Popiah

Soft wheat skins rolled around a long-braised turnip filling, never fried, and drained hard so the skin does not go through.

Pork, Shellfish, Egg, Tofu. Not vegetarian — contains pork, shellfish.

Ingredients

For the filling

• 1 kg mooli or turnip, in fine matchsticks
• 200 g carrot, in fine matchsticks
• 150 g pork belly, in fine strips
• 150 g prawns, chopped
• 100 g bean curd, diced small
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tablespoons flavourless oil
• 2 tablespoons light soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon white pepper
• 300 ml water

To roll

• 18 popiah or thin wheat skins
• 6 tablespoons sweet flour sauce or hoisin
• 2 tablespoons chilli sauce
• 100 g beansprouts, blanched 20 seconds
• 1 cucumber, in matchsticks
• 3 eggs, made into a thin omelette and shredded
• 100 g peanuts, roasted and crushed
• a handful of lettuce leaves

Method

1. THE FILLING IS DRAINED HARD AND THE ROLL IS NEVER FRIED. Turnip is most of the way water and the braise pulls it all out; packed in wet, it goes straight through the skin within a minute and the roll collapses in the hand. Lift it out with a slotted spoon and let it sit in a sieve while everything else is prepared.
2. AND THE LETTUCE IS A BARRIER, not a garnish. A leaf laid down first keeps what is left of the moisture off the skin and is the difference between a roll that holds for ten minutes and one that does not.
3. Oil in a wide pan, garlic 30 seconds, pork belly strips in and cooked until their fat runs, 5 minutes.
4. Prawns and bean curd in, 2 minutes.
5. Turnip and carrot in with the soy, sugar, pepper and water. Brought to a simmer, lid on, and cooked 45 minutes until the turnip is completely soft and translucent.
6. Lid off and cooked a further 15 minutes so most of the liquid goes. Then into a sieve over a bowl and left to drain at least 30 minutes. KEEP THE LIQUID -- a spoonful goes into each roll and it is where the flavour went.
7. Everything else laid out: skins, sauces, beansprouts, cucumber, omelette, peanuts, lettuce.
8. To roll: a skin flat, a smear of sweet sauce and a little chilli sauce across the lower third, a lettuce leaf on top of that.
9. Two heaped tablespoons of drained filling along the leaf, a teaspoon of the reserved liquid over it, then beansprouts, cucumber, omelette and peanuts.
10. Sides folded in, then rolled up tightly from the bottom. Tight is the whole trick: a loose roll falls apart at the first bite.
11. Cut in half on the diagonal and eaten within a few minutes. They do not keep and cannot be made ahead.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under China · All recipes