Hokkien Ngoh Hiang (Chinese Meat Rolls)

福健五香肉卷

My mum usually makes Ngoh Hiang for important occasions like Chinese New Year, late grandparents’ and late dad’s death anniversary dates. I look forward to eating these meat rolls each time she makes them and even pack some home. I’m very happy my mum taught me how to make them last week. 

Ingredients (makes 25 pieces)

1kg minced pork

500g prawns

1 piece beancurd skin (to wrap ngoh Hiang)

10 water chestnuts

2 stalks of scallions

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon five spice powder

1 teaspoon white pepper

1 tablespoon corn flour

2 tablespoon plain flour

1 spoonful of love

Method

1. Wipe the beancurd skin with a damp cloth as the skin is very salty. Cut the beancurd skin into preferred size. I cut mine 6” x 4”.

2. Wash, and remove the skin from water chestnuts. Dice the water chestnuts into small pieces.

3. De-shell and de-vein the prawns. Cut each prawn into three or four pieces.

4. Put all the ingredients in a mixing bowl and give it a good mixing using your hands or a pair of chopsticks until the meat mixture forms a paste. This takes about 5 to 10 mins.

5.  Put 2 heaped tablespoonful of the meat mixture on the beancurd skin, keeping half inch from the edge of the sides clear of meat. Spread and mould the meat mixture into a log shape. Wrap the skin over the meat tightly and roll to the end of the beancurd skin. Seal meat roll including the sides with egg white. Repeat until all the meat mixture has been wrapped. 

6. Heat up enough oil in the wok or pot for deep frying. It is ready for frying when you see small bubbles form around the tip of the chopstick that is dipped into the oil.

7. Gently lower the Ngoh Hiang into the oil one at a time. Fry until golden brown and place on a wire rack to drain excess oil.

Best eaten soon after frying as the Ngoh Hiang will be very crispy and crunchy. To serve this dish in gatherings, cut the Ngoh Hiang into bite sized cubes and pan fry them. 

Pasta with Italian Meatballs

 意大利肉瓦

I came across Recipetineats Nagi's recipe for these meatballs, and tried cooking it.  The meatballs are really soft and juicy, and are now my family’s favourite especially when the meatballs are served in tomato sauce spaghetti. Below is the recipe to suit my family's tastebuds.

Ingredients:

A. For meatball

300g minced beef

75g minced pork (25% of minced beef)

25g panko breadcrumbs (I replace with semolina sometimes)

1 medium egg

1 tablespoon mixed herbs (oregano, thyme, basil, parsley)

2 garlic cloves (grated)

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon black pepper

1/2 large onion (grated)

2 tablespoon parmesan cheese (optional)

B. For tomato sauce

3 medium sized fresh tomatoes (optional, but I find that adding fresh tomatoes to store bought tomato sauce make the sauce more delicious)

1 bottle of tomato pasta sauce

1 tablespoon sugar

1 tablespoon herb mix

Method:

A. Cook Meatball

1. Add panko/semolina to the grated onion and mix to combine. Let the panko/semolina soak in the onion juice for about 5 mins.

2. Add all remaining ingredients and mix well.

3. Measure out a heaped tablespoon of meat mixture (approx 20g) and roll gently into a ball. Repeat with remaining meat mixture.

4. Heat the oil in a frying pan / skillet. Pan-fry the meatballs on all sides over medium heat, roll and flip them as they cook until the sides are nicely seared and caramelised on the outside. Transfer the meatballs to a plate.

B. Cook Tomato Sauce

5. Remove the core of the tomatoes and make two slits on the bottom of the tomatoes. Put the tomatoes into a pot of boiling water and blanch of a few minutes until you see the tomato skin come loose. Drain the tomatoes and leave it to cool. Once cooled, de-seed the tomatoes and chop or mash them up.  

6. Add the mashed tomatoes to the frying pan / skillet used for frying the meatballs. Add sugar, store bought tomato sauce and herb mix, and stir to mix thoroughly.

7. Add the meatballs into the tomato sauce and coat the meatballs with the sauce. 

8. Serve the meatballs and tomato sauce with your favourite pasta (70g serving per adult, cook according to instructions on package).

Kakiage (Japanese vegetable fritters/tempura)

 

This is one Japanese dish we cook when there are vegetables leftover from cooking other dishes. The vegetable fritters are crispy and goes well with soba (buckwheat noodles, click here to know more) or udon (another type of noodle common in Japanese cuisine, click here to know more).

Ingredients:

There is no fixed list of vegetables to be used in this dish, but I do consider two things: 

1) colour combinations, to make the vegetable fritters attractive i.e.

Orange - carrot, pumpkin

Green - shiso leaves, coriander

Yellow - potato

Purple - onion

2) "sweet" vegetables like onions (caramelised onions are very sweet and tasty), pumpkins and sweet potatoes.

Tempura batter (for 12 pieces of kakiage, approximately 8cm x 8cm each)

85g plain flour 

15g corn starch 

1/2 tsp salt

150ml ice cold water

1 cold egg (50g nett weight - reduce water if your egg is bigger)

Method:

1. Cut the vegetables into thin strips, pat dry and mix them up in a mixing bowl. 

2. Heat up the oil in wok/deep frying pan to 180 deg celcius.

3. Prepare tempura batter when oil is heating up:

Mix plain flour, corn starch and salt in a bowl. Add water to egg, mix well and pour into the flour mixture. Use a pair of chopsticks to mix gently for a few seconds by drawing the number 8 a few times or drawing a few parallel lines while turning the bowl. Do not overmix the batter and it is ok to have lumps of flour in the batter. Note, if batter is too thin, add a bit (5g) of flour.

4. Sprinkle potato starch (or corn starch) into the vegetables and toss to mix. 

5. Transfer a small amount of vegetables to a small bowl and add a small amount of tempura batter (just enough to coat vegetables). Mix gently to coat the vegetables with the batter. Lower the vegetables gently into the hot oil. Fry the vegetables until they are crisp and golden brown. 

Notes:

- Add batter to vegetables only just before frying. 

- Pocking the vegetables with chopsticks during frying will result in a better texture for vegetable fritter.

6. Transfer the crisp vegetable fritter to a wire rack to drain excess oil. Pick up the crumbs from the oil after each batch of frying to keep the oil clean.