PRC's CNY recipe

PRC being Peter Russell-Clarke, of course.

"I have a very good Chinese mate who lives in Penang with his family. He also is the owner/boss of Pacific West and Golden Fresh Seafood.

I’m not sure if everyone reading this can buy their frozen seafood, therefore I’m not giving you one of their ripper recipes, but as it’s Chinese New Year, or thereabouts, I’ve made up a Penang Spring Roll recipe which I hope he’ll find acceptable.

Anyway, Gong Hey Fat Choi Earn and Tze.

You’ll need a fillet of flake and a good piece of tuna totalling about 500g. (You’ll be making about 20 Spring Rolls - hopefully.)

1 good sized leek - you’ll use only the white part.

2 large sheets of Tofu skin (bean curd) - buy from your friendly Asian shop.

1 egg - lightly beat it.

5ml (1 teaspoon) Chinese Five Spice powder

15ml (1 tablespoon) light soy sauce ) If you only have the light soy sauce

15ml (1 tablespoon) dark soy sauce ) use 2 tablespoons of it

15ml (1 tablespoon) sesame oil - no more than that

2.5ml (1/2 teaspoon) black pepper

2 cloves of garlic - crushed

1 red chilli - seeded and chopped - or as much as you like

Some oil for deep frying, some lettuce leaves and a ‘dip’ of garlic, chilli and soy.

Chop the fish until it’s fine and slice the white part of the leek very finely, discarding the green part.

Mix the fish with the leek, beaten egg, Five Spice powder, soy sauces, sesame oil, black pepper, garlic and chilli.

Spread out a tofu sheet on the bench and lightly wipe it down with a damp cloth to soften any crackly areas. Then cut it into 20 cm x 13 cm rectangles.

Put 2 tablespoon of the fish mixture onto one end of a rectangle, about 6 cm in from the edge. Roll the edge over the filling and pat down. Roll once more then tuck in both sides before completing the rolling.

Repeat with the rest of the wrappers and fish mixture then leave them all to rest for about 10 minutes.

Heat the oil and deep fry the Spring Rolls till they’re golden brown (4-5 minutes). Serve on a bed of lettuce leaves with a dipping sauce of garlic, chilli and soy.

These Penang Spring Rolls are usually made with pork and are called CHUEN PIAH - they are similar to a Chinese Spring Roll known as LOBAK which is a meat version of POPIAH. If you’re trying the pork version, make sure you cut the meat so it’s fine and ‘crumbly’ - not minced. If your supermarket does it, their mincing squashes the pork so as to rob it of moisture - and that’s part of the flavour - so too with the fish.

Anyway, good luck. It’s worth it."

For more of his recent recipes: https://www.fm963.com.au/peter-russell-clarke-friday-recipes/