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Pan Mee – Malaysian dish with hand-torn noodles in a rich anchovy broth and topped with ground pork, veggie and crispy anchovies.
Pan Mee (板面) is a popular Hakka noodle dish in Malaysia, especially in central and southern part of Malaysia where most Hakka people reside.
Hakka Pan Mee is made with a simple flour-based dough, with anchovy broth, and topped with crispy fried anchovies, ground pork, shiitake mushrooms, and some vegetables.
Pan Mee is also known as Mee Hoon Kuih (面粉糕), which is commonly prepared at home.
I will be honest, before I develop this Pan Mee recipe here, I have had Pan Mee once.
Yes, once, some twenty years ago while I was visiting Kuala Lumpur. While I was growing up in Penang, Pan Mee was never sold in the hawker centers or street food stalls, so it has never been in my culinary dictionary.
Anyway, what prompted me to develop a recipe for Pan Mee?
Well, it all started with a HUGE bunch of mani cai (马尼菜), or cekur manis/sayur manis in Malay.
Mani cai, my favorite vegetable and a key ingredient of Pan Mee, is not available in the United States.
The vegetable is not grown here and thus it’s one of those things that I could never get in the US.
My friend Eddie grows his own plant, and gave me a big batch of his harvest.
I promised him I would make Pan Mee.
I reached out to my friend Anna and she taught me how to make pan mee.
It was a success and Anna, who used to live in Pan Mee paradise of KL, gave me her thumbs up.
I invited a couple friends over to my house to taste my Pan Mee and they all gave me their rave reviews.
I, for one, who have never been a fan of Pan Mee, is now a converted fan.
I finally understand why so many people love Pan Mee.
It is a Hakka comfort food in a bowl—nothing flashy or glamorous about this dish, but it is tasty and very satisfying.
If you are of Hakka descent and far away from Malaysia, I hope my Pan Mee recipe could bring the tastes of home to wherever you are.
Happy cooking!
How Many Calories per Serving?
This recipe is only 378 calories per serving.
What Dishes to Serve with This Recipe?
For a wholesome meal and easy weeknight dinner, I recommend the following recipes.
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Pan Mee (Hakka Flat Noodle Soup)
Ingredients
- 1 cup dried anchovies (heads removed)
- oil for frying
- 1 bunch mani cai
Soup:
- 1 cup dried anchovies (heads removed)
- 1 lb. pork bones
- 10 cups water
- 3 stalks scallions (white part only)
- salt to taste
Dough:
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 large egg
- 1/4 cup water (+ 2 tablespoons water)
- extra flour for dusting
Ground Pork and Mushroom Topping:
- 1 tablespoon oil
- 1 clove garlic (finely minced)
- 4 oz. ground pork
- 4 dried shiitake mushrooms (, soaked in warm water and stems removed, cut into strips)
- 1 tablespoon black soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon oyster sauce
- 1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
- 3 dashes white pepper
- 1/2 cup water
- 1 teaspoon corn starch ( + 1 tablespoon water)
Instructions
- Wash the two cups of anchovies thoroughly with water. Rinse about 5 times or until the water turns clear. Drain and set aside. Wash the pork bones thoroughly and scald them with some hot boiling water. Leave the pork bones in the water for a few minutes and then discard the cloudy water. Rinse again with cold running water to remove all impurities from the pork bones. This step ensures that the soup will be clearer once cooked.
- Bring the 10 cups of water to boiling point, then add 1 cup of the anchovies, pork bones, and scallions, turn the heat to medium low and slowly boil the soup for over 1 hour, or until the soup is flavorful. Add more water once the soup evaporated and season with some salt, to taste.
- Prepare the dough by combining all the ingredients together in a big mixing bowl, stirring and mixing with a spoon first, then knead the dough with your hand until the dough is no longer sticky. You might add a little bit water or flour to get to the desired consistency. Cover with a damp cloth and rest for an hour.
- In the meantime, prepare the Ground Pork and Mushroom Topping by firing up a wok. Add the oil and when the oil is heated, add the garlic and stir-fry until aromatic. Add the ground pork and continue to stir-fry and use the spatula to break up the lumps into smaller pieces.
- Add the mushrooms and stir to combine well. Season with all the seasonings and add the water. Turn the heat to low and braise for about 5 minutes or so. Add the cornstarch and water mixture to thicken up the sauce. Dish out and set aside.
