Po Piah

As a little girl, I remember going to my grandma's house to eat this dish. The kitchen was very rustic with a wooden stove. Grandma had lots of mouth to feed, 12 children and many grandchildren. This dish certainly satisfy the taste buds of the young and old.


Ingredients:
8 cloves garlic, chopped finely
2 tbsp salted soy bean paste
1 pound jicama (shredded)
2 hard bean curd cakes, fried and sliced thinly
1 tsp black soy sauce
1 cup cabbage (shredded)
1 cup green beans
4 tbsp sugar
2 tsp salt

20 large po piah skins/lumpia (individually wrapped is preferred)
sweet black sauce (tim cheong) to taste
long leaf lettuce
fresh chilies (optional)
bean sprouts (blanced in hot water briefly and drained)
roasted peanuts (remove skin, coarsely ground)
fried shallots

(The following can be omitted if going completely vegetarian)
8 peeled shrimps
3 eggs lightly beaten and make 3 thin omelets. After cooked, cut into thin strips and set aside.

Method:
To make the filling, fry garlic and salted soy bean paste until fragant. Reserve 3 tsps of this. Leave the remaining fried paste in the pan and add the jicama. Cook for 5 minutes until softened. Then add the fried bean curd. Season with black soy sauce.

In separate pan, use 1 tsp of the reserved garlic and soy bean paste mixture to fry the shrimp until cooked. Repeat with cabbage and then with the beans.

Mix cooked cabbage, beans and shrimp into the cooked jicama and add sugar and salt. Leave to cool.

To serve, put all the prepared ingredients on the table. Place a po piah skin on a flat surface, spread with a little sweet black sauce if desired. Place a lettuce leaf, a little of everything from the jicama mixture, egg, bean sprout, peanuts and shallots. Fold in the sides and roll up.