. This will form your mixing sauce; I will call it kolomee sauce from here on.

Mince chicken breast finely and marinate with light soy, white pepper, oyster sauce and sesame oil.

In a clean pan, add a few drops of oil and saute garlic and shallots till lightly browned and fragrant, add minced chicken and saute till chicken mince is brown and separated. Add finely diced dried mushrooms which have been softened by soaking in hot water. Add more of the same ingredients you marinated the chicken in and some dark soy as well and water. Simmer gently and thicken slightly with cornstarch. Put aside.

In a clean non-stick pan, make some egg omelettes and slice them finely.

Rinse the oil off the fishcakes with hot water and dry out in a pan withut oil. Slice finely and put aside.

There it's almost done now, here is a picture of all the ingredients you have prepared in the steps mentioned above. Top - Chicken and Mushroom Sauce, 2nd row - oil coated fresh egg noodles, kolomee sauce, fried shallots and a different type of flour coated fresh egg noodles. 3rd row - finely chopped spring onions and egg omelette and 4th row - fish cake and prawn sticks (optional - I just happened to buy some that day from the fish cake factory as they were amazingly fresh). All you need is some blanched chye sim (in water with a bit of oil and salt added).

To assemble, add some kolomee sauce and fried shallots into a large plate. Briefly blanch the fresh egg noodles to remove excess oil. Drain noodles thoroughly and add to the plate and mix well. Top with everything and serve with chilli oil. There you go - homestyle kolomee.

A bit time consuming due to the many ingredients but worth the effort.

In the picture above, I used oil coated fresh egg noodles and the cooking method is slightly easier than the method for cooking flour coated egg noodles. For flour coated egg noodles, lower the noodles into briskly boiling water, remove after approx 1.5/2 minutes (don't wait for water to come back to boil), drain noodles in a strainer and rinse with room temperature boiled water. Allow water in the pot to come back to briskly boiling point, lower noodles and remove after approx 1.5 mins or when water is almost boiling. Any longer and the noodles will lose their 'springiness'.

I find the flour coated noodles more challenging to cook, and now prefer to use the oil coated noodles. Oh dear, I am rambling on a bit and I hope you're all not scratching your heads with a puzzled expression. hehe - anyway, any questions just ask k.

Good luck and I would love to hear from anyone who will try give this recipe a go.