A recipe for vegan san choi bao, simply because plant-based people today deserve Lunar New Year prosperity, as well

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Susan Jung’s vegan san choi bao. Photography: SCMP / Jonathan Wong. Styling: Nellie Ming Lee. Kitchen: courtesy of Wolf at Household of Madison

Lunar New Calendar year has quite a few traditions and nowhere are these far more clear than in the foods served all through the holiday. Sure ingredients are eaten mainly because they carry prosperity, luck and happiness, and other individuals prevented because they are viewed as inauspicious.

Just one of the additional popular dishes for a Lunar New 12 months feast is san choi bao, or lettuce cups. Lettuce is assumed to carry prosperity and the fresh, crisp leaves are crammed with a savoury combination that usually consists of dried oysters (symbolising prosperity), water chestnuts (harmony) and bamboo shoots (prolonged existence).

But vegetarians want prosperity, luck and contentment, far too, so for them, I’ve formulated this dish of vegan lettuce cups.

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Vegan san choi bao

This is a dish that invites improvisation. Incorporate unique styles of clean mushrooms and greens, and if you happen to be vegetarian but not vegan, ribbons of slim egg crepe for extra protein. Lotus root – diced or lower into skinny matchsticks – is a tasty crunchy addition or can be applied in position of the bamboo shoots.

Golden thread mushrooms, or Cordyceps militaris, mature on caterpillars contaminated with a fungal parasite and are pretty expensive and utilised in conventional Chinese drugs. Now, however, these mushrooms are grown on “farms” without the need of the have to have for the caterpillars. They have a scrumptious flavour and marginally chewy texture. If you can’t locate them, substitute enoki or shimeji mushrooms.

If you are superstitious, you may want to avoid the pressed tofu. Bean curd is averted all through Lunar New 12 months simply because it truly is white – a color worn for funerals and considered undesirable luck. Pressed bean curd, also named seasoned bean curd, is brown (at the very least on the outside), so I never head introducing it to this dish.

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And the superstitious will also want to crack up the fen si (mung bean vermicelli) before soaking it, rather of slicing it with scissors noodles depict extensive lifetime, but if you lower them, you are symbolically chopping lifestyle limited.

It normally takes about a few several hours to soak the dried Chinese mushrooms it may perhaps be additional convenient to soak them around-night time in the fridge. The other dried elements rehydrate promptly. The moment all the components are well prepared, the dish usually takes fewer than 10 minutes to prepare dinner.

30 grams dried Chinese mushrooms

50 grams fen si

1 sheet (about 30 grams) dried bean curd skin

6 dried bamboo pith

100 grams golden thread mushrooms

1 medium-size carrot, about 150 grams

1 medium-size red bell pepper

4 clean water chestnuts, peeled

1 medium-dimension fresh new bamboo shoot, or 150 grams peeled fresh new bamboo

3 little squares (about 30 grams every) seasoned, pressed bean curd

30 grams (about a few squares) fermented bean curd (fu yu)

15ml light-weight soy sauce

15ml rice wine

15 grams vegetarian oyster sauce

1/2 tsp granulated sugar

1/4 tsp finely floor white pepper

About 20ml cooking oil

High-quality sea salt, as important

To serve:

2 heads of iceberg lettuce

Hoisin sauce

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The elements for the dish. Photograph: SCMP / Jonathan Wong

1 Briefly rinse the dried mushrooms, then set them in a bowl. Incorporate ample home-temperature drinking water so they “swim” freely. Depart to soak at space temperature for three several hours (or refrigerate overnight), or till they are totally hydrated.

2 About 30 minutes right before you want to cook dinner the dish, commence making ready the other elements. Crack the fen si into shorter lengths to reduce the brittle noodles from traveling all about the put, area them into a free, thoroughly clean plastic or paper bag before breaking them up.

3 Set the fen si, dried bean curd pores and skin and bamboo pith in a huge, shallow bowl and increase neat h2o so the ingredients are submerged. Depart to soak for about 10 minutes until finally totally hydrated. Drain the substances in a colander.

4 Squeeze the h2o out of the fen si and pile the pieces onto a plate. Squeeze the water out of the bean curd skin, lower it into strips about 5mm large, then place the items on a plate. Squeeze the drinking water out of the bamboo pith, slash it into 5mm-wide rings and put them on a plate.

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5 Rinse the golden thread mushrooms, then drain them in a colander. Squeeze the h2o out of the dehydrated mushrooms (reserving the soaking liquid), then minimize off and discard the stems. Slice the caps into little dice.

6 Peel and shred the carrot. Minimize the bell pepper in half, then get rid of and discard the stem and seeds, and minimize the pepper into tiny dice.

7 Dice the drinking water chestnuts.

8 If using a entire bamboo shoot, get rid of the hard outer layers to reveal the tender flesh.

9 Slash the tip of the bamboo into slim rounds, about 2cm in diameter. Lower the remaining bamboo into skinny slices, then into batons about 2.5cm lengthy.

10 Bring a medium-sized pot of water to the boil. Include the bamboo items, simmer for 5 minutes, then drain.

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11 Slice the pressed bean curd in fifty percent, cutting parallel to the chopping board so the bean curd is in two even squares, then slice into slender batons.

12 Place the fermented bean curd in a compact bowl and mash it with a fork. Blend in the soy sauce, rice wine, vegetarian oyster sauce, sugar, white pepper and 60ml of the mushroom soaking liquid.

13 Heat a wok more than a superior flame. When it is hot, incorporate 20ml of cooking oil and swirl the wok so it truly is evenly coated with oil. If, at any time, the substances get started to adhere, drizzle in far more oil all around the edges of the wok.

14 Put the Chinese mushrooms and