- Prepare the remaining anchovies by frying with some oil. Make sure the anchovies are perfectly fried until golden brown in color and crispy. Set aside the fried anchovies.
- Bring a pot of water to boil while you prepare the dough. There are two ways to prepare the dough, with hand or a pasta machine. If you don't have a pasta machine, divide the dough into a few portions and flatten the dough with a rolling pin on a flat surface dusted with some flour.
- At this point, you can cut the dough into thicker strands of noodles using a knife to make them into broad noodles, or you can just tear the dough into pieces. The shapes will be irregular, but they are perfectly fine, like the photo below. (If the dough is hand torn, this dish is called mee hoon kuih.)
- If you have a pasta machine, you can roll out the dough with the machine and cut to fettuccine shape. Cook the noodles in the boiling water until they float to the surface or completely cooked. Dish out using a colander.
To assemble a bowl of Pan Mee
- Bring some soup to boil in another sauce pan and add some mani cai into the soup. Add a dash or two of white pepper. In a serving bowl, add a portion of the noodles and then pour the soup and mani cai into the bowl. Add the ground pork and mushroom topping and the fried anchovies. Serve immediately with cut red chilies and soy sauce.
Notes
Nutrition
Notice: Nutrition is auto-calculated, using Spoonacular, for your convenience. Where relevant, we recommend using your own nutrition calculations.
Tried this for lunch today. Husband and kids are picky eaters but they all gave approval for this. I added a chicken cube into the broth for additional flavours. Would recommend this to any one wanting to make ban mian. I think it is honestly better than hawkers outside :) the meat topping was the winner for me!
Hi how long can the dough for the noodles be stored for?
It’s best not to store it, use right away.
Taste good. Like the soup so much! But why the dough turns grey the next day?
Sorry but I am not sure what happened.
Tried this for lunch today. Husband and kids are picky eaters but they all gave approval for this. I added a chicken cube into the broth for additional flavours. Would recommend this to any one wanting to make ban mian. I think it is honestly better than hawkers outside :) the meat topping was the winner for me!
Hi Lim, yes, this recipe tastes better than hawkers! Thanks for trying and you can try more recipes on my site: https://rasamalaysia.com/recipe-index-gallery/
Excellent and easy recipe to follow. I did add an extra egg to the dough and it came out perfect! I also added chicken cubes to add more flavor to the broth. Overall, I followed the recipe to the tee and the end results were perfect!
Highly recommend…
Awesome! So glad you liked my Pan Mee recipe.
Dear Bee,
I was wondering for the soup stock. Can I just use the chicken stock instead of anchovies/ikan bilis as my husband doesn’t like them very much, being Caucasian. I don’t mind adding the fried anchovies as toppings in my bowl of Pan Mee.
Yes you can.
Hi Bee
Wow, my mum used to make this a lot when I was little. I come from a Hakka family. We have 2 restaurants here in Sydney ( Albee’s Kitchen in Campsie & Kingsford) that sell this and it’s just as good as mum’s. ok, looking at the bowl you just posted, looks like I will be going there soon for a one. This brings back so many childhood memories. Thanks for the great reminder
Being a Hakka girl, I grew up eating this dish. My mom made them using the pasta roller and that’s how I like it. When I am lazy to make my own, I just used those thiner udon and they taste just as good. We can’t really find sayur manis here in Hong Kong where I live now so I used baby choi sum as substitute and for the soup, I always add some chicken bones or feet to the soup to give it an even more flavourful soup. I also ‘toast’ my ikan bilis a bit to give it a bit of ‘smoky’ flavour….thanks for sharing this recipe. It makes me feel closer to home and fond memories of my deceased mom as we used to make the noodles together when I was a kid…
Yen, thanks for your comment and great that it brings nostalgia to you. :)
We have mani cai sold in Richmond, VA. You can try to find them in Vietnamese grocery store (those Vietnamese call it “Vietnam Kao Gei” – hope you understand my Cantonese). For the dough, I suggest to use cold water as it gives you the “QQ” feeling and hence no need to knead so much, :). For the soup, you can add “mang guang”, which taste much better (I am a Hakka from KL and my mom used to sell Pan Mee).
SW, thanks so much for your tips. I have never seen it anywhere in California. :)