Pancit Bihon – Filipino Shrimp Noodle Recipe

Ingredients (4 servings):
- 250 grams shrimp
- about 1 litre shrimp stock
- rice noodles
- vegetable frying oil
- 3 garlic cloves
- 4-5 shallots
- 100 grams tofu
- salt to taste
- 2 tablespoons annatto powder
- 2 tablespoons fish sauce
- 3 tablespoons flour
- 4 hardboiled eggs
- 100 g smoked fish flakes
- 100 g cup pork crackling crushed
- 2 stalks green onions
Preparation method:
- Cook the remaining shells and heads from the previous recipe –Grilled Jumbo Black Tiger Prawns with Fried Garlic and Lemon-. Strain.
- Cook the noodles according to the instructions on their package.
- Chop the garlic.
- Chop the shallots.
- Slice the green onions.
- Dissolve the annatto powder in 100 ml water. I did not have annatto powder so I used smoked paprika, which did not need this dissolving step.
- I did not have the small, crumbled pork cracklings, only the larger-regular sized ones, so I cut them into pieces and re-fried them to get the extra crunch. Set them aside from the pan.
- Also did not have ether smoked fish flakes, so using a fork, I tore the smoked fish into small bits and I fried them in the pan I re-fried the cracklings before.
- Dice the tofu if you have it into larger pieces. Mine was already crumbled.
- Heat oil in a frying pan, add the chopped garlic and shallots, sauté for 2 minutes, until fragrant.
- Add shrimp tails, tofu, and season with salt and pepper.
Sauté until shrimps are done. Set aside.
- In another saucepan, add the shrimp broth, add annatto water if having, if not, what I used – 2-3 teaspoons Spanish smoked paprika, ground pepper, fish sauce and flour dissolved in water.
- Simmer over medium-low heat, stirring constantly for about 5 minutes, until the sauce thickens to your liking.
- Add the cooked shrimp-tofu mixture and cook for another 2-3 minutes.
- Place the cooked noodles in the plates.
- Ladle the shrimp sauce over the noodles and top with stir-fried shrimp and tofu.
- Top it with crushed pork cracklings, smoked fish flakes, chopped green onion and quartered hard-boiled eggs.