My mom’s a very special cook with many wonderful recipes learnt from my grandmother in her younger days. I remember how she used to bake all her cakes using steam. She had many orders then and they just loved her fruit cakes. Those days ovens are unheard and not so accessible.

Amongst her many delights like  the kueh kuehs, stir frys, roast/salted chicken, cakes, curries and BBQs, our family all time favorite is the popiah. Not the usual ordinary popiah where you can find in Chinese hawkers or eateries where the main ingredient is Yambean.

We never miss having popiah on every Chinese Lunar new year. Above are all the ingredients you would need to prepare my mom’s special popiah. It is simple.

Ingredients is based on my estimation as I am already experienced in acquiring the taste and texture. So I cook with my eyes.

Ingredients( 4 people )

• 3 large carrots, grated
• 300g french beans, slice thinly in  diagonal
• 2 leeks, slice thinly in diagonal
• 1/2 cabbage(large) shredded
• 4 (quartered) beancurd, cut to cube/lengthy sizes
• 1 cup cooked pork belly, ( put in 2 strips of pork belly in boiling water till semi cooked and slice into cubes/ thinly)
• 1 cup prawns, cubes( boil till cooked, removed shells, retain 1 cup prawn stock)
• 5 medium size shallot, slice finely
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped

Seasoning

• soy sauce
• oyster sauce
• pepper/salt

Sauce/Condiment

• sweet flour sauce ( hoisin sauce or sweet black sauce )
• 6 fresh chillies, 1 small  garlic clove, 1 cm ginger, a bit salt ( pound or grind in a blender )

Wrap

• popiah skins ( available at oriental stores )
• some cos lettuce leaves

Method( Pork/Prawn mixture and beancurd)

1. Heat 1/4 cup oil in a wok and shallow fry the beancurds until lightly browned, dish out and set aside.
2. In the same wok add 2 tbsp oil and fry shallots and garlic until fragrant. Add in the pork, prawns, 1 tsp soy sauce, pinch of salt and pepper. Stir fry for a minute more. Taste, remove and set aside.

Cooking the Vegetables

1. Heat 2 tbsp oil in wok. Adding shredded carrots,leek,french beans and cabbage one at a time and stir fry them spreading evenly. Pour in the prawn stock, 2tbsp soy sauce 2 tbsp oyster sauce and give a quick stir. Then add in the meat mixture and bean curd. Stirring evenly so that the vegetable are cooked thru and soften. Dish out and keep warm in a pot. (above)

 

Wrapping Method

1. Lay a piece of popiah skin onto a flat plate( see pic above). Spread some chilli and sweet sauce flour onto the skin( your preference how you do it).
2. Place the lettuce leaf on opposite end of the chilli paste( again your preference. Some like the leaf on top of the chilli paste).
3. Fill in the popiah vegetables mixture onto the lettuce(pic) and start to wrap, closing both ends first and roll.

There you have it! My mom’s special and simple delicious popiah. We could have this for days and it tastes even better.Voila!