Homemade Kikiam or Quekiam– The Filipino version of the Ngoh Hiang made easy (and preservative-free) right at home!
The idea of a street food always strikes a nostalgic feeling, is it not? You remember the days where you go out with friends after a hard day at school and eat whatever you find along the streets to free yourself from the stress each day gives.
While you originally would want to eat these types of food on the road with friends, it is not a bad idea at all to enjoy one of these things at home every once in a while right? So here, we have the recipe of the delicious Homemade Kikiam!
There are a bunch of tips you can find along the way in this recipe article, so be sure to read on!
What is Kikiam?
The kikiam or quekiam is a popular street food all over the Philippines. You can almost always find it alongside kwek-kwek or tokneneng, pork barbecue, among others.
This famous snack is a derivative of another famous food called Ngoh Hiang from Chinese cuisine, so it is also popular in other countries especially in the Southeast Asian region, such as Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia, all the way to Thailand.
The kikiam consists of a mixture of ingredients like ground pork and shrimp, along with many other spices and seasonings. The process involved in cooking is steaming, and then deep frying until you achieve a crispy and golden brown roll.
Ingredients You’ll Need
Meats
To make kikiam, we will use ground pork and shrimp. The more fat content of the ground more, the more flavorful this dish will be.
Five-Spice Powder
Five-spice powder is a popular Chinese spice used in many Chinese dishes. It is a blend of star anise, cloves, cinnamon, peppercorns, and fennel seeds.
Bean Curd Sheets
We will use store-bought bean curd sheets or tofu skin to wrap our kikiam mixture.
Dipping Sauce
The kikiam is best partnered with a sauce. If you want easy choices for the sauce, a banana ketchup or sweet chili sauce are the perfect ones to partner with the kikiam rolls.
You can also prepare other kinds of sauces if you like such as the one used in fish balls. This sauce gives the perfect balance of sweet and spicy so it is also recommended for the kikiam.
Aside from the above-mentioned ingredients, you will also need onion, garlic, carrot, cornstarch, salt, black pepper, and cooking oil for frying. If you are filling up your pantry, here’s a handy shopping guide:
Equipment You’ll Need
- Steamer- You can use a steamer or steamer pot that can hold about 6 servings cook by batch if you have a smaller one. Most rice cookers also have steaming pots with them.
- Cooking Pan (Kawali)- You can use a cooking pan or a deep pan to fry the kikiam.
In need of kitchen tools and equipment? Read this before you buy:
How to Make Homemade Kikiam
Making homemade kikiam involves 4 parts: Making the mixture, wrapping the mixture, steaming, and finally deep frying.
We will be mixing all the ingredients in a bowl until all is well-incorporated. Once mixed, we will be wrapping the mixture in the bean curd sheets.
Once wrapped, we will be steaming the wrapped kikiam. The kikiam is now cooked and edible at this point, but if you want to make it into a crispy golden brown treat, proceed to deep frying.
Cooking Tips
- The traditional or the most common ingredients used for the kikiam is ground pork, shrimp, carrots, onions, and garlic, which is what is included here in this recipe. If you want to add more ingredients, feel free to do so. Some suggestions for these ingredients are greens such as celery, cabbage, or shiitake mushrooms. You can even substitute the pork meat for chicken, beef, or fish.
- The final and overall taste of the kikiam is purely preferential, so what you can do is to cook a small portion of the mixture and adjust the seasonings accordingly. This way, you know how the kikiam will taste like and you can move on to wrapping them into the bean curd sheets.
- For the bean curd sheets, if you find any hard edges present, you can trim it first and you can also cut the sheets you know will fit nicely into your steamer. This can avoid unnecessary hassle during the preparation process, so it is best to always plan ahead first.
- If you find that the sheets are too coarse, you can place them under running water and then dry them by squeezing the excess liquid to make them a little bit softer. The good thing about this is the sheets will easily cling to the beef when slightly damp and also easier to seal.
- You can cook the kikiam rolls in the frying pan after steaming once it cools down a bit, but for best results, the staple is to cool them first in the refrigerator for a couple of hours as this will give a nice crispy finish once you fry them. If you want to store it for longer periods of time, you can wrap the rolls in a resealable bag.
How to Serve Homemade Kikiam
Kikiam is usually served as a quick street food snack. It is best served fresh off the hot pan, with of course a yummy fish balls sauce or vinegar dip.
How to Store and Reheat Homemade Kikiam
To store kikiam, transfer into a clean food container with lid and refrigerate up to 3 days. However, doing this will make the coating soggy even when reheated. This is why we recommend that you store steamed kikiam in the refrigerator or in the freezer. It can be chilled for up to 7 days or frozen for months.
Other Filipino Street Food Recipes
- 3-Ingredient Kamote Buchi (Kamoteng Butsi) Recipe
- Easy Carioca With Caramel Coating Recipe
- Filipino Hotdog Twister Recipe
For a quick reference about this recipe, see the recipe table below:
Easy Homemade Kikiam Recipe
Equipment
- Steamer
- Cooking Pan
Ingredients
- 500 g (1.1 lbs) ground pork
- 300 g (10.5 oz) shrimp, minced
- 1 pc onion, chopped
- 6 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 pc large-sized carrot, chopped
- 1 tbsp five-spice powder (ngo hiong)
- 1 tbsp cornstarch, diluted in 2 tbsp water
- 4 pcs bean curd sheets
- 1 ½ cup cooking oil, for frying
- salt and pepper, to taste
Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl, add in the ground pork, shrimp, carrot, onion, garlic, five-spice powder, and season with salt and pepper. Mix until all ingredients are well-incorporated.
- Add in the diluted cornstarch to the ground pork mixture and stir until combined well.
- On a flat workspace, arrange the bean curd sheet. Scoop a part of the mixture (about 4 tbsp) and spread on one side of the sheet, leaving about an inch of space at the edge.
- Roll the sheet until a log shape is formed. Moisten the ends and twist the edges to tightly secure the kikiam.
- Transfer and arrange the kikiam rolls into a steamer. Steam for 20 to 25 minutes or until the temperate reads about 60 C (140 F).
- Remove from the steamer and set aside to cool. You can transfer the kikiam into the refrigerator to cool completely.
- In a cooking pan, pour in and heat the cooking oil over medium heat.
- Add in the steamed kikiam rolls. Cook while turning the sides as needed until golden brown and crispy.
- Transfer to a serving plate or serving tray and slice into serving pieces. Serve and enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
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