Delicious Popiah (fresh vegetables spring rolls)

The Popiah(fresh vegetables spring rolls) is different from the fried spring rolls. The Popiah that I have been eating for decades is evolving, because the cook gets older and lazier. However, it is still as delicious as ever.

When we were children, the Popiah my mother and grandmothers cooked would have crab meat, belly pork and yellow tau kwa(soya bean cakes).

Over the years, we now have a healthier version, replacing the belly pork with chicken breast meat, fresh crab meat has been omitted because of the hard work, (unless you get the frozen crab meat) and the frying of taukwa simplified!! I now like the flavour of the leeks and have added them into my Popiah.

 For 3 -6 pax 

 Ingredients :

2 kg or 3 large sengkuang (yam bean)

2 carrots

300 gm french beans, thinly sliced

300 gm leeks, thinly sliced

8 pieces small squares of firm tau kwa (soya bean cakes)

1 big piece of chicken breast meat finely, shredded and seasoned with salt, pepper and some light soya sauce

300- 400 gram large prawns, peeled and minced, and seasoned with salt, pepper and some light soya sauce.

Fried Shallots : 20 – 30 shallots thinly sliced, deep fried and stored in an air tight jar  

Coriander (cilantro) leaves, for garnishing and flavoring  

Lettuce leaves (optional)                           

2 pkts of Popiah skin (500 gm each), these can be bought from Tesco Hypermarket or if you could get some freshly made, that would be great.

Chillie Paste : Grind together, 8-10 fresh chillies, 10-12 pips of garlic and chillie padi (bird eye chillie) Season with some salt and sugar.

Sweet paste, (these can be bought from provision shops from Chinatown

Cooking oil and 1 head of garlic, minced

Salt and pepper to taste

 Method : 

1. Deep fry the shallots (these can be prepared earlier).
2. Prepare the chillie paste.
3. Thinly shred the tau kwa(soya bean cakes) and fry in oil till dry and fragrant.(season with salt to taste)

4. Use a shredder or food processor to shred the sengkuang(yam bean) and carrots.
5. Fry the minced garlic in oil till fragrant, add in the chicken meat shreds
6. Add in the minced prawns. Fry till fragrant.
7. Add in the sengkuang (yam bean) and carrots. Try to keep dry and not to add water.
8. Fry till vegetables are soft and done, then add in the greens. (French beans and Chinese leeks), fry till done.
9. Finally add in the fried taukwa (soya bean cakes), allow it to cook thoroughly.
10. Season to taste. The dish should not be too wet, (the popiah skin will break up) especially after the addition of the fried taukwa.

  Skin Preparation before Serving :

1. After defrosting,(those bought from Tesco) peel the Popiah skin, (they usually stick to one another) to overlap. Just peel those you are going to use.
2. Steam over gently boiling water on a plate larger than the skin for 5-8 minutes.(even those bought from the market, unless it is freshly made), (Not too long, otherwise they stick together).

If steaming a big stack of the Popiah skin, please do flip over a few times for even distribution of steam over the skin. Alternatively, you could just steam only a few at a time.

To Serve :

1. Place Poh Piah skin on a clean plate.
2. Spread a row each of the chillie paste and sweet sauce paste on the poh piah skin.
   
   
3. If using, spread a small piece of lettuce on the skin.
4. Scoop 3-4 tabsp. of the cooked Popiah vegetables, arrange in a row on the center of the skin.
5. Garnish with fried shallots and coriander (cilantro) leaves.
6. Flip one side of the skin over the vegetables, compact and roll it in a little, bend the ends, and finish the rolling.
7. Now, you get to enjoy the delicious Popiah as you bite into it. Yummy!
8. Alternatively, cut the Popiah into 4 -5 pieces and serve.

NOTES : 

1. If you are able to get Popiah skin from the market, which usually comes in packs of 300 gram, you will need 3 packs.
2. The Popiah vegetables can be kept in the fridge, heated up and will then be ready to be served again. If you cook a lot, you may want to spread out your Popiah skin purchases especially since those popiah skins go stale very easily.
3. Any left over skin are best sealed in a plastic bag. Cover the plastic bag with a damp cloth to prevent drying up. Store in coolest part of your fridge.
4. I personally find frying the tau kwa (soya bean cakes) tedious, as it is difficult to source for the hard ones, they are normally too soft to fry well from shreds. I now fry the whole pieces, then shred them and re-fry till as dry as you possibly can.

