This Five Spice Pork Rolls recipe is one of my mother-in-law’s best dishes, and It is a dish that will be cooked during praying ancestors, festivals. It is one of the Chinese New Year dishes. Penang is mostly Hokkien people, and the Hokkien called It Loh Bak. Generally, in hawker food centres, the Loh Bak is served with fried shrimp cakes, fried tofu and preserved eggs etc. And is also served with unique five spice sauce and chili sauce. It is usually sold in places where Chinese opera troupe is performed at the birth of God. Otherwise, It is also sold in some hawker centres or coffee shops. It is one of the popular Penang hawker foods.
Things to Pay Attention
There are many different ways of making five-spice meat rolls, some use minced pork, and some cut the pork meat into thin strips. There are several things to pay attention to while making Loh Bak, such as squeezing out the water as much as possible after shredding/shaving Jicama. Otherwise, the jicama will sweating during the marinating process, and the watery filling will cause the bean curd skin easy to break during the wrapping process.
We have used corn starch and mung bean starch to stir and marinate the filling. The water absorption effect of mung bean starch is slightly better. Because beans have better water absorption. The last thing to note is that the closing part of the bean curd skin on the wrapped five-spice meat roll should face down. And the wrapped meat roll should be left for a while before going to deep fry. The bean curd skin will “absorb water” during the period of rest time. And it will look like a vacuum packaging and can also “glue” the opening. The process of making Loh Bak is a bit time-consuming. So you might as well make multiple portions at once and store them in the freezer. Next time you want to eat it, just take it out and fry it over low heat until it is cooked.
Loh Bak great to eat with a beer
Five Spice Meat Rolls are a snack, a dish that is suit to eat with noodles, rice, or a beer. This dish is eaten by poor people in the early days. The leftover meat and vegetables were marinated with five-spice powder and then wrapped with bean curd skin and deep-fried. It is similar to the chicken rolls in Taiwan. It originated in southern Fujian. And it is also known as Ngo Hiang, Lor Bak, Loh Bak, Sausage Pork Rolls, or Chinese meat rolls. There is another recipe of pork, it called Tau Yu Bak, you might like it.
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Penang Loh Bak (Five Spice Meat Rolls)
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- 500 g Pork Shoulder
- 150 g Jicama
- 3 pcs Shallots
- 1 Leek
- 2 tbsp Five Spice Powder
- 4 tbsp Oyster Sauce
- 1 tbsp Sesame Oil
- 2 tbsp Hua Diao Wine
- 3 tbsp Mung Bean Starch
- 1 Egg
- 2 pcs Bean Curd Skin Large
- Proper Amount Cooking Oil for deep fried
INSTRUCTIONS
- Cut the pork into thin strips.
- Shred the jicama and twist to dry the water.
- Chop the leek and shallots finely.
- Put the above ingredients into a large bowl, add in an egg, five-spice powder, oyster sauce, sesame oil, cooking wine, and mung bean starch, and stir in one direction until mix well.
- Place in the refrigerator to marinate for 30 minutes.
- Cut the large sheet of bean curd skin into a suitable size.
- Put a proper amount of fillings on the bean curd, roll up and wrap.
- Pour in proper amount of cooking oil in the hot pan, put in the five-spice meat rolls, and fry with low heat. Turn to high heat when It is almost cooked.
- Let the fried five-spice meat rolls cool and drain the excess oil, then cut into small pieces and enjoy.
INSTRUCTIONS VIDEO
NUTRITION
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This is the must eat food every time I visit to Penang!
Nice recipe. May I know how long can I keep in the freezer in raw form? Will it be better to steam first before frying?
Hi, you can keep in the freezer about 1-2 months. You can use any kind of method suitable to you.