Limpeh's healthy Ngorhiang recipe

Hi there, I thought I'd share this with you as it's still Chinese New Year and I took some photos whilst preparing my Ngorhiang dish. Now, Ngorhiang is something that is quite common in Singapore and Malaysia and there really isn't one recipe. It is essentially a soya skin sausage and the stuffing usually involves some kind of mincemeat mixed with vegetables. Now my version has been developed over the years and I like to put in nice chunky pieces of pork rather than mince and it was the main course meal I served my friends who came round for my Chinese new year dinner.

Home made Ngorhiang!

Ingredients for Limpeh's healthy Ngorhiang

3 pork steaks - chopped up into bite sized chunks
Marinade for the pork: soy sauce, chilli sauce, black bean sauce, sesame oil, pepper, lime juice, salt
1 packet of dried bean curd skin
1 carrot, 1 potato, 1 courgette cut into very thin strips

Step 1: Marinade the pork with  soy sauce, chilli sauce, black bean sauce, sesame oil, black pepper, lime juice and anything else you like. Leave it to sit in the fridge for at least two hours. (Feel free to use chicken instead of pork if you prefer. I have even used venison for this at Christmas.)

Step 2: Prepare the vegetables, cut them into thin strips. I used carrot, courgette and potato this time, but feel free to experiment with other vegetables you like!

Step 3: Open your packet of bean curd skin and cut the skins up into the appropriate size to wrap the Ngorhiang.

Step 4: Only work one piece of bean curd skin at a time, do not soak them en masse!

Step 5: Put the bean curd skin into water for no more than a few seconds on each side, the water should be room temperature - do NOT use hot water.

Step 6: Within a few seconds, the bean curd skin will be soft enough to work with - do not soak it for too long as it would cause the skins to disintegrate.

Step 7: Place some pork and vegetables in the middle of the bean curd skin. Do not overfill the Ngorhiang as you risk bursting it when you roll it.

Step 8: Fold in the sides of the skins towards the middle.

Step 9: Roll up your Ngorhiang tightly.

Step 10: Repeat the process to make more Ngorhiangs, I created 20 Ngorhiangs with my 3 pork steaks - yes I know there are only 16 in the picture below, I couldn't fit them all into the baking dish! Once your Ngorhiangs are ready, bake them in the oven at 180 degrees for about 20 - 30 minutes. You need to turn the Ngorhiangs regularly to ensure that they do not stick to the baking tray. You may find that some juices will start to run from the pork and vegetable stuffing in the Ngorhiang. If this happens, then simply drain the juices (and use it for something like a stock or a gravy - it's tasty stuff). Draining the juices is important if you want the bean curd skin to go crispy in the oven. I suppose you could deep fry it (that's what they tend to do in Singapore) and I know they steam it too sometimes, but I prefer to bake it as the bean curd skin does become crispy and golden brown without greasiness of deep fried food. 

Once your Ngorhiangs are ready, serve them with salad and chilli sauce. I'm sorry I didn't have the chance to garnish the dish before taking this photo and my guests dived in and devoured them before I had the chance to take a second photo! They were that good.  All in all, preparation time (excluding the marination time) was about an hour. Yes it is a labour intensive task to roll up each individual Ngorhiang, but I think it's worth the effort. Ngorhiangs tend to come across as cheap snack food in Singapore because hawkers cut corners by using cheap mince meat and vegetables to pad up the stuffing, but I prefer to use quality cuts of pork for my Ngorhiangs and it does create a quality dish. 

I shall leave you with a photo of the venison Ngorhiangs I made at Christmas time. Please do try this out and let me know how you get on, thanks for reading.