My friend Janet and mum recently launched their home based Hokkien style ngoh hiang. I dropped by at their home in Ang Mo Kio to see how the ngoh hiang (pork and prawn rolls) are made and to taste some 😄
Janet grew up with her mum's traditional Hokkien ngoh hiang. For a long time, family and friends who enjoyed mum's ngoh hiang have been encouraging her to start a business so that more people can have a chance to taste it.
Mum finally took the first step recently and Janet's friends swooped up all her mum's ngoh hiang, all handmade in her spanking clean, designer home kitchen in Ang Mo Kio 😄 Janet and mum are fastidious about cleanliness and hygiene. Masks and gloves are always on during production and cooking. Production is in small batches, just like every mum's cooking.
I paid Janet and mum a visit to taste MUM's ngoh hiang. MUM's ngoh hiang is made the same way mum made it for her family through the decades, always with fresh, good quality ingredients like this marbled pork belly.
Mixing all the ingredients together. I saw marbled pork, prawn, chopped carrot, chopped water chestnut, chopped onion, eggs, Chinese five spice, pepper, soy sauce, etc.
The ingredients were thoroughly mixed and hand formed into "meat balls", or should I call them little "meat rolls"? Each roll weighs 60 grams.
Janet carefully wrapped the little meat rolls in tissue thin, dried tofu skin.
The ngoh hiang were steamed and cooled before packing into boxes. I spotted a big piece of water chestnut through the tissue thin wrap 😄
When cooled, eight of these steamed ngoh hiang were packed into a box for delivery.
To eat, deep fry or air fry till crisp, golden brown outside.
We actually make ngoh hiang regularly at home, so I shall compare MUM's with my own family's version.
MUM's ngoh hiang tastes similar to those we have at my own home, I mean it has the distinct homemade feel different from mass produced ngoh hiang sold in restaurants and hawker stalls. We can taste the fresh pork and prawns in MUM's and our ngoh hiang as we don't use heavy handed seasoning like most mass produced counterparts.
MUM's ngoh hiang is juicy and meatier than ours (as we use more carrots in our own version). I like it that MUM's pork and prawn are ground coarser which give it a more meaty texture. I also like the little chunks of soft-crunchy sweet chestnuts in the meat roll.
MUM's is actually more aromatic than ours' as MUM's is able to get better quality Chinese five spice from Penang, whereas we use generic supermarket five spice. MUM's also use premium white pepper from Sarawak for greater fragrance.
MUM's only make their ngoh hiang in batches when mum can gather all the premium ingredients. For example, she stopped for a while because she couldn't get the Chinese five spice from Penang and wouldn't compromise by using any other.
To keep up-to-date on MUM's production schedule and to order, follow mumsrecipe on Instagram and mumsrecipe22 on Facebook.
MUM's recipe can also be reached via ✆ https://wa.me/6590930520
Vincent Lim said on Johor Kaki Facebook:
ReplyDelete"Bought 2 boxes of homemade “Mum’s Recipe “Ngoh Hiang 2 week ago , kept one in chillier and other box in freezer to be consume 1 week later . The one from the freezer still taste good . The pork is juicy and have the crunchy texture with the water chestnut in every bite. It is not so salty compare to those I ate before . Even my wife who is not local like it . The batch from Freezer , I use lesser oil to fry with Low heat initially and gradually increase the heat and add more oil to ensure the frozen meat have ample time to be cooked while the skin is not burn . The other from chillier I start with medium heat."
Lee Pew Ying said on Johor Kaki Facebook:
ReplyDelete"Thanks for sharing. My FIL used to make it himself. Now with Dementia, he cant any more. I followed his recipe and was shacked during CNY doing it.
My goodness, after all those years, I appreciate his hard work. He did it alone too! On top of preparing other CNY dishes.
Salute all these older folk - they are tough!"