Most of the preparation can be done in advance, so fret not.

Hope you enjoy them as much as I do. :-D

Life After the Rains

I could not help noticing that my garden was brimming with life after the recent bout of rain. It has been raining every day for the past few days, heavier sometimes and a light drizzle at others, or just looming heavy clouds waiting for the next cue to fall.

The sun filtering through gaps in the leaves

This morning, the sun breaks through the clouds. There was an inevitable hive of activity. The plants seemed more alive; insects and plants both were busy basking in the morning sunlight, maybe preparing for yet another onslaught of rain.

A black mushroom

'siblings in a row'

Beautiful, isn't it? Flowers of our common chives.

Busy web weaving?

Very busy having a meeting? Or consolidating resources?

Black ants, busy building a new nest

They do complement one another beautifully.

The moist ground is our favorite place for our home.

Caveat Emptor, "Let the Buyer Beware"

I am not convinced it was a human error neither am I convinced it is a system error. What is it then? The blanks .......are for you to fill after going through the scenarios that developed and prompted me to such a unpleasant conclusion.

We went to do our usual supermarket shopping and picked up a styrofoam tray of middle eastern dates covered in cling film. It has a price label indicating RM14.98 for a kilogram, packing date and the Price for that particular tray of 500 gms of the dates at RM7.49. Simple enough. But it was not to be. After paying the cashier for our purchases that day, I browsed through the receipt and was surprised to find a RM14.98 item. I double checked, was convinced there was an error, requested the cashier to re‐ check the item. The conclusion was that the Fruit Dates were scanned and picked up by the scanner/Point‐Of‐Sales system at RM14.98. The cashier approached her supervisor and explained to me that their system had picked up the item as a kilogram pack. I was duly reimbursed the amount overcharged.

The explanation given to me seemed ridiculous? If their system at some point was able to print out the price label, indicating the price/kg and the price for that particular pack, then I believe at some other point in time the correct pricing has been altered with. Was it deliberate? Was it a system error?  

Luckily, I did not buy much on that day and was easily drawn to the incorrect amount charged. Had there been more items, or more items of similar value, there could be an oversight.

I do hope it is a case of negligence by the supermarket, and not being diligent in staff training and supervision. However, I do have my doubts that it is as simple as that. Similar incidents have happened before and it is difficult to brush it off as negligence.

I hope that other shoppers experiencing similar incidents would be able to get back their losses and the managements of Supermarkets will do something to prevent that occurrences. (Not only this one).

Imagine, if there are shoppers, (how many?) unaware of such discrepancies and the supermarkets getting away with it, not for one item, as such incidents are not uncommon, but for.......... items.

Is it then a case of an unscrupulous trader taking advantage of naive consumers? The consumer could be enticed to buy thinking it is a good bargain as the Fruit Dates are of good quality. A justification for the vendor could be that those dates should have priced at twice the price per kilogram! 

Perut Ikan Curry (Preserved Fish Stomach Curry)

I usually would have some frozen Preserved Fish Stomach in my freezer (preserved by generously

covering the stomachs with salt, something like 2-3 pieces of finger length fish stomachs with 2-3 tsp. of salt).I usually request for some fish stomachs from my fish monger, enough to at least fill a small jam jar, as it is not very pleasant to clean these stomachs, so I do prefer to do more of it and less often, rather than doing less of it and more frequent.

Besides, I prefer the homemade to the commercial ones, that is one of the reason, I endure some unpleasantness to savor a wonderful curry, picked up from the culinary skills imparted by my late mother-in-law.

To describe it simply, I would say it is a potpourri of aromatic herbs, vegetables and seafood cooked in a medley of spices, tamarind juice and coconut milk.

This recipe would give you a about 3- 4 litres of Perut Ikan curry. You could half the recipe or freeze the balance.

Ingredients :

2 -3 pieces of approximately finger length preserved fish stomachs (leave the salt, or saltish gravy behind, only to be added if your curry needs more salt to taste.)

