Thursday, July 14, 2011

Mi Kho Thap Cam - Combination Dry Egg Noodle


Once upon a time I fell in love with a bowl of Mi Kho from Hai Ky Mi Gia in Falls Church, Virginia. This place only sells different type of Hu Tieu/Mi dry or wet. I like places that has a very limited menu which mean they can spend more time on perfecting that one dish. While I ordered a bowl of egg noodle soup, my friend ordered the dry version. She said the secret is the sauce for the Mi Kho, of course it's always the sauce! I mooched a couple bites from her bowl, while I very much enjoyed my soup I really wished I ordered the Mi Kho instead. After I polish off my bowl, I began to analyze what was left of the sauce. The sauce was definitely soy base, it was sweet and had hints of familiar spices. At the time I was very determine to recreate this sauce at home.

I posted an entry for the soup version of Hu Tieu two years ago but was unable to come up with a sauce for the dry version. I tried a lot of different sauces and I just wasn't satisfied with any of them. I pretty much threw in the white flag until I saw the comment from a reader that has been waiting for me to come up with the sauce. Thank you for reminding me and motivating me to get back on the saddle.

I remember when I first tried the sauce from Hai Ky Mi Gia, I thought it reminded me of Xa Xiu, Chinese BBQ pork. I love the Xa Xiu seasoning I use by NOH so I took out the seasoning package and look through the ingredients. For the next two hours I begin playing around with the ingredients and I finally ended up with a sauce that I am satisfy with. I'm just so glad I got this recipe out of the way and hope you will like it.

Please refer back to my Hu Tieu entry on how to prepare the toppings. I will only be listing the steps to make the sauce for Hu Tieu/Mi Kho.  I like to make the sauce directly from the pan I use to fry the xa xiu.  After you fry your xa xiu for the toppings, save the liquid!

Toppings:



Xa Xiu (thinly sliced)
Ground Pork (pan fried until crispy)
Cooked Squid
Cooked Shrmip
Chinese Chives
Fried Shallots

Sauce:

soy sauce
oyster sauce
sugar
broth (use the broth from hu tieu/mi soup, if you don't plan to make the broth to go with your mi kho, use chiken broth)
rice vinegar
left over xa xiu liquid

1. Use the same pan you use to fry the xa xiu, the left over liquid will help make a good sauce.  Add about 1 cup of hu tieu broth, approx. 1 tablespoon of sugar (more or less depending on how sweet you like it), 2 teaspoon of soy sauce,1/2 tablespoon of rice vinegar, 2 tablespoon of oyster sauce.
2.  Let all the ingredient combine on low heat.
3.  If you don't plan to make xa xiu for your hu tieu, add two tablespoon of cooking oil instead.


Prepare a bowl with all the toppings to your liking and enjoy!