POPIAH SKINS

SINGLE SKIN ON PAN



STACK OF SKINS (well, only about 10!) ON CHOPPING BOARD

Whether you may or may not wish to know why I took on the 'mammoth' task of making popiah skins for our popiah session, I'll tell you anyhow. It all came about when we were discussing after dinner/BS session (yes, we always talk about food as we miss all the 'local' M'sian/S'porean dishes here in Melbourne and we try to replicate the dishes)and the discussion somehow focussed on popiah. You may not know this but I absolutely LLOOOOOVVE to eat popiah and used to buy the fresh skins from a shop in Joo Chiat (they were really expensive and the price kept going up. I could eat up to 7 popiahs in one sitting!!!) - I really enjoyed watching the professionals spread the dough out on the pans and literally 'bounced' the dough back into their palms! Sheer artistry!

OK, so I volunteered to try my hand at making the skins as I had the flat pan, courtesy of my MIL, cos' the popiahs taste so much better with fresh skins - the frozen ones are way too chewy! I started by surfing the net to find the right recipe (they all had different proportions of liquid) and made 1/2 a batch, using 300g flour and about 150 or 200ml water. Needless to say, the dough was too dry, so I threw out that lot after after trying to make it on the pan - the dough didn't stick to the pan at all!! Then I tried the recipe fm a new Nyonya kuih recipe book that I'd bought during my last trip to S'pore in early January but that was a runny batter! No matter, I still tried to make the skin on the pan, based on what I saw on youtube etc. Naw......another batch down the rubbish hatch.

Sorry this 'story' is taking so long but the day of our popiah session is fast approaching (28 Mar) so I decided to give it another try. I even borrowed a stainless steel fry pan and a brass apom balik pan in hope of achieving success on one of those pans. I gave Andrew's recipe another try - made 1/2 batch and waited the 3 hours for the batter to rest (was too impatient to wait the last time)then tried the first skin on the apom balik pan..........hey. it seemed to work but I had really small diameter skins as I was afraid to burn my arm on the sides of the pan....so, I tried making a skin on the flat roti prata pan.... and hey, presto.....the rest is history!

I've even got pictures to prove it! Some parts of the skins are a bit thick, though, as I haven't mastered the process yet but I will get it right some day soon!

Looks like I'll have to make heaps of skins - maybe use 1.8kg or more of flour!

POPIAH SKINS (Recipe fm Nyonya Kuih Passions by Andrew Kow)

600ml plain flour
1 tbsp cornflour
1 tsp salt
600ml water

1. Sieve the flour with salt and cornflour into large mixing bowl, stir water in slowly.(I used my hand - forget the bread maker...tried it....didn't work!!)
2. Knead until the dough is smooth and elastic (comment: the dough is more like a batter, actually!)
3. Set aside for 3 hours
4. Heat up a flat pan, grease with a little oil, place a small portion of dough onto pan and fry for 10 seconds over medium heat. Remove (will have pictures next time! OR you can watch how they make it on youtube. )

NB: It's important to let the dough rest for 3 hours. Also, cover the skins with a damp teatowel so that they don't dry out before you're ready to eat the popiahs. Skins can be frozen but they are best eaten fresh.

Q: I wonder whether the skins will have more 'spring' in them if I substituted the cornflour with tapioca flour?