Economical Bee Hoon (Difficulty: 2.5)



1. Soak 1/2 packet bee hoon in warm water. I don’t like chewy bee hoon, so I use slightly hotter water. Add 1 tbs each of dark soy sauce, light soy sauce, sugar and sesame oil for bee hoon to absorb.
2. After half hour or more, drain bee hoon, but keep the liquid.
3. Fry 1 tbs garlic. Add vegetables/meat if you like. Do not stinge on the oil.
4. Add bee hoon. Mix well to let bee hoon absorb oil. If too dry, add some of the liquid that was used for soaking earlier.
5. Add 2 tbs dark soy sauce, 1 tbs light soy sauce, 1 tbs fish sauce, 1 tsp kicap manis (optional), salt and msg (optional) to taste. Please note these are all estimates, add according to your own taste.

Background

Ate this dish at Kat's place and have been scouring the net for the recipe since. It's called Economical Bee Hoon, because the original dish is really basic, just the noodles and garlic, maybe some cabbage/bean sprouts. But these days, they are sold with a whole variety of add-ons, such as Ngor Hiang, Fried Eggs, Luncheon Meat etc. I still buy mine 'kosong', ie plain. I like my food strip down to the basics, eg roti canai, best is kosong; nasi lemak, best is the 30sen a pack type with only rice, sambal and maybe a sliver of cucumber.

Back to Economical Bee Hoon, it looks benign enough, but I think it's a silent monster. You need to use quite a bit of oil for the beehoon to taste yummy. And it's entirely carbo, which transforms into...modern day poison...sugar!

I can already feel the effects of tucking into this dish for meals over 2 days, ie breakfast yesterday, lunch yesterday and dinner tonight. But it's so....darn shiok! Especially after I managed to make the garlic/ginger/chilli sauce that my aunt serves with her economical bee hoon during those Chinese Big Day (Tua Dit Chi). Will share that chilli recipe another time.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

this is a rather good recipe but i think u forgot about including the amount of food and ingredients for the recipe.

Lilian said...

Actually, the amount is indicated, eg 1/2 packet beehoon, 1 tbs whatever sauce, everything else is based on self-estimation, subject to personal taste.

Anonymous said...

Lilian, thank you for this recipe. Will be cooking it tomorrow. This is the way I've always wanted to fry bee hoon. I too like it simple. I'm also an imbecile, having to look at a recipe 50 times while cooking. Mary

Lilian said...

You're welcome Mary, let me know how it goes. Good luck!

Anonymous said...

Lilian, it turned out well. Always wished I could fry bee hoon like the bought ones and now I can. My mum liked it but wished for some spice to go with it. Indians like that loh! Could you pls post the chilli sauce soooooooooon!!!!! Thank you so very much. Mary

Anonymous said...

Tried your recipe in June, although alittle soggy (used hot water to soak) my partner and I loved it. Has sinced practiced a few more time with minor imperfections as I didnt follow the actual recipe! Im going to fried it again today for christmas lunch hope it will turn out well today!

Thank you for sharing the recipe!

Merry Christmas!!

Lilian said...

Merry Christmas and good luck with lunch! Yeah, if you soak it with very hot water, then you can't soak it for too long. I usually soak it with very warm water (hot mixed with some cold water), then I can leave it for a longer time.

YY said...

Hi Lil,

How do you make this montage thing? It's really cool!!

YY.

Lilian said...

Hey YY, it's the tedious way, using a powerpoint slide and then saving it as jpeg :)

YY said...

Hey, I tried this recipe tonight and it was a success!! I now know how to fry those 'vegetarian' beehoon from those hawker stalls that I love!

YY.

Lilian said...

YY, I'm always craving those vegetarian economical beehoon too. This recipe gets you as close to that as you can. Hope you weren't stingy with the oil :)

I think I'll fry this tonight yummmm...

Anonymous said...

I am Singaporean-Indian who loves economical bee hoon with slice of luncheon meat and fried tahu.

This recipe was perfect for me. I used only 1/2tsp of oil for one serving portion and sprinkled some red chili pepper to give it the same texture when you use a lot of oil. That way I was able to enjoy economical and low calorie bee hoon! yummy! :)

Lilian said...

Sounds great! You mean chilli pepper helps with the texture?