Cook with Patsitivity #9: Ngohiong, you want?

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Hello everyone! When things turn out great in my experiments in our kitchen, I gleefully share those recipes here with you; but might as well share this new recipe despite not turning out as expected (it tasted great but we missed one important point upon prepping the ingredients).

You are not a Cebuano if you haven't eaten ngohiong. For those of you who haven't heard of ngohiong, it is a type of spring roll that's definitely famous and a must-try when you visit Cebu alongside siomai or a type of traditional Chinese dumpling. Siomai is usually made of flavored ground pork cooked over steam. Haven't cooked siomai or shumai, might try this weekend!

For now, I'll share with you the recipe I used for my attempt to cook ngohiong at home! 😁

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What you'll need!

In case you're wondering where I got the recipe. I got it from Chef Rose of Caro and Marie.

This ingredient list is divided into three (3), namely: the filling, the seasoning of the filling, and the dipping mixture. Let's start cooking, foodies!

Filling

For the filling you'll need the following:

½ cup oil
¼ cup finely chopped garlic
½ cup finely chopped red onions
½ cup finely chopped green onions
1 kg of shredded ubod (heart of palm)
Lumpia/spring roll wrapper – 40-45 pcs

Note: The main ingredient of Ngohiong is heart of palm or what we locally call ubod. I had a hard time finding this ingredient; if not for my uncle who looked for this among his friends, I'd be using singkamas or jicama. Feel free to use jicama if it's the only available in your area.

As you can see, instead of shredding, I've cut the heart of palm into julienne, well thicker than julienne. It's best to shred the jicama or heart of palm.

Seasoning

1 tsp Chinese five spice powder (also known as ngohiong powder)
½ tbsp vetsin or MSG
1 cup water
1 tbsp liquid seasoning
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp white pepper
¼ tsp salt
1 tbsp soy sauce

Dipping mixture

1 ½ cup flour
½ cup cornstarch
2 cups water
1 tsp ngohiong powder
½ tsp salt
½ tsp black pepper
2 tbsp oil

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Cooking procedure

We will cook the filling first. Follow the steps below:

[1] In huge pan, add oil into a pre-heated pan, add garlic, red and green onions and saute. Then add the shredded palm of heart (or jicama), ngohiong powder, liquid seasoning, soy sauce, white pepper, salt, vetsin, and sugar. Mix thoroughly ensuring that all flavoring ingredients will be incorporated to the jicama/ubod. Add the water and wait until it boils.

[2] Set aside the cooked filling and let it cool. Once cool enough that you can touch it without burning your hands, take the spring roll wrappers and fill each with 1-2 tablespoons of the cooked filling and roll. Do this until all cooked fillings have been used.

[3] Now it's time to prepare the dipping mixture! From the ingredient list above, mix all dry ingredients and add them into a mixing bowl containing the water. Mix thoroughly until you end up with a batter-like mixture (although relatively thinner).

[4] Take the rolled ngohiong who did earlier and dip into the dipping mixture one at a time. Make sure that before you dip the ngohiong you've prepared a deep pan for frying.

[5] Frying time! After dipping the spring rolls, deep fry them. This won't take a lot of time since the filling has been cooked earlier. You just need to make sure that the ngohiong turns into golden brown before removing it from the pan.

In my case, I did a mistake when I turned the heat to high flame. It's best to cook the ngohiong on medium heat. Or you can always experiment! hehe

I know ngohiong will not be complete without ngohiong sauce but unfortunately, I ran out of energy when I prepared this dish so I skipped the sauce and settled with Mang Tomas Lechon Sauce. I'll try to make one next time! 😁

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That's it for now fellow foodies! I hope you find this recipe easy to follow and should you decide to use this at home, please let me know how it goes!

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