Teochew Crispy Prawn Rolls (Hei Zho) 虾枣

Teochew cuisine, also known as Chiuchow cuisine, Chaozhou cuisine or Chaoshan cuisine, originated from the Chaoshan region in the eastern part of China’s Guangdong Province, which includes the cities of Chaozhou, Shantou and Jieyang. Teochew cuisine bears more similarities to that of Fujian cuisine, particularly Southern Min cuisine, due to the similarity of Chaoshan’s and Fujian’s culture, language, and their geographic proximity to each other. However, Teochew cuisine is also influenced by Cantonese cuisine in its style and technique.

Hei zho or crispy prawn roll is a Teochew dish that is also very popular in Singapore. If you like to make this recipe at home, we recommend you to watch our Youtube video first to get the general idea before cooking.

Ingredients:
Makes 13 rolls (39 small bite size pieces altogether)

1kg of prawns – deshelled & deveined (cut 1/3 of them into bigger chunks and the rest minced)
600g of minced pork (use streaky pork)
3 eggs
2 tablespoons of light soy sauce
2 tablespoons of oyster sauce
1 teaspoon of five-spice powder
1 tablespoon of sole fish powder
A bunch of chopped Chinese coriander leaves (or Chinese parsley)
7 tablespoons of cornflour
8 pieces of water chestnut (diced)
2 big pieces of five-spice beancurd skin
Some cooking oil (to be brushed on the tray and on the prawn rolls)
Some water (to stick the beancurd skin together when rolling)

Steps:

Cut about 1/3 of the prawns into small chunks.
Smash the rest of the prawns and then chop them up finely into a paste.
Put the prawns and minced pork in mixing bowl.
Add eggs, light soy sauce, oyster sauce, five-spice powder, sole fish powder, cornflour, sugar, coriander leaves to the prawns and minced meat and mix well.
If the prawn and meat mixture is too watery, add more cornflour to it. If you have accidentally added too much cornflour, then add another egg to the mixture.
Mix the mixture in one direction with your hand until it becomes glue-like.
Once the prawn and pork mixture has become glue-like, add water chestnut and mix well.
Cut the beancurd skin into smaller pieces measuring about 22cm X 5cm each. These will be used to wrap the prawn and meat mixture.
Gently wipe off the excess salt from the beancurd skin using a slightly damp clean cloth.
Dab some oil on an empty tray, which you will use to place the prawn rolls after you have rolled them. By the side, prepare another small portion of cooking oil as well as some water in separate saucer and bowl respectively.
On a beancurd skin, place about 3 tablespoons of the prawn and meat mixture in the centre. Make sure you leave about 2-finger wide gaps on both sides of the skin.
Dab some water on the beancurd skin that is not covered by the meat.
Fold two sides (length part) of the beancurd skin in and then roll the prawn and meat mixture up.
Place the prawn roll onto the oiled tray and brush some oil on the prawn roll so that the rolls will not break or stick to each other when you steam them.
Repeat the process until all your prawn and meat mixture is used up.
Prepare a pot of boiling water to steam the prawn rolls and place the prawn rolls on an oiled steaming plate.
Once the water is boiling and add the prawn rolls in to steam for 15 minutes.
After 15 minutes, remove the prawn rolls from heat and let them cool down before doing the next step.
Once the prawn rolls have cooled down, cut each roll into smaller pieces (about 3 pieces from each roll) and coat them well with cornflour. Let the coated prawn rolls rest for at least 1 – 2 minutes before deep-frying them.
Heat up a pot of oil over medium heat to fry the prawn rolls.
Once the oil is sufficiently hot, deep-fry the prawn rolls until light golden brown and remove them from the heat.
Serve the prawn rolls hot with some black sweet sauce.
Enjoy!