It was Friday again and my girl would be coming home from her school. The previous week, I cooked Sarawak laksa as a special treat for her and this week, I decided to make some popiah (spring rolls).
Yes, we can get these very nice ones here but nothing can beat our own home-made ones, a recipe that has been in my family since God knows when. I don’t know where my mum or aunties or whoever got the recipe from but all these years, ever since I was small, the popiah in my family has always been done this way and of course, if you ask me, I would state in no uncertain terms that it is second to none.
This is the very basic and the ingredients I prepared…
…for the filling included some prawns, peeled and de-veined and chopped, French beans, very finely sliced (I prefer these to long beans but that may be an alternative), tau kua (firm bean curd), cut into small slices, mangkuang/sengkuang (turnip), grated and one whole bulb of garlic, peeled and finely chopped.
I fried the garlic in a bit of oil till golden brown before adding the French beans followed by the prawns. Then, I added the tau kua and stirred well to break the slices up into smaller bits and after that, I added the mangkuang/sengkuang. I kept frying until it was good and ready…
…and then, I dished everything out. I said this is the basic as at times, we may add some minced pork as well…or even crab meat. Some people like to add carrots cut into thin strips to give it a bit of colour but I do not recall any of us ever doing that in our family.
Other than the filling, I had to fry some omelette and cut it into fine thin strips…
…and I also had to prepare the “glue” – which is actually caramelised sugar, with cornflour added to make it thick and starchy and that is used for taste and also to hold down the skin after rolling. For the kacang tumbuk (crushed peanut), I just used the very nice khong therng that I still had in the house and my missus had just made some fresh chili dip so I did not have to do that…and I also bought some greens to go into the popiah.
There was some popiah skin in the freezer…
…so I did not bother to order any of the freshly-made ones, not that it is easy to do so here in Sibu. There is only one place where one can get that here – a tofu stall…and one would have to go there and place and order and collect the next day…and I am quite doubtful they would bother to entertain an order for just one kg or two and I think the last time I bought some, it was already RM10.00 a kg. So, these frozen ones would just have to do.
I placed the skin on a flat plate, coat a layer of the chili, place some bits of lettuce and on top of the leaves, I added the filling, followed by the omelette strips and lastly, the crushed peanut…
…and then I rolled it up…
There you have it! One popiah, ready for the eating…
Yum! Yummmmm!!!!
...STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS! 