Popiah 薄饼 / Fresh Spring Rolls is one of the absolute favourite street food of all time. It's actually so easy to make at home too. Wrapped with a delicious yam bean filling, shredded egg omelette and fresh vegetables, nothing beats homemade spring rolls. Enjoy with sweet sauce or chilli sauce, or both!
300gramfresh prawns, shelled, reserved shells for stock
½tspsalt, marinate prawns
4cupswater, for prawn stock
3 ½tbspvegetable oil
1tbspfresh garlic, minced
2 ½tbspbrown bean paste, ground
300grammeat, diced
½tspsalt, marinate meat
2firm beancurd, fried, cut into strips
½tspsalt
To prepare garnishing ingredients
1lettuce, wash and drained
300grambean sprouts, tailed and blanched
1cucumber, finely shred
2eggs, lightly beaten, to make omelette
⅛tspsalt, seasoning for eggs
⅛tsppepper, seasoning for eggs
150grampeanut, roasted and ground
150gramshallots, sliced and fried crisp
Prevent your screen from going dark
Instructions
To cook filling
Choose fresh and sweet turnips, also known as jicama for this dish.
Peel the skin off the turnips, wash and drained well.
Cut the turnips into strips.
Place the strips of turnip in a colander.
Have ready some fresh spring roll wrap / skin. They can be homemade or store bought.
To cook the filling, first boil prawn shells in water for about 10 minutes.
Strain the prawn stock and set aside.
Season the prawns with salt.
Next fry firm bean curd on non-stick pan till browned on both sides.
Then cut the fried bean curd into strips.
Heat oil in a wok and lightly brown minced garlic.
Add brown bean paste and fry until fragrant.
Pour in strained prawn stock.
When the prawn stock comes to a boil, add in turnip strips and mix well.
When it starts to boil again, add in the diced meat.
Cover and simmer gently on low heat for 1 ½ hours until the turnip is soft or transfer to a pressure cooker and pressure cook for 30 minutes.
Then add in the prawns.
Next add in bean curd strips and salt to taste.
Cover and continue to simmer for another 10 minutes.
And the turnip filling is ready to be used for the wrap!
To prepare garnish ingredients
While turnip is simmering in the wok, prepare the garnishing ingredients. Wash lettuce, blanch beansprouts, shred cucumber, slice omelette, fry shallots, prepare ground fried garlic and roasted peanuts. Also not forgetting the sweet and chilli sauce.
To make omelette, spread beaten eggs thinly on non-stick pan.
Cook the thin omelette till set and remove from pan.
Slice finely the cooked omelette.
To assemble the spring rolls
To serve, put a spring roll wrap on a plate or flat board.
Spread with as much chilli, sweet sauce and ground fried garlic as desired.
Next, place a piece of fresh lettuce on one edge of the spring roll wrap.
Then add blanched beansprout followed by sliced cucumber.
Place 2 tablespoons of filling, drained of gravy, on top.
Top with omelette strips and sprinkle with a little roasted ground peanuts and shallot crisps.
Lastly, wrap and then fold up the two sides of wrapper and roll up like a swiss roll. And we're done!