Teochew Five-spice Meat Rolls
Teochew Five-spice Meat Rolls (chao zhou wu xiang tiao, 潮州五香条). Teochew Five-spice Meat Roll is popular in the Southeast coastal cities in China and some Southeast Asian countries. The unique part about these rolls is that we use soybean curd skin as the wrapper. Besides being high in protein content and gluten-free, soybean curd skin is also surprisingly crispy and delicate. Ingredient Tips: Fish powder (大地鱼粉) is a special Teochew seasoning made from roasted flounder, packed with a pungent umami flavor; you can replace it with Japanese dashi stock powder. Jicama (沙葛), aka Spanish turnip, is sweet, crunchy, and juicy; you can use water chestnut, carrot, or daikon radish instead. Sweet potato starch can be replaced by tapioca flour. Soybean curd skin (腐皮) has very distinct qualities with no true replacement, but you can use rice paper or egg roll wrappers.
Ingredients
| 454 g | ground pork shoulder | |
| 1 | egg | |
| 2 Tbsp | 30 ml | minced garlic |
| 1 Tbsp | 15 ml | minced ginger |
| 1 Tbsp | 15 ml | soy sauce |
| 1 Tbsp | 15 ml | fish sauce |
| 1 tsp | 5 ml | salt |
| 1 tsp | 5 ml | five-spice powder |
| 1/2 Tbsp | 7.5 ml | fish powder, optional |
| 1/4 cup | 60 ml | sweet potato starch |
| 227 g | jicama, peeled and diced | |
| 4 | scallion stalks, white part only, diced | |
| 2-3 | big sheets of soybean curd skin | |
| 2 cups | 480 ml | frying oil |
| — | chili sauce for dipping |
Instructions
- Add the ground pork shoulder, egg, minced garlic, ginger, soy sauce, fish sauce, salt, five-spice powder, fish powder, and sweet potato starch into a large mixing bowl. Stir in one direction for 4-5 minutes until the meat becomes sticky.
- Combine the seasoned ground pork with the diced jicama and white parts of the scallions thoroughly. Set the mixture aside.
- The soybean curd skins usually come in large sheets; you need to cut them into 6 x 9-inch rectangular pieces.
- Put 3-4 Tbsps of filling on the soybean curd skin and shape the filling into a long log. Dab a little bit of water on the rest of the sheet. Then roll up the soybean curd skin all the way. Pinch and twist both ends so the filling is not exposed. Apply the same technique to finish all the rolls.
- Let the rolls rest for 10 minutes or until the soybean curd skin becomes damp.
- Add the oil to a wok and heat it to 320F / 160C. Add the pork rolls and deep-fry them over medium-low heat for 8 minutes. You can pan-fry or shallow-fry them if you want to use less oil. Do not use high heat because the soybean curd skin burns quickly.
- Slice the rolls into bite-size pieces. Pair with your favorite chili sauce (the author used sriracha) and serve as an appetizer or a side dish. You can also use it as a topping for noodle soup, congee, and hot pot.