Mie Ayam ala luv0food

My Comfort Food

As an Indonesian living abroad, one of the dishes that I often miss is "Mie Ayam", literally means Chicken Noodle, except it's not the Chicken Noodle as it's know in the West that comes in soup base. The Indonesian Mie Ayam, or rather, Mie Ayam ala Jakarta (there's also Mie ala Medan, etc), is usually served dry with soup on the side and from my experience, you can not find anything like the original Mie Ayam outside of Jakarta, not even in other parts of Asia. There were times when I often craved Mie Ayam only to end up being frustrated by the lack of similar tasting noodles all around North America and as a result ended up stuffing myself, dissatisfying as they were, with Hong Kong style noodles instead. The only time that I would ever satiated my craving for Mie Ayam was either when my mom came to town and prepared it for me, or when I went to visit Jakarta and gorged on every variety of Mie Ayam there was . But that was before I ever got used to spending time in the kitchen (preferring to eat out/take out most of the time). I am a little bit more familiar with working around the kitchen these days (as I've matured....), so I asked my mom for the recipe that she uses in constructing her homemade Mie Ayam (and with a little tweaking of my own, as usual); although it's still not the exact taste that you get from the original Mie Ayam that you can only get in Jakarta, it is close enough. As it turns out, it's not as hard as I have imagined - it never is. So these days, whenever I have a craving for Mie Ayam - which I consider to be my ultimate comfort food - I no longer end up stuffing myself with other dissatisfying food to compensate for the unfulfilled craving, but instead, I just go to my favorite Chinese supermarket (T&T supermarket, where they have just the perfect type of noodles for Mie Ayam), get all the necessary ingredients and concoct the perfect Mie Ayam as best I can. And I always end up being satisfied - even if I end up eating the same thing for three days in a row (sick, isn't it?)

Ingredients:

1) Noodles Mixing Sauce

• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 shallots, minced and 1/2 green onion
  
• 1/2 tsp. white pepper and a pinch of salt
  
• 1 tsp. sugar
• 1 tbsp. light soy sauce
• 1 tbsp. fish sauce
• 1/2 tbsp. sesame oil
• 1/2 tbsp. Chinese white cooking wine
• 1 tbsp. chicken broth
• 2 tbsp. canola oil

2) Chicken and Mushrooms Toppings

• 2 Chicken breasts, cut into cubes
• 1/2 tsp. corn starch mixed with 1 tbsp. chicken broth
• 1/2 dozen of white mushrooms, sliced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
  
• 1/2 shallots, minced and 1/2 green onions
• 1/2 white pepper, a dash of salt and 1/2 tsp. sugar
  
• 1 tbsp. soy sauce
• 1/2 tbsp. fish sauce
• 1 tsp. sesame oil
• 1 tbsp Chinese white cooking wine
• 1 tbsp. oyster sauce
• 1/2 tbsp. sweet soy sauce (kecap manis ABC or similar)
  

3) A pack of Shanghainese pulled noodles (usually comes with 3 portions of noodles)
4) Bok choi or any Chinese greens
5) Bean sprouts
6) Optional: Fish Cake, sliced, fried till crispy and add to toppings

Directions:

1) Noodles Mixing Sauce - Heat oil in a skillet on low heat, throw in minced garlic and stir till fragrant, mix in sauce and stir for a few minutes till mixture is boiled, set aside and let cool.

2) Chicken and Mushrooms Toppings - Mix chicken cubes with cornstarch mixture and cook with half of prepared garlic in a skillet on medium-high heat. Add the minced shallots and green onions and mix. Pour a tablespoonful of sauce mixture and keep stirring. Add more liquid (chicken broth) to prevent meat from drying and sticking to the pan. Set aside once cooked. In same skillet, throw in the rest of minced garlic and mushroom and add sauce by the teaspoonful till mushrooms are cooked. Throw in the cooked chicken and mix together with mushrooms for a few more minutes, add the rest of the sauce mixture. Set aside in a bowl.

3) Boil vegetables and noodles. Once boiled, drain the water and put on a plate. Add the Noodle Mixing Sauce by the tablespoons to the noodle and vegetables and mix right away to make sure the noodles don't stick together. Put Chicken and Mushroom Toppings on top. Enjoy!