My Mom's Popiah

Recently, I've been bombarding my blog posts with tonnes of food that I've eaten or smelt or seen. I was scrolling through a few recent posts when a realization dawned upon me - I haven't been posting recipes!! To be honest, I haven't been baking or cooking much over last month due to my short adventure in the Netherlands. So today, I'm going to be posting one of my mum's recipe of my favourite dish: popiah!

My mum's version is different from the ones that you'd normally get as my mum stir-fries her turnip filling instead of the more traditional method of braising. Also, she doesn't add water while stir-frying so that the turnips retain a slight crunch. It's a plain and simple dish with minimal seasoning as the main aim here is to let the sweetness of the turnips shine. As always, feel free to be creative and adjust your ingredients according to your liking!! Maybe a sprinkle of fried shallots? Or fresh bean sprouts? It's entirely up to you.
But for me, I like it just the way my mum prepares them!

[Note: My mum never uses specific recipes in her cooking so, I tried translating this one into words as best as I possibly could!]

Left: Tiny cubes of pan-fried firm tofu & egg strings; 

- Tofu: First pan-fry slice of firm tofu/bean curd, then cube it 

- Egg strings: Omelette cut into strips

Right: Turnip filling with carrots, mushrooms & shrimps; 

(1) Finely slice the turnip, carrots and dried shiitake mushrooms (soaked in hot water and washed). Cut the prawns into small pieces. 

(2) Heat up a wok/heavy-based saucepan with a drizzle of oil and fry the shrimps. When they're almost done, take them out and leave aside. 

(3) Add a little more oil on the heated wok and stir-fry the turnips, carrots and mushrooms until they are soft but still retain a slight crunch. Season with soy sauce according to your taste. 

(4) Add in the prawns and continue stir-frying until fully cooked.

(5) Leave the turnip filling in the wok/saucepan covered until needed for assembly.

Bottom: Garlic chilli sauce

- In addition to the chilli sauce, you can use bean sauce or Hoisin sauce in your popiah as well.

My mum always gets the popiah skin fresh from the market. However, you can get them from supermarkets as well (usually refrigerated).

Normally, a sweet & salty sauce would accompany the chilli sauce but I like mine this way!!

The best part about this is that you get to construct your own popiahs! Make them according to the ratio that you'd like. 

Extra spicy? Sure thing! Less egg strips? Why not! Just be careful not to overfill it as the popiah skin might rip when you try folding it.

Slice the popiah if you want, but I'd normally eat them burrito-syle! NOM!

I want to end this post with a HUGE SHOUT OUT to my mum, whose birthday is tomorrow! 

Love you lots and I can't wait to be home for Chinese New Year soon!! :)

Favourite home-cooked meal??

Smell that reminds you of home?