Singapore Popiah

Singapore Popiah

Try This Chinese Popiah Recipe.

Popiah skin recipe, plus fresh ingredients to start with.

Recipe for Singapore Popiah

Ingredients: 

Serves 6-8

  • 2 bunches Chinese lettuce, leaves separated
  • 20 red chilies, ground
  • 3 whole pods garlic, peeled and ground
  • Black sweetened soy sauce (tee cheo)
  • 600g bean sprouts, tailed and scalded
  • 1 large cucumber, peeled if desired and finely shredded
  • 300g small shrimps, peeled and steamed
  • 5 eggs, made into thin omelets with ¼ teaspoon each of salt and ground white pepper added, then finely sliced
  • 4 medium crabs, steamed until cooked and meat extracted
  • 300g roasted skinned peanuts (groundnuts), ground
  • 300g shallots, peeled, sliced and crisp-fried

Filling:

  • 600g chicken meat cut into thin strips
  • 600g small shrimps, peeled and shells reserved for stock
  • 2 teaspoons salt
  • 2.25 liters water
  • 7 tablespoons cooking oil
  • 3 whole pods garlic, peeled and minced
  • 5 tablespoons preserved soy beans (tau cheo)
  • Lightly ground
  • 2kg yam bean (mengkuang), peeled and shredded
  • 3 cans (each 552g) bamboo shoots, drained and shredded
  • 10 pieces firm bean curd (tau kua), cut into strips and fried
  • 1 teaspoon salt or to taste

Ingredients for Egg Skins:

  • 10 eggs
  • 2.125 liter water
  • 600g plain (all-purpose) flour
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • Cooking oil for greasing

Method:

  1. To prepare egg skin, into a bowl crack eggs and lightly beat with a fork. Gradually stir in water, then set aside.
  2. Into a second bowl, sift flour. Gradually add in egg mixture together with salt. Blend well. Strain mixture to remove lumps. Leave for 20 minutes.
  3. Lightly grease a 25-cm non-stick pan with a brush, then heat. Pour on a ladleful (about 3 tablespoons) of batter or enough to thinly spread over base. Cook over very low heat for 2 minutes or until pancake leaves side of pan.
  4. To make smooth egg skins, pan has to be just hot to set skin. If it is too hot, skin will turn out perforated. Remove and place on a flat dish. Repeat process, stacking cooked egg skins, until batter is used up.
  5. For filling, separately season meat strips and shrimps with 1 teaspoon salt each and set aside. Boil shrimps shells in water for 5-10 minutes for stock. Strain stock and discard shells.
  6. Heat oil in a kuali or wok and lightly brown garlic. Add shrimp stock and bring to the boil, then add yam beans and bamboo shoots. When liquid returns to the boil, add meat and simmer gently for 1 hour 30 minutes. Alternatively, pressure cook for 30 minutes. Add bean curd, shrimps and salt to taste. Simmer for 10 minutes more. This filling may be prepared a day early, kept refrigerated and reheated before use.
  7. To assemble a popiah roll, put an egg skin on a plate and place a piece of lettuce on top, just below the center. Spread on desired amounts of ground chilies and garlic, as well as black sweetened soy sauce. Top with bean sprouts and cucumber shreds.
  8. Drain about 2 tablespoons filling of gravy and place on top, then add on a few shrimps, omelet strips and some crabmeat. Sprinkle on ground peanuts and crisp-fried shallot slices. Fold lower edge of egg skin over ingredients, then fold in left and right edges. Roll up Swiss-roll style.
  9. Prepare garnishing ingredients – ground chilies and garlic, scalded bean sprouts, cucumber shreds, steamed shrimps, omelet shreds, crabmeat, ground peanuts and crisp-fried shallot slices – while cooking filling. To cut preparation time, crabmeat can be extracted a day ahead and frozen. Roasted ground peanuts and crisp-fried shallot slices can also be prepared well ahead and kept in airtight containers.
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  1. Anonymous

    love this popiah! will try this tonite!

    Reply