NGOH HIANG - Hokkien Meat Rolls

28 Feb 2011
I tried this recipe for the first time.  It was good but it would be even better if I had added dried mushrooms for more flavor and some carrots for color.

Anyway, here are the pics to the steps.  The quantity stated is for 2 recipes so you can reduced to half if you don't need to make this much.  I can make 8 rolls out of this, exactly with 1 pack of the bean curd skin which cuts into 8 pcs.

I bought the fish from the fish market and it was actually prepared ready to be made into fish balls.

The ingredients have to be well mixed together. My friends suggested to beat the meat (like preparing the meat for meat balls) before adding the other ingredients.  However, I just had everything in together and I kept folding them till they were very well mixed and the texture was firm.

Now prepare the bean curd skin:
1)  Cut the bean curd skin into roughly 30cm x 25cm pieces.  My pack came in 2 large sheets and I cut them into 4 equal pieces for each sheet so I was able to have 8 pieces which was just nice for 2 recipes.

2)  I washed my bean curd skin by just dipping them into a basin of water few times and lay it out on a strainer.  I washed them piece by piece and I washed 4 pieces for use first so they won't get dry during the making process.

Lay out the bean curd skin and scoop an amount (depends on your preference of size) onto the bc-skin.

  

You will need to dap some cornflour along all the sides and briefly over the skin so it will stick together later.

Shape it out like a roll on the bean curd skin.

Dap some cornflour at each end of the roll to ensure the bean curd skin will close over the roll.

Here is a video clip which I asked my daughter to take while I was making the rolls. 

Now you can prepare your steamer.  I used my wok as a steamer and I sprayed some oil over the steamer plate before placing in the wok.  Then place the rolls on the steamer plate; cover the wok and steam over medium heat for 10 min.  Then take them out to cool on a rack.  You can freeze the rest for later, if you have more than enough for one meal.   They are ready to be served as Steam Meat Rolls or you can cut into bite pieces, coat them with cornflour and deep fry them.

I avoid deep frying as much as possible so I pan fried them over medium heat till lightly brown.  Then cut them into bite sizes and ready to serve.

They go well with chilli sauce or my home-made chilli paste.

CARAMEL PORK BELLY

I tried this and it turned out to be great! Watch the video and get the ingredients details from FOOD WISHES



I added brinjals to the cooking after I poured in the rest of the sauce and let it simmer till the sauce almost dried out. The brinjals go well with the sauce but I find it bit too sweet so I am going to reduce the sugar but add in more dried chillies for the next cooking.

 

I  made 2kg of the pork belly and cut them into 3 portions after the chilling, wrapped in new aluminum foil and freezed them for the CNY.

The port belly after being chilled.  The slits show where the rib bones were removed.

 The melted fat which solidified after chillling.

 The spring onions removed.

 I split them into smaller portions so I can freeze them seperately.

And use them later.

DRUNKEN CHILLED PORK LEG

This is my first try and I am happy with it.  My youngest girl, Joanna, asked me to buy chilled pork leg so she can eat when she comes back for the CNY.  And I thought why not give it a try.  So I searched for a recipe online and I bumped into this link:  TO INDULGE ONESELF (Thanks to Alfred & Janet for sharing)

I swapped the steps given in the recipe.  Instead of soaking the pork leg in the wine first, I cooked the pork leg in boiling water with few star anise and cloves plus some salt.  It took about 30min to cook and then I took it out and let it cool before putting it in a container with Shaoxing wine (about 1 1/2 half lit.) to soak.  After 3 days, I took it out and removed the bandage, cut into 3 portions, wrapped in aluminum foil and kept in the freezer for the Chinese New Year.

This has a strong wine taste (children may not like this) and I am going to try another one without the wine, which is more to the original taste.

25 Jan 2011

CHILLED PORK LEG

This is another pork leg I tried out without soaking in the wine.  You will notice it is a whole front leg. The center bone is removed but the hoof remains and the skin is still intact which makes it easy work. 

I seasoned the pork leg inside out with Szechuan peppercorn salt and left it in the fridge overnight.  The next day, I cut off some of the access meat and pushed it right inside, filling the space at the hoof end.  Then sealed the opening by sewing (with double strength cotton thread) the skin together while pushing all the meat inside to make it tight.  Then bandaged it tightly to prevent the skin from bursting open during the cooking.  I used a cotton gauze bandage.  It is not only cheap but safer to use as it is not elastic and fully cotton.  I just soak the whole roll in water and squeeze out the water before using it (sort of wash it) but do not unroll it as it will be impossible to use once unrolled.  I learned from my mistake.

I boiled it for 30 min (will take longer for bigger ones) in a pot with water to cover the whole leg.  I added a few star anise and cloves to the water and also some salt.

 

 

After cooling, chill it before cutting.  I splitted it into 3 portions and freezed them for CNY.  For the hoof, you can just eat it or make soup with it by using the broth from the pork leg. 

Besides eating chilled pork leg with pickled ginger, it goes well with chilli salt, garlic and lime juice. 

CHILLI SALT

I like trying different chilli paste and this time I did a chilli salt.  Just as it is called, I chopped up a small bowl of small chillies (seeds removed to lessen the hotness but it is still hot as I was sneezing and coughing as I was preparing it) and dry fried it with sea salt (1part chilli to 1part salt). Cool it before storing in a jar.

Add minced garlic and lime juice to the chilli salt and it goes well with meat especially pork.