Let’s roll…

Somebody commented in my post the other day asking me where we could buy freshly-made popiah skin here in Sibu. Well, I got mine from one of the tofu stalls at the Sibu Central Market but one would have to place an order and then go back there the next day to collect.

I ordered 2 kilos and used up one the first time around when I made some for the Duānwǔ or Dragon Boat Festival and as I had another kilo left, I decided to make some more and use up all of it. It did seem that after being kept in the fridge, the skin became a little hard and was not as nice.

Actually, I have blogged about making popiah before sometime ago here and here but anyway, this second time around, I fried some finely-chopped garlic in a bit of oil…

…and once it has turned brown, that would be the time to add the minced meat or prawns or crab meat that one is using. I was thinking of having some kind of semi-vegetarian popiah that day so I did not include any of those. That was why the thinly-sliced long beans went in next…

The previous occasion, I used French beans so I thought we could do with a little bit of change.

After frying that for a while till I felt the long beans were already quite cooked, I added the sliced tau kua (bean curd cake)…

…and mixed them altogether well.

I did the same with the mangkuang/sengkuang (turnip), peeled and finely grated…

…and for the seasoning, I used one ikan bilis (dried anchovies) stock cube and a few dashes of fish sauce…but one might choose to just use salt and msg instead.

Lastly, I threw in some chopped spring onions…

…for that extra bit of fragrance and taste and once the filling was done…

…it would be time to start rolling. Of course, you may do so if you want to add some thin strips of carrot and whatever else for that extra colour – that is all up to you. I also used to add taugeh (bean sprouts) but you cannot cook that for too long so that it would still be sweet and crunchy…and there lies the problem. Sometimes, the filling may spoil because of the taugeh so these days, I would just leave it out completely.

There would be a lot of gravy/sauce that had come out of the ingredients in the process of cooking so I tilted the wok to let it all drain to one side so that I could scoop it all up and get rid of it. The filling is best used quite dry so that the skin would not tear or be spoilt.

Not in any particular order, one would have to apply a layer of the blended chilli or chilli sauce, add the filling and the thinly sliced omelette that one would need to prepare before hand and sprinkle crushed peanut generously over it all (I just used the sweet kacang tumbuk cakes from the shops), add a bit of lettuce…and apply some of the “glue” made from caramelised sugar and cornstarch (also prepared earlier)…

…and fold in the sides and roll it up!

Having done all that, then finally, it would be time to…EAT! LOL!!!