February 2011, Singapore – Cooking, to me, has always been a challenge. The planning, preparation, actual effort to cook and the washing up seems like a lot of work for someone who’s always on the go. The hours of preparation usually ends with a few minutes of short-lived enjoyment. I remember, in my younger days, I was forced to prepare my own meals when I was thrown overseas for my tertiary education. As I was living alone, I used to make simple meals, of which noodles were always my favourite. On days where I got lazy, I would settle for fruits.
In December, I was invited to Cookyn with Mervyn, located opposite Novena Church, for my first encounter in a cooking school. I was going to learn to prepare relatively simple common local dishes while using Korean ingredients. I learnt how to prepare popiah with Jabchae filling, Chicken Rice and Rojak with Beef Bulgogi Marinate Sauce.
The Korean culture is quite commonly appreciated by Singaporeans of all ages. Be it the Korean drama or Korea Pop, there has been some strong Singaporean following. With Singaporean’s fondness for food, it is no surprise that Korean food is also becoming extremely popular with more Korean eateries springing up.
Korea’s largest food manufacturer and distributor, CJ CheilJedang came to Singapore in May 2010 and intends to expand their Southeast Asian presence in Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines and Vietnam. Started in 1953, this Korean food giant is present in over 50 countries and carries wide selection of instant food products ranging from flavour solutions such as the Bulgogi BBQ sauces to frozen foods such as the CJ dumplings and ready-made nutritious snacks like roasted chestnuts. The company has 24 stock-keeping units (SKUs) under 14 product categories as at December 2010. CJ CheilJedang food products are available in selected NTUC FairPrice.
In this post, I’ll be sharing with you how to prepare Popiah with Jabchae filling instead of the usual radish and carrot filling. Jabchae is a Korean sweet potato noodle. A packet of CJ BEKSUL Sweet Potato Noodle (500gm) costs S$5.50. This is quite easy to prepare but I still prefer to be the person waiting to eat, anytime!
You should be able to prepare this dish after watching the video. The recipe is also below the video so you don’t have to take any notes while watching the video.
Recipe for Popiah with Jabchae Filling (Serves 8-10)
Ingredients:
- 500gm of fresh popiah skins
- 1 cup of ground peanuts
- 750gm of peeled and deveined prawns, blanched in boiling water until cooked
- 300gm of Jabchae (sweet potato noodle)
- 1 carrot, thinly julienned
- 50gm of spring onions, cut in 2cm thick pieces
- 1 x 240gm of beef bulgogi marinate
- 1 cup of water
- 3 tablespoons of Korean sesame seed oil
- Juice of 1 large lime
- 4 tablespoons of chili sauce
Ingredients for the chili sauce:
- 3 chili, chopped
- 20gm knob of ginger, minced
- 20gm of garlic, minced
- Wedge of lime
- ½ tablespoon of Korean pork bulgogi marinate
Directions for preparation:
- Place all the ingredients for the chili sauce in a mortar and pestle with a squeeze of the wedge of lime. Pound until a smooth paste is formed.
- Soak the sweet potato noodles for a couple of hours until soft.
- Fry the softened noodles with the carrots, beef bulgogi sauce and water until cooked through (the noodles should be soft yet still retain a bite).
- Add the spring onions, lime juice and sesame seed oil. Reserve.
- Lay a piece of popiah skin and smear some chili sauce on before adding some of the cooked jabchae, some prawns and top with the ground peanuts before rolling.
