Ngo Hiang - Gohyong Recipe (Chinese Five Spice Roll) » Indonesia Eats
Ngo hiang or Gohyong is a Chinese Five Spice Roll and a part of Peranakan (Chinese Indonesian) food in Indonesia. It’s still in the spirit of Chinese New Year and was long weekend in Indonesia as well. To all who is celebrated, Gong Xi Fa Chai and the reason why I shared this Peranakan recipe.
Ngo hiang is a Hokkien and Teochew dish that is popular as a street food hawker in Southeast Asian countries. In Malaysia, it’s known as loh bak or lor bak while in Singapore, people call it Ngoh hiang and in Cebu, the Philippines it’s named for Lumpia Ngohiong or Ngohnyong.
Ngo hiang is usually made from pork or a mix between pork and seafood or fish. But the must ingredient is Chinese five spice or ngohiang spice in Indonesian term. The vegetables for Ngo hiang or gohyong are varied. Carrot, lo bak (Chinese daikon, jicama and bamboo shoot are common to be used. To enjoy ngo hiang or gohyong, Indonesians love to dip it into sambal sauce or tauco (fermented soy bean) sauce or served with Peranakan mix rice (Nasi Campur).
In Medan, Ngo hiang is made from a mix of pork and crabmeat. In Jakarta, gohyong is a part of Betawi food and a mix of chicken and shrimp is applied. In Bogor, the suburban of Jakarta, ngo hiang is a dish that contains pieces of chinese five spice roll, with cuts of tofu and potatoes, served with a sweet brown sauce.
In my recipe I combined chicken and shrimp for the meat, carrot and jicama for the vegetables, and added fish sauce to enhance flavor. I slightly adapted from Ci Ine‘s blog who is a part of Semarang peranakan.
Ngo Hiang/Gohyong
– Chinese Five Spice Roll –
Yield: 4 rolls
Ingredients:
250 grams boneless and skinless thighs
250 grams skinless and deveined shrimp
30 grams chopped carrot
30 grams chopped jicama
2 stalks green onion, finely sliced
2 tablespoons tapioca starch
2 tablespoons sesame oil
1 tablespoon ang ciu (hung ciu – red fermented rice wine) – optional
1 large egg, lightly beaten
2 frozen bean curd sheets (36 centimeters X 25 centimeters), thawed
1 egg white to glue the roll
aluminium foil
Spices:
4 cloves garlic, grated
3 cm ginger, scrapped
1 teaspoon Chinese five spice (ngo hiang spice)
2 teaspoons light soy sauce
2 teaspoons fish sauce
2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon fine seasalt
1/4 teaspoon ground white pepper
Cook’s Note: Ang Ciu or Hung Ciu is a cooking wine that is popular in Peranakan cooking. It is made from fermentation of rice. Sweet in taste and red in color. The alcohol content is 15%. Shaoxing wine is an alternative that you can use which has a higher alcohol content than ang ciu. This ingredient can be skipped if you can’t take any alcohol.
Directions:
Grate ginger and mix with 2 tablespoons of water. Squeeze the juice out and set the juice aside.
In a food processor, process chicken and shrimp until smooth. Transfer to a bowl and mix with the chopped vegetables, all spices including the ginger juice, beaten egg and tapioca starch.
To make sure that your filling roll has enough saltiness and savouriness, take a bit of the mixture and microwave it. Then taste it.
Once you are satisfied with the taste. Divide the mixture into four. Divide each bean curd sheet into two, so you will have four sheets.
Prepare the steamer. Take one bean curd sheet, fill with one part of mixture and roll it like the way you roll a lumpia or spring roll and brush with egg white on edge to secure roll. Redo this step until all mixture is rolled.
Each roll should be wrapped in an aluminium foil sheet before steaming. Once the water in steamer is boiling, place 4 rolls in and steam for 20 minutes. Set aside.
When you are ready to serve, deep fry or pan-fry the rolls until golden brown. If you make a bigger batch, after steaming and cool down you can keep them in the freezer for up to 3 months. When you like feel to have them, thaw in the oven at 350F for 10 minutes then pan fry or deep fry.