Healthy Beancurd Rolls with Daylily and Black Fungus ｜ 素腐皮卷

My mom is a very good cook, and her beancurd rolls are one of her signature dishes that my family and our relatives love.  "They are the best rolls ever!" My sixth Uncle used to say between mouthfuls.  My mom was shy.  She would just smile and shake her hands in the air as if she was trying to shake off the unfamiliar feeling of being appreciated.  "I'm glad you like this humble dish. Help yourself and eat more," she said courteously, and moved the dish closer to my uncle.

Making beancurd rolls need three steps: cutting, wrapping, and frying.  Sometimes, mom will even do one step further - to make the oyster sauce glaze on top to moisten the rolls.   "It is not difficult to make beancurd rolls as long as you have patience," Mom said.

Mom uses whatever vegetables are in season to make rolls.  Though, I noticed she's never used meat or seafood, and she would put many dried shiitake mushrooms and carrots along with other vegetables.  "Beancurd rolls are close to vegetarian, and meat and seafood will overpower the taste of soy while adding lots of grease and stuffing your stomach.  Not good." she said.  And she also explained that the intense flavour from the dried shiitakes gives a great flavour close to concentrated broth, and the natural sweetness from the carrots helps balance the saltiness of the seasoning.  Both ingredients are essential and can't be skipped.

Although vegetables and beancurd sheets aren't expensive to buy, shiitake mushrooms are always a little pricy. So my mom will only make these rolls a few times a year, and it's usually on my brother's birthday or at my dad's request.  Mom will pull out a big glass jar of dried shiitake mushrooms that she dries under the hot sun once in awhile, and she will pick the mushrooms that are smaller or oddly shaped and saves the big and perfect ones for new years dishes when relatives come.

When I was a young teen, my most enjoyable time was watching Mom cooking in the kitchen.  She could speedily descale fish, skin squid, julienne vegetables, or chop the chicken up and then assemble the pieces back into a chicken shape.  And I was always amazed by her ability to hold a big feast for my whole family on Chinese New year or Dongzhi Festival, with a full course of eight elaborate dishes, soup, and dessert.

I started to really learn these beautiful dishes since I went back to Hong Kong.  During those three years, I would hang around the kitchen with my mom whenever I came to visit her.  Mom would buy the freshest ingredients at the market twice a day.  Often I wanted to tag along just to learn how to choose the best ingredients and also help her to carry stuff; however, my mom would always refuse with the same reason, "the wet market is wet, dirty, and crowded with people.  If you go, I will need to take care of you upon my handful of food." My loving mom sees me as a little child no matter how old I am.

Now I also make the same dish for my own family and it also earns their thumbs up.  And I would like to share this healthy recipe with you.  You can substitute the oyster sauce with "Vegan oyster sauce" that commonly available in Asian supermarkets.  Vegan oyster sauce is made of shiitake mushroom, dark soy sauce, and sugar.

Thanks for stopping by.  I hope you enjoy this recipe.

Vegetarian Bean Curd Spring Roll

Ingredients: (make about 30 spring rolls)

4 Bean Curd Sheets

Vegetable Oil (for frying)

Ingredients for Filling:

12-15 pcs Dried Shiitake Mushrooms

1/2 cup Dried Lilies

2 Carrots, skin on

1 head Cabbage, small size

15 gram Dried Vermicelli

8-10 clove Garlic, peeled

35 gram Ginger, peeled

Seasoning:

5 tablespoons Oyster Sauce

3 tablespoons Light Soy sauce

3 tablespoons Sugar

1/4 teaspoon Salt

4 tablespoons Shaoxing Cooking Wine

1/2 teaspoon White Pepper

1 tablespoon Sesame Oil

DIRECTION:

Step 1: prepare the ingredients

1. At least 6-8 hours prior to cooking, soak the shiitake mushrooms in water until they are rehydrated.  Drain the liquid.  Cut off the stems and thinly slice the mushrooms.

*The soaking liquid fills with flavour and it's considered mushroom stock.  Just filter it with a paper towel and store in the fridge for other recipes, like noodle soup or flavoured rice.

The shiitake stems are also edible.  You can always preserve them and braise it with soy sauce or oyster sauce to make rice topping, or add them into soup to enhance flavour.*

2. Rehydrate the black fungus and day lilies in water until soft.  It takes about 20 minutes.  Cut off and discard the hard stems of the black fungus and the hard ends of the day lilies.  Roughly chop both ingredients into bite size.

Bean curd sheets.  You can easily find them in Asian supermarkets and they are usually folded and packed in plastic bags.

3. Rinse the cabbage and cut it into thin slices.  Cut the carrot with its skin on into sticks.   Finely chop the garlic and ginger.  Soak the vermicelli in water until soft and then cut it into 6 small portions.  Also, combine the seasoning ingredients; set it aside.

4. Open each bean curd sheet.  With a dry cloth, gently wipe to clean both sides of each.  Then, cut them into 8 equal triangles. The bean curd sheets in the picture above were still too big for a normal spring roll size.  You will want yours at least half of their size.

Step 2: Cooking the filling

5. In a wok or a large pan, heat up the oil.  Add garlic and ginger.  Let them fry over medium heat until they are fragrant and slightly turn colour; about 2 minutes.

6. Add mushrooms and stir fry until cooked; about 10 minutes.  Then, add day lilies and black fungus; continuously fry for two more minutes.

7. Add seasoning mixture.  Let it absorb or evaporate half way and then add the cabbage.  Continuously stir fry until the cabbage starts to get soft.  Turn off the heat and mix in the vermicelli.  Transfer the vegetables to a bowl and allow it to cool to room temperature before using it.  Don't overcook the vegetables; otherwise the cabbage and carrot will leave too much juice and turn mushy.

Step 3: Assemble and cook the spring rolls

Star from top left and clockwise.


8. Place a triangular bean curd sheet on a flat surface, with the pointy part facing away from you.  Place about two tablespoons of filling on the bottom, roll up two sides to cover the filling, and then tightly hold up the filling and roll up the bean curd.  Wet the end to help it stick to the spring roll.

9. In a large pan, heat up 1/4 cup of vegetable oil.  Gently place the spring rolls into the pan.  Fry the spring roll over medium heat until the bean curd turns slightly brown and crispy.  Flip the spring rolls over, and fry until coloured and crispy again.  Serve immediately.



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