Peranakan Popiah Party

27/03/2020

We are delighted to host a Peranakan Popiah Party since with the reduction of hanging outdoor, spending time to make a meal has become so much exciting. We decided to make dinner more interactive with all the restrictions have implemented.

We have the party with both Popiah and Kueh Pie Tee hence we decide to separate both Popiah and Kueh Pie Tee in two different posts as both of us have a concept of presenting them so please pardon us for doing that!

Popiah is like a Vietnam’s spring roll, you’ll wrap vegetables and meat/seafood within a sheet of flour skin. While Vietnam’s spring roll made of rice flour, popiah skins made from plain flour. The popiah comes in two versions: the fried and non-fried. We always prefer both but the non-fried one they always a healthier option today.

It is the first time we making it from scratch but it wasn’t difficult at all. Fillings include omelette strips, cucumber, prawn, crab meat, crispy garlic, peanut, beansprouts, lettuces, braised turnip, carrots in prawn stock, coriander, sweet sauce, and chilli garlic paste. A bit fussy to prep but so worth it!

Preparing the ingredients

While many like to have their popiah as simple as possible, we like to make a “fancy” version for our party. Well, you can have fun in adding or removing the ingredients in terms of your preference. For us, the below filling helps us to create the most “fancy” popiah we ever have.

Popiah Filling; this is the only portion of the popiah that we suggest you prepare it freshly on the day
Eggs; heat oil in a pan. Beat the egg in a bowl, add in some salt for flavour. Fry it till golden brown. Set it aside to cool and cut it into a long strip. If you have a smaller pan, an egg will be enough as we want it as thin as possible
Chinese Sausage; soak it into a bowl of hot water to remove the excess oil in the sausages. It is done soaking when you can see the casing of the sausage popping away. Remove the casing and cut the sausage into the strip. Heat the pan and fry the sausage till fragrant
Fresh Crab; drain the water of the crab, squeeze out excess liquid in the crab. Heat the pan and fry the crab till fragrant
Bean Sprouts; remove the tail of the bean sprouts (optional). Cook it in the hot water for a minute. Drain and set aside
Green Bean; heat the pan and fry the green bean till soft. Set it aside, cut it into strips when cool
Green Lettuce; wash and drain it the night before. Cover it with a cloth in the fridge to keep it cool and crispy
Prawn; deshell the prawn (don’t throw away the shell, keep it to make prawn stock for the popiah filling), cook the prawn and halved it
Coriander leaves; while many have the fear of coriander leaves but it is a must for us to have it in our popiah since the guest will be wrapping it themselves, those who dislike it can omit them
Crushed peanut and white sesame for garnish

Tips on how to easily make good Popiah Filling

Grate the veggies; the majority of the muscle work for making popiah filling is in shredding the turnip, radish, and carrots. While many of the fillings in the store only have turnip and carrot, we added radish to add more sweetness to the filling. Peel the turnip and then use a box grater if you have one to shred it into strips
Use dried shrimp; dried shrimp adds that nice umami flavour to the overall popiah taste
Shallot is the key; you don’t want to miss this, it will change the flavour of the popiah filling
Lose the juice when wrapping; there will be some juice oozing out when you cook the jicama, it’s normal. Just make sure you don’t scoop that juice when you wrap the popiah, or you will end up tearing the wrapper and wet popiah

Head to the end of the blog post for the full recipe for the popiah filling.

How to wrap homemade Popiah?

Place 2 pieces of popiah skin on a clean working surface. (You can use one if your popiah skin is thicker)
Brush the skin with some sweet sauce and chilli sauce(if you choose to use) and sprinkle with some crushed peanuts
Place one piece of green leaf
Scoop about 2 – 3 tbsp of the turnip mixture on top of the leaf – remember to drain the liquid well
Add strips of egg omelette, 1 tsp of crab meat, strips of green bean, cucumber, Chinese sausage, 2 pieces of prawn and 1-2 sprigs of fresh coriander leaves if you choose to use.
Fold the side near you up and then fold the two sides in firmly tuck and roll up tightly.

Trying out making your very own version of Popiah, you could never head out to get it from the store. Sometimes we are never satisfied with just “okay” when we have the best. Take a photo of your version, send us an email, tag us on Instagram, tweet us, anything. We love to see you trying out our recipe!

– xoxo, Joe and Angela