Ngo Hiang Rolls, (Wu Xiang in Mandarin) meaning five frangrants, are very typical Teochew celebration dish. It is seen during Chinese New Year and most Teochews would do this for big occassions. I guess it is a little like Sua Mien for the Foochows. Nowadays, Ngo Hiang can be found everywhere at wet markets, chinese hawkers selling kuihs, and also roast meat and chicken rice stalls.
However, Ngo Hiang used to taste especially fresh with fish/prawns, with pork and mushrooms, and sweet with the water chestnuts/mengkuang. The traditional ones from a long time ago used to have a special fragrant as you bite into it. It used to have something like a motherly taste there. Somehow that taste had gone missing in the ones today. In the world of fast pace and quick money, I guess food has gone a little bland.
I learnt this from Aunty Yeo who is a Teochew. And yesterday, i bit into my own Ngo Hiang and found that long lost taste again. Sweeeet, baby! And it's really not difficult to make as well.
You'll need 500 to 600gm of minced pork. Normally I like to choose my own piece and ask to butcher to mince for me.
300gm of prawns, shelled/ mackarel fish, flesh only, smashed with chopper and lightly chopped.
150 gm of water chestnuts or mengkuang (Di Kua in mandarin), cut to small cubes and squeeze out excessive water.
5 no of big mushrooms, cut to small cubes.
2 stalks of spring onions, chopped.
1 tsp of 5 spice powder
1/2 tsp of salt
3 heaped tablesp of plain flour
1 no of egg lightly beaten
1 big pc of bean curd sheet
1) Clean and prepare all ingredients separately. Mix them together in a big bowl. Add eggs and all the powdered ingredients. Stir rigorously till glutten develop. Slap against a clean metal plate a couple of times. Set aside.
2) Prepared bean curd sheet by wiping them with a piece of clean wet cloth as some bean curd sheets are salty. Cut the big piece lengthwise into 20cm wide sheets.
3) Spoon meat mixture onto the smaller sheets about 2 cm from the edges. Roughly roll into a swiss roll log of two rounds without sealing the sides. Cut the sheet. Set the roll aside. Continue on till all the meat is used up. You should be able to get about 10 rolls or so.
4) Return to roll no 1. By now the meat would have wet the beancurd sheet. Unroll slightly and reroll into a firm round sausage folding in the two sides. Do that with the rest.
5) Place in a steamer lined with aluminium foil or banana leaves and steam on med-hi fire for 10 minutes.
6) Typically, Teochew would eat theirs deep fried after steaming, cut to thin slices and dip with chilli sauce. You can eat it as it is after steaming or store in refridgerator for future use. You can also cut and put on top of noodles/maggi mee or eat with rice.
However, Ngo Hiang used to taste especially fresh with fish/prawns, with pork and mushrooms, and sweet with the water chestnuts/mengkuang. The traditional ones from a long time ago used to have a special fragrant as you bite into it. It used to have something like a motherly taste there. Somehow that taste had gone missing in the ones today. In the world of fast pace and quick money, I guess food has gone a little bland.
I learnt this from Aunty Yeo who is a Teochew. And yesterday, i bit into my own Ngo Hiang and found that long lost taste again. Sweeeet, baby! And it's really not difficult to make as well.
You'll need 500 to 600gm of minced pork. Normally I like to choose my own piece and ask to butcher to mince for me.
300gm of prawns, shelled/ mackarel fish, flesh only, smashed with chopper and lightly chopped.
150 gm of water chestnuts or mengkuang (Di Kua in mandarin), cut to small cubes and squeeze out excessive water.
5 no of big mushrooms, cut to small cubes.
2 stalks of spring onions, chopped.
1 tsp of 5 spice powder
1/2 tsp of salt
3 heaped tablesp of plain flour
1 no of egg lightly beaten
1 big pc of bean curd sheet
1) Clean and prepare all ingredients separately. Mix them together in a big bowl. Add eggs and all the powdered ingredients. Stir rigorously till glutten develop. Slap against a clean metal plate a couple of times. Set aside.
2) Prepared bean curd sheet by wiping them with a piece of clean wet cloth as some bean curd sheets are salty. Cut the big piece lengthwise into 20cm wide sheets.
3) Spoon meat mixture onto the smaller sheets about 2 cm from the edges. Roughly roll into a swiss roll log of two rounds without sealing the sides. Cut the sheet. Set the roll aside. Continue on till all the meat is used up. You should be able to get about 10 rolls or so.
4) Return to roll no 1. By now the meat would have wet the beancurd sheet. Unroll slightly and reroll into a firm round sausage folding in the two sides. Do that with the rest.
5) Place in a steamer lined with aluminium foil or banana leaves and steam on med-hi fire for 10 minutes.
6) Typically, Teochew would eat theirs deep fried after steaming, cut to thin slices and dip with chilli sauce. You can eat it as it is after steaming or store in refridgerator for future use. You can also cut and put on top of noodles/maggi mee or eat with rice.
11 comments:
oh, all sarawak ppl eat alike! my mom's best friend was from kuching n she used to make this n i've longed for it once in a while but never tried to make it. now maybe i will bc i can always consult u.thanks!
NEE: haha...wat to do..you eat what your environment dishes out...sarawakians tend to share their recipes a fair bit. tat s y a lot of sarawakians can cook malay foods, indian and also teochew, hokkien etc esp the older generation.
I tried this and failed, I think because I didn't use bean curd sheet to wrap the rolls. My mom does fragrant roll without anything wrap around, just make the roll with banana leaves/ plastic wrap and steam them. I use your recipe and her way and it failed =p
Her recipe uses 1/2 kg mince pork, 1 kg prawn ( minced), 2 medium crabs, 2 carrots, 1 medium mengkuang, 1 eggs, 1 tbsp plain flour, 1 tbsp tapioca flour, spring onion, dried mushroom, 5 spice poder, salt, pepper, sesame oil.
Mum is trying this right now. Fingers crossed that it works!
Okay just posted photos on my blog. Came out really well!
hi annon, hmmm... i would not know how you fail with this sort of recipes, mine or your mum. the recipe is almost alike. with egg and flour as holding agent.
did it completely fallen during steaming or frying. that is the only failure i can think off. tat means your content is not tight enough or your problem is rolling up. you must stir rigorously and slap against a surface like metal bowl to have a firm juicy finish and if you used plastic or banana leave like her, you must have the right skills to roll ler..1) you must roll tight and have a way of seal it up well esp with banana leaves 2) your rolling with plastic must be done correctly and tight because you need to unroll it later after steaming. and rolling with plastic and steaming is sooooo unhealthy i m not joking, please dont eat!
HI sean glad you like it. i must go look at your mum's product. thanks for sharing feedback.
Hi Nee,
Sorry forgot to mention, banana leaves/ plastic just for tool to roll. And steaming is without banana leaves/ plastic, so it was steamed without anything wrapped around =)
then you are steaming without any wraps. which makes it very important to have a tight roll in the first place. if not it will fall apart. mixture not too wet too.
and you prob need to coat it with something for frying like a egg, flour coat. otherwise i recommend very shallow oil frying, cannot be deep fried. taste prob not great too if you deep fry without anything.
mengkuang is jicama in english
also called Sengkuang in Malay and Sha Ge in mandarin. Di Gua is sweet potato actually
mang-guang is turnip in english.
those found in spring roll...
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