83. Fried bean curd sheet wraps with vegetable fillings (V)

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Chinese bean curd wraps

This is not a recipe from North East China, :)) This recipe comes totally from my ‘passion’ towards eating - try to make anything that I can eat. Ha..

The original recipe comes from Cantonese dim sim; the ones in Cantonese restaurants in England are often wrapped with duck mince and vegetables. I have never been a ‘duck’ fan, but I really like this way of cooking, so I went to buy dried bean curd sheet, and made my own vegetarian recipe.

Actually, to my surprise,  the dried bean curd sheet I bought is produced in Zhejiang, a province near Shanghai; also, in contrast to Cantonese dim sim, the recipes suggested in the package involve only vegetables, so I guess this vegetarian version is not my own invention after all. :))

Anyway, if you are like me, and love the crispiness of the bean curd sheet after it being fried, and love the combination of the vegetarian fillings with the crispy ‘skin’, you will like this recipe. :)

Chinese dried bean curd sheets

Ok, let’s start from the beginning. This dried bean curd sheet is different from the ‘dried tofu sheet’ I used in a previous recipe. Chinese dried bean curd sheet is a very very thin, almost ‘see-through’ sheet; it is quite oily, and its texture is relatively soft. (So be prepared, your hands will get very oily). You can normally get it in any far east supermarkets.

In Cantonese recipes, this dried bean curd sheet is normally used as ‘wrapping’ folded with fillings, and it is either shallow fried or steamed. If it is shallowed fried, it can be very crispy -- which makes its taste irresistible. However, I don’t think it is advisable to eat a lot of it, or eat it too often, because it may contain a lot of fat, eating too much is certainly not a healthy habit. But time to time for a treat is great. :))

In northeast Chinese cuisine, dried bean curd sheet is never used this way (at least, to my knowledge);  we do have, however, a very similar dried bean curd sheet, which we normally used for salad (liang cai) or for soups.

The fillings

The fillings I used are a mixture of Mu’er (black fungus), button mushroom, fensi, and vegetarian sausage. Making the filling tasty is another important part for the success of the this recipe, but don’t worry if your filling just lacks that a little bit taste, to your surprise, the crispy wrapping can ‘mask’ that ‘little bit lack of taste’.

The recipe: Fried bean curd sheet wraps with vegetable fillings

Here you go, the recipe.

Ingredients:

dried bean curd sheet, Mu’er (black fungus), button mushrooms, fensi, vegetarian sausages

Oil, salt, five spice powder, sesame oil, light soy sauce

Preparing the filling:

1) Soak a small handful mu’er and fensi in warm water.

2) Chop two vegetarian sausages, well soaked and rinsed mu’er and Fensi, button mushroom into small pieces.

3) Mix above ingredients with 1 tablespoon of oil, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, 1/2 teaspoon of five spice powder, 1 tablespoon of sesame oil, and a few drops of light soy sauce.

Folding with the filling:

Place a dried bean curd sheet (around 20cm square, however, it is all depending on how big you want to make) flat on the board, and place the filling in the centre of the sheet, (I put around 1 1/2 full tablespoon of filling for each wrap), and fold it up into a rectangle shape. make sure the filling is well wrapped, no ‘leaking’.

Shallow frying:

1) In a heated flat sauce pan, add in around 2 tablespoon of oil. Keep the fire medium to low.

2) When the oil is heated, place the ‘wrap’ in the sauce pan.

3) Turn the ‘wrap’ time to time, until both sides turn into ‘golden’ colour.

--- Done!