Prawn Noodles (福建虾面)

Ingredients:

2 Litre stock (made from pork or chicken bones)
Prawn shells & heads
2 cloves garlic + a small knob of ginger, smashed
200g spare ribs
about 50g rock sugar
salt & pepper
2 tbsp fish sauce

450g hokkien noodles (yellow mee), scalded
150g rice vermicelli (mehoon), soaked and scalded

Pounded ingredients:
4 tbsp chilli paste
10 shallots
6 cloves garlic 

Garnishing: 
400g prawns, cooked
1 bunch of kangkung, scalded
150g bean sprouts, scalded
3 hard-boiled eggs, halved

•  To make prawn stock, saute chopped garlic and ginger with a little oil and then fry prawn shells and heads until fragrant.  Add in about 1 Lit of water and boil for about 30 minutes.
• Combine the prawn stock and chicken/pork stock.  Strain the soup.
• Fry pounded ingredients in about 5 tbsp cooking oil.  Pour into the soup and add spare ribs and  rock sugar.  Let simmer over low heat for about 15 minutes or until spare ribs are tender.  Add fish sauce, salt and pepper to taste.
• To serve:  Pour hot soup over noodles and garnish with kangkung, beansprouts, cooked prawns, spare ribs and hard-boiled egg. 

I have been collecting prawn shells and prawn heads each time I bought prawns.  They kept well in the freezer for months.  As it is now summer, kangkung are in abundance in the Asian grocery shops here.  So, I might as well take this opportunity to cook our favourite Har Meen ....