Kerabu bihun 酸辣米粉沙拉

First attempt! Liked it a lot, so did the guests at Lydia's birthday in KK.
Got the idea from a magazine I read few years back.



Kerabu is Malay salad. One can use anything to make kerabu, there's kerabu perut (cow's stomach salad), kerabu sotong (squid with salad), kerabu mangga (young mango salad), kerabu paku (fern shoots salad), kerabu jantung pisang (banana flower salad) and many many more... It's basically hot and sour, with a light tinge of sweetness and laced with local herbs and spices like lime, lemon grass, torch ginger flower, coconut and the list goes on, depending on the dish.

Ingredients
250gm bihun (rice vermicelli, I love Hutou Rice Vermicelli, it looks like Tang Hoon, but not as fragile and sticky like Tang Hoon, can be found in Tesco )

½ cup lime juice
4 tbsp sugar
1 ¾ tsp salt
2 Tbsp chopped bird’s eye chilli
2 stalks torch ginger flower (bunga kantan, finely chopped)

1 large red onion (sliced, marinate with 3 Tbsp vinegar, 1 ½ Tbsp sugar, it’ll turn pink)
1 ½ cups very finely julienned carrots
½ cup finely sliced green onion (cut into 2 inch lengths, then slice vertically, soak in cold water)
½ cup squids (blanched)
½ cup shelled prawns (cooked)
5 eggs, fried into thin omelettes and finely julienned

Method
1. Soak bihun in cold water.
2. Mix lime juice, sugar, salt, bird’s eye chilli and chopped ginger flower. Taste. It should be sweet, sour and a bit over salty.
3. Blanch bihun in boiling water until cooked. Put cooked bihun under running cold water, drain well.
4. Pour in (2) onto bihun. Mix well. Taste. The saltiness should be slightly less, but the sourness will surface, accompanied with subtle sweetness. Anyway, adjust it to ur liking.
5. Drain red onion from marinade, do not discard marinade. Mix squids and prawns in marinade for few seconds, drain.
6. Sprinkle carrots, green onion, squids, prawns, egg strips and red onion onto bihun. Toss well.