300 to 400 gm large or medium sized prawns 

Spices to be grounded :	Herbs to be thinly shredded
10 - 12 dried chillies seeded	Some limau purut/kaffir lime leaves (thinly shredded)
12 shallots/onions	15 sprigs Daun kesum/ Vietnamese coriander(or Vietnamese mint)
6 pips garlic	1-2 bunga kantan(torch ginger flower)
2 lemon grass
1 tsp shrimp paste/belachan

  

Other spices : 5 tabsp of fish curry powder, or 4 tabsp of wet curry fish paste(this can be bought from the market)

Vegetables :

One 454 gm tin canned pineapple cubes, cut the larger pieces into 2

2 bunches or 200 gms 'daun kadok' or wild betel leaves(a type of aromatic ground creepers)

200-300 gms long beans

2 round medium-sized brinjals or 1 large long brinjal

Half grated coconut, to get about 150-200 ml of thick coconut milk

Half cup tamarind /(assam jawa) from about 1/2 tabsp of the paste (I usually bought those seedless tamarind paste                                                                                               

Preparation :

1. Grind the chillies, shallots, garlic, lemon grass and belachan together.
2. Clean the prawns, by trimming off the heads, sharp tails and trim open the back to remove intestines with a pair of scissors. I prefer not to remove the shells.
3. Cut long beans into 2 cm. lengths. Cut the brinjals into similar sizes as the long beans. (Remove the skin).
4. Fry/sauté ground spices in oil till fragrant and oil surfaces. Then add in the fish curry paste. Fry till fragrant.
5. Add in the fish stomach(s).
6. Add in the long beans, followed by the brinjals and lightly fry.
7. Next add in a cup of water, bring to boil.
8. Add in the prawns, cubed pineapples, shredded herbs (daun kesum, limau purut leaves and bunga kantan) and assam jawa juice.
9. Add in more water if necessary.
10. Bring to boil till vegetables are almost done.
11. Then add in the thick coconut milk and shredded daun kado leaves.
12. Simmer till the coconut milk comes a boil to finish cooking and test for taste. Add in more salt if necessary.

 You could serve the curry with rice or bread. It is equally delicious with either one.

NOTES :

1. I have always use canned pineapples, (please drain them, you may use some of the syrup if necessary)

as they are less sour and they save me the hassle of cutting them. It is not easy to buy ready-cut fresh pineapples 

over here.

2. If you do not have preserved fish stomachs, you may substitute them with salted fish. The taste would not

deviate too much, you would still have a great dish because of all the other great ingredients.

An Unintentional Victim?

Recently, it happened again. I am sure some of you had experienced it before. Paying more for an item than the price displayed for the item on a supermarket shelf.

How many of us have been so subjected to such pricing unawares? How many of us had brushed it off? I had previously done so, but not for the latest incident. The amount overcharged is small and going back to put in your claim would mean driving to the supermarket and putting away some time for it. The thing that irked me then was how often it could have happened and was it an honest mistake or a deliberate inefficiency. If it was the later, not putting in a complaint could mean that the aggressor could get bolder, and more victims.   

This time round, the amount overcharged is a mere two ringgit, on top of that the offer price was printed in

large fonts on the packaging. I had to check out the outlet's contact number and get routed to the person-in-charge. I had to wait to be contacted again while they verify my claim. Next, I had to go back to the supermarket tugging along my good(s) and receipt, with a pathetic, upset expression, wait for further verification, fill up a form and..... No I did not get my money back, I was informed that I have to go down the aisles, and get a replacement good of similar value or more. So there you have me, looking around for something cheap as at that moment, I most certainly do not feel like increasing their bottom line, however minute it may be.

So, would I go through the same process again if I so happened to be such a victim again? 

Do you think I should?

My Blog ... Sad progress

Is my blog experiencing a sad and slow demise? 

I started my blog about 2 years ago, with just the objective of putting down, some of the things that came to me as I go through my daily routines. I had hoped that it will keep me active and alert.

I know very well that I would not be writing much about my personal experiences, knowing full well that there would, not be much to tell. On top of that being a Malaysian of Chinese ethnic, some sentiments are usually kept private. Besides not being well exposed, and not well experienced and  knowledgeable enough of all worldly things is a drawback too. That is why my blog is not specific on its genre, more of a potpourri of all things.

So is that an excuse for its lethargy and early hibernation? I guess not. I hope not. I just have to strive to do better, otherwise it will inevitably be on the path to its slow and uneventful retirement.