It's hard to be Nonya here. Not that I'm very Nonya to begin with. But there are some Peranakan foods that's so integrated in my lifestlye and eating habits that it's kinda feels like phantom pain..when I'm missing sambal belachan. That said, though I am almost positive I will be able to home-make kickass sambal belachan, I don't think I will ever attempt it here. The problem of laying my hands on belachan could be solved by asking a kind soul back home to send some. How it will ever pass customs is another problem. Most importantly, how will I ever toast/fry belachan without getting all my nieghbours on my back is the bigger problem.
Other things however, seem less complicated to parrtake. About a month ago I got some lovely gula melaka from the bff. I've used one of it so far with very satisfying results, if only to gratify my nonya food longings. Also, some weeks back, in light of the Lunar New Year, I thought it'd be great to be able to make some Ngoh Hiang, or Five Spice Meat Rolls. It's such an easy thing to do and dried beancurd skin can be easily sent from Singapore cos it's so very compact and light.
I did that, got a cousin to send some to me so I could recreate a taste of Lunar New Year in my Israeli home.
Not so traditional Ngoh Hiang (Five Spice Meat Rolls)
(makes roughly 12 rolls)
I had to omit some ingredients (like water chestnuts cos I can't find them here) and substitute some, in that sense, the meat rolls are not as traditional as they can be. )
- 400g ground meat (chicken, pork, turkey or a muixture of.)
- 200g prawns, minced
- half a decent sized carrot, minced coarsely
- half a white onion, minced coarsely
- 2 or 3 dried shitake mushrooms, rehydrated and chopped
- 2 stalks spring onions, chopped (I used only the whitish parts)
- ½ teaspoon five spice powder
- ½ tablespoon chinese cooking wine
- 1 teaspoon light gluten-free soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
- 1 teaspoon cornflour
- ½ egg, beaten
- egg white of the remaining half an egg
- 12 sheets of dried beancurd skin, cut into roughly 15 by 15cm squares
- oil for frying
Combine all ingredients except egg white, dried beancurd skin and frying oil in a big bowl and mix well. I usually add the beaten egg only at the end so I can control the consistency of the meat mix. You'd want it to be sticky, but not mushy. The egg serves as a binding agent. Leave for about an hour while you prepare the beancurd skin and have a coffee.
Beancurd skins usually come in large sheets. So cut them into your desired squares. They can be larger or smaller depending on how big you want your rolls to be. Beancurd skin is also naturally salty. What my family (and I think most people) does is to lightly wipe/pat the skins with a clean wrung-dry teacloth, rinsing it every once in a while. We want some salt on the skin cos that's what makes this tastes so good, we just don't want all of it.
When you're ready, put enough marinated meat on the skins and roll them like you would a spring/egg roll. Seal the edges with egg white. I've put together some pictures below on the rolling process for better illustration. It's so hard to describe rolling!
When all meat is used up, and rolls rolled, you can either (1) steam the meat rolls in a steamer for roughly 10-12 minutes depending on the size of your rolls, then cut them into pieces for deep frying; or (2) be like me and skip the steaming step totally.
Heat the oil in a frying pan or wok. Deep fry rolls whole until they become firm and turn into a nice hue of light golden brown.
This would be best served with sambal belachan. I used garlic chilli sauce instead. Also, water chestnuts would have made a great difference. If you can find them, you can use about 3 or 4 coarsely chopped water chestnuts and omit the white onion completely.
