I love popiah (pronounced ‘po-piah‘) because everybody at the table gets to customise their own roll. It is however quite a tedious dish to cook, so it’s defo a good idea to grab at least one mate to do the cooking together with.
Popiah
Equipment
- Cutting Board
- Knife
- frying pan
- Spatula
- Bowls (lots of them)
Ingredients
Filling
- 2 large Bang kwangs (yam beans)
- 6 cloves Garlic
- 1 Tau kwa (firm bean curd)
- 8 Prawns (large)
- 100 g Minced pork
- 1½ tbsp Light soya sauce
- 1 tbsp Oil
- 1½ tbsp Tau cheo (salted soya beans)
Extra filling ingredients
- 2 Eggs
- 1 Lap cheong (Chinese sausage)
- 100 g Bean sprouts
- 1 small Cucumber
- 2 cloves Garlic
- 2 tbsp Chilli paste
- 1 Bottle Sweet sauce
- 3 tbsp Crushed peanuts
- 1 Head Lettuce
- 1 Packet Spring roll wrappers
- 1 Small bunch Corriander
Instructions
Filling
- Prepare the vegetables by cutting the bang kuang (yam bean) and carrots into thin strips about 4 cm in length.
- Cut the tau kwa into thin strips.
- Smash all 6 of the garlic pips to remove the skin then put them through a garlic press. Reserve about 2 pips worth of smashed garlic to spread in the popiah.
- De-vein the prawns and boil them in just enough water to cover them. Once the prawns are boiled, remove them from the liquid and de-shell. Reserve the water used to cook the prawns. You can also crush the heads of the prawns in the prawn stock to release more of their flavor.
- Heat the oil in a wok over medium high heat, then add the tau cheo. Fry it for about 2 minutes then add the garlic and fry till fragrant.
- Add the pork to the wok and fry till slightly brown.
- Add the tau kwa and fry till golden brown.
- Next, add all the sliceg bang kuang and carrots. Fry for about 5 minutes to soften them a little, stirring constantly.
- Add the light soya sauce. Stir, then add the prawn stock. Bring the mixture to a boil, then lower the heat, cover the pan and leave the mixture to simmer until the vegetables have softened considerably and turned a light brown.
Remaining filling ingredients
- Boil some water in a small pot of water. Blanch the bean sprouts for 1 minute, then remove the bean sprouts. Save the hot water to cook your eggs. Set the beansprouts on a pretty serving plate.
- Place the eggs in the water that you used to cook the beansprouts. There should be enough water to cover the eggs. If there isn’t, just top the water up. After the water starts boiling, set your timer for 5 minutes. Take the eggs out when the timer goes off. Roll the eggs gently on a hard surface to crack the shells, then de-shell, slice thinly and place it on the serving plate with the beansprouts.
- Next we’ll cook the lap cheong (Chinese sausage). Optional: To soften the lap cheong, steam it for about 3 minutes. Heat a frying pan over medium high heat and dry fry the whole lapcheong for about 5 minutes, moving the lapcheong around to keep it from burning. After the lap cheong is done, slice it thinly at an angle to match the rest of your ingredients and arrange the slices on the serving plate.
- Finally, remove the seeds from the cucumber and slice it into think strips about 4 cm long. Place the slices on the serving plate.
- By this time the bang kuang filling should be cooked so you can take turn off the heat. Taste it and season as necessary.
Rolling the popiah
- Place a spring roll skin on a clean plate
- Place a lettuce leaf on the bottom third of the skin.
- Spread a little bit of sweet sauce, smashed garlic and chili paste.
- Place some bang kuang filling on the lettuce, followed by some prawn, some lap cheong, some egg slices and a sprig of corriander.
- Finally, sprinkle some crushed peanuts over and roll it all up!