I love street food. From Angeles City to Manila, to Bangkok, Hong Kong, to the food vendors of San Francisco and New York. Growing up, however, I could not enjoy street food as much as I wanted as my dad would frown at me and my siblings whenever we went out of the house and made "tusok" the fish balls. My dad insisted, "it's not clean," that at one point he himself made fish balls at home just so we didn't have to run out of the house and into the street in the afternoon to buy from the "kuya" who pushed his cart--- like clock work, literally, every 3 PM in the afternoon calling on kids, both young and old, to buy his delicious street food.
The times that I got to enjoy street food when I was younger, and realized how much of it was available and the variety abounded was when my high school friends and I hopped to the school adjacent to ours. At 430 in the afternoon, after we were dismissed from our classes, we always made a pit stop at a corner lot across Holy Angel University where street food vendors were aplenty.
INGREDIENTS
1-pound ground pork
½ pound shrimps, peeled and deveined, chopped coarsely
1 medium size yellow or red onion (your preference)
½ medium carrot, peeled and chopped coarsely
1 ½ Tablespoon Five-Spice seasoning
2 ½ Tablespoons sugar
1/3 cup cornstarch
Salt and freshly ground black pepper for seasoning
Bean curd sheets (you can purchase these from Asian/Oriental groceries)
Bean Curd Sheet
INSTRUCTIONS
Place pork and shrimps in a food processor.
Using “crush” setting, run the food processor for about 10 seconds each, until mixture resembles a paste-like consistency.
Add onion and carrot.
Run the food processor again until veggies are finely minced.
Add the Five-spice seasoning and sugar. Mix.
Season with salt and ground black pepper.
Add cornstarch and continue to mix until ingredients are well incorporated.
*If you opt to not use a food processor, you can finely mince the pork, shrimps and veggies and mix all ingredients together per above instructions.
Paste-like consistency of the mixture. Seasonings added to meat and veggies mixture.
Wrapping and rolling:
Cut the bean curd sheets into square, resembling spring roll wrappers.
Place 4 to 5 tablespoons of the mixture on the center of one bean curd sheet (less or more, depending on the size of your sheets).
Roll the bean curd sheet wrapping the mixture neatly until you form a “kikiam.” Set aside.
Repeat the process until done with the mixture.
Meat and shrimp mixture rolled and wrapped in bean curd sheets.
Steaming:
Boil water per directions of your steamer. Once ready, steam the raw kikiam for ten minutes. Take them out of the steamer and set aside.
Repeat process until done with the rest of the raw kikiam.
Set aside and let cool. Or you can keep in the fridge or freezer in an airtight container (until ready to fry; will last longer if kept in the freezer).
Steaming the Kikiam--- my steamer lined with cheese cloth.
Steamed Kikiam
Frying:
When you are ready to fry the steamed kikiam, heat about 3 inches of oil in a pan or skillet.
Once oil reaches at least 275 degrees Fahrenheit, fry the kikiam about 3 minutes each side. Take the kikiam out of the pan or skillet (or once you reach the color you desire of your kikiam--- brown, to golden brown)
Slice the kikiam and serve with sweet chili sauce
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