1. Ban Mian (Soup Base)

Ban Mian

I was introduced to Ban Mian during my College days. My college was in close proximity to Jurong Point Mall in Boon Lay. My friends and i occasionally have dinner at Banquet food court — an affordable halal food court that has stalls serving popular foods of the primary ethnic groups in Singapore where i had my virgin taste of Ban Mian. It was so yummy.

Ban Mian is a popular chinese dish that consist of handmade wheat noodles, rich salty broth, slices of chicken and vegetable. The broth is prepared first, followed by the preparation of individual bowls of soup noodles with the other ingredients to be served up later.

I was inspired to prepare this dish when i chanced upon the Ban Mian’s pre-made noodles being sold in local supermarket — NTUC fairprice. I shall do a review of this noodle on a later post.

Sakura Ban Mian Ban Mee

|Serves 2 pax| Preparation time: 2 hours |

Ingredients:

Soup Base

Vegetable oil, for frying

1/4 cup Fried shallots

3/4 cup Dried anchovies

1.5 litres Water

1 tsp Sesame oil (optional)

Salt

Additional ingredients

Sakura Ban Mian Ban Mee

2 Eggs

100g Sliced boneless chicken

Marinate chicken with 2 tsp light soy sauce and white pepper (Choice of using breast or thigh meat is according to your preference)

3 stalks Chye sim roughly cut

Garnish

Ground white pepper

Fried shallots

1 stalk Spring onion sliced

1/2 cup Dried anchovies

Spicy soy dip

Light soy sauce

Chilli padi aka Bird’s eye chillies

Ingredients used

Other ingredients you may choose to add are enoki mushroom, shiitake mushroom, crab stick, silken tofu & fish cake. In my humble opinion, these ingredients seem to go well with the broth.

Part I: Preparation

Soup Base

1. Heat oil in a wok to fry all dried anchovies till golden brown and crispy. Be extra careful not to over fry the anchovies.
2. Transfer 3/4 cup fried anchovies and fried shallots into a blender and blend till a powdery mixture is achieved.
3. Heat oil in a deep soup pot and fry powered mixture under low heat.
4. Add sesame oil and water to the pot and let it simmer for an hour under low heat; occasionally stirring. Soup should reduced to a slightly concentrated fish stock.
5. Add water/salt till the required taste is achieved.
6. Let the soup base rest to allow anchovies-shallot powder sink to the bottom. While these main ingredient increase the flavour of the soup base, only the liquid is used in preparation of our main dish later.

Soup base after simmer for over an hour

TIPS

* It is troublesome to strain the anchovies-shallot powder; also allowing it to remain in the pot adds rich flavour to the broth.

* You may want to prepare the soup base 1 to 2 hours in advance if time permits.

* To shorten preparation time, you may prepare the additional ingredients and the garnish while waiting for the soup base to simmer.

Spicy Soy Dip

Prepare by adding sliced chilli padi into light soy sauce. De-seed the chilli padi if you do not want the dip to be too spicy.

Part II: Assembly (15 minutes)

Ban Mian (For 1 pax)

1. Heat 450 ml of soup base in a saucepan until it comes to a boil.
2. Add required amount of noodles and sliced chicken into the boiling soup and let it cook.
3. Once the chicken is completely cooked add chye sim and crack an egg into the soup.
4. Allow egg to cook for a minute, stir before turning off the stove

Transfer the Ban Mian into a deep bowl right away and garnish with a dash of white pepper, a sprinkle of spring onions, fried shallots and the remaining fried anchovies.

Serve Ban Mian with spicy soy dip on the side.

Happy cooking!

XOXO, izan