I remember Sang Har Yee Meen (literally, freshwater prawn crispy noodles) as a popular dish at open-air restaurants in Malaysia, but they’re actually pretty easy to make at home. If you’re not too fixated about using freshwater prawns, you’ll save a few bucks by using a cheaper and more commonly available variety like the banana prawns pictured here from my Live Asian Kitchen broadcast.
A couple of notes re: the noodle variety:
I use what I call “wonton noodles”, which are the thin egg noodles usually served with wontons. They puff up when deep-fried (you fry them straight out of the bag; DON’T rinse or blanch them beforehand), and they’re soft and silky when boiled.
They’re NOT the same as the thin egg noodles used for stir-fries, which don’t puff up, but rather, turn hard and cakey when fried, and which have an al dente-like texture when boiled. You can tell the difference between the two by the fact that “wonton noodles” look like they’re lightly dusted with flour, whereas the other egg noodles do not. It’s not a dealbreaker if you use the latter variety, just keep in mind the texture will be different.
Also, you’ve seen me use “yee meen” for crab noodles; those are Hong Kong-style fried egg noodles, and they’re much thicker and you can buy them pre-fried in cake form at Asian grocery stores. Yee Meen in Malaysian noodle dishes more commonly refer to the thin variety per in this recipe.
Crispy Freshwater Prawn Noodles
INGREDIENTS:
200g fresh wonton noodles
1 cup Choy Sum, cut into 3-inch lengths
2 cups prawn stock, chicken stock, or water
½ Tbsp chicken powder
½ Tbsp oyster sauce
1 tsp fish sauce
½ tsp white pepper
1 tsp potato starch or tapioca starch + 2 Tbsps water
1 tsp minced garlic
1 egg
Freshwater prawns or large prawns, halved
1 Tbsp cornstarch or tapioca starch
Oil for deep-frying
METHOD:
- Heat oil to 180°C; drop batches of noodles into the oil to fry until they puff up and the bubbles begin to dissipate.
- Remove and allow to cool, then arrange on serving plate.
- Toss prawns with cornstarch, flash fry in oil for a few seconds, remove and drain.
- Remove all except 1/2 Tbsp oil.
- Heat oil, add garlic and saute until aromatic; add prawns followed by oyster sauce and Choy Sum.
- Add stock/water, chicken powder, pepper and fish sauce.
- Bring to a low simmer, then thicken with tapioca starch + water mix.
- Turn off the heat, crack egg into sauce and stir in one direction.
- Pour hot sauce over noodles to serve.
