Anyways, I don't know why, but I just wanted to recreate this one little street food I had during my trip to Taiwan last summer. I just remember that it was a wad of meat with scallion wrapped in them and grilled with some sort of sticky sauce. I don't remember much about the dish, aside that it was just good. I wish I could have savored the wad of meat to get the full flavor, but because it was given to me on a tiny stick, freshly taken off and piping hot from the grill, all I could remember was it being scorching hot and sticky from the sauce and juice from the meat. I think I had 2nd degree burns on my tongue, heck... I had 2nd degree burns in my entire mouth. But it was good. Haha.
So now back in the States and about 6 months since returning from Taiwan, I just kind of remembered about it now. So, I decided to recreate the dish. I spent a good 2 tests on this dish. First attempt, I used pork and beef slices, and veggies of choice were enoki mushrooms and scallions. Then I made a sacha-based sauce. The scallions wrapped with pork, enoki wrapped with beef, smeared with the sauce, and griddle seared. My family wasn't so fond of the sauce, the beef dried out too easily due to cooking it too long, so it didn't pass. The pork on the other hand made the grades, but the sauce held it back a little.
Second attempt, I decided to keep the pork slices and the scallions, but used lamb instead of beef, and skipped the enokis. Then, I reattempt at a new sauce. This time, I used a hoisen-based sauce. I used both Hoisen and TianMien Sauce. What's the difference? Hoisen is sweet but has a more fruity note, and TianMien is also sweet but has a more salty note. I can't stress it enough after failing to make the sauce twice in one experiment setting. THERE IS A DIFFERENCE IN BRAND, especially when it comes to hoisen. I do not recommend to use Lee Kim Kee for this sauce. Don't get me wrong, I use this brand of hoisen too, but for my rice crepe rolls/noodles only. Lee Kim Kee's hoisen is sweet, but it has this tangy, salty taste to it. The brand I used (and my mother swears by it) is this brand call "Koon Chun". My family has been using it for years, and is considered very good because you can taste the plum/fruit in the sauce, which gives it that fruity and natural sweetiness. Anyways, this time, my mom had to take part in this, because even she was stumped at how to make the sauce good. I give her props for making the sauce without even knowing how the original sauce is like. Heck, I don't even remember the original sauce too well either. XD But after rolling each slice of pork with scallions, every slice of lamb with scallions, basting and cooking them, my family was a little more pleased this time. The pork rolls were good, but the lamb was the biggest crowd pleaser.
I personally think that this dish can use some more experimenting, some more tweaking, but for now my family is pretty pleased with it. I admit, the taste may not be authentically like how it should be in Taiwan, but it sure does look almost like it. Overall, it is simple and delicious. So, here I share it with you guys.
This is yet another phone pic, and this is the pork with scallion rolls from the first experiment. The second didn't make it for its close up.
Ingredients:
1 - 2 pkg thin sliced or sukiyaki pork, lamb or beef
2 - 3 (or more) bunch scallions, chopped into about 3 inch sections.
Sauce:
½ - 1 tsp of sacha paste （沙茶醬）
1 tbsp Taiwanese hoisen sauce “tian mien jang” （甜麵醬）
2 tsp Chinese hoisen sauce （海鮮醬）
2/5 cup water
How-To:
- If meat slices are frozen, do thaw it out completely.
- Wash, chop off the root of the scallions, and chop the scallions into 3 inch pieces.
- In a bowl, add the sacha paste, TianMien paste, and hoisen paste. Mix. Then add enough water to thin out the sauce. Set aside.
- Once meat is thawed out, take a slice of meat, a few sprigs of scallions, and roll. Repeat this until you've finished rolling all the ingredients. (Point!: Don't make the roll too thick, or cooking will take longer. You may skewer each roll onto a bamboo skewer for BBQing, or use a regular toothpicks to skewer to hold the rolls together when cooking. It keeps the rolls from coming unrolled when cooking.)
- Heat up a griddle (or a large pan or small wired grill), lightly oil the surface, place each meat rolls on the heated surface to cook.
- Cook one side of the roll lightly, baste each roll with the hoisen-based sauce, flip and baste again. Cook until golden brown. (Point!: If using pork slices, make sure to cook throughly!)
- Once golden brown, remove from heat, plate it, and serve.
I really do find this recipe easy. 2 main ingredients (meat and scallions), and a simple sauce. Like my first experiment, you can try using enoki mushrooms, or you can try using chives, thinly sliced bell peppers, etc. But so far, my family highly recommends the scallion lamb rolls. Something about lamb and scallions is just a really good pairing. As for the sauce, if you like it to be spicy, by all means, add your favorite spicy chili paste into it. If you're too lazy, pre-made teriyaki sauce is good too. Warning, thawing the "meat-icles" will cause bloody water to appear, but thawing the meat will make it easier to roll. Bottom-line: Just keep clean, and wash your hands with soap and water after making your meat rolls.
Hope you guys enjoy this one! (^-^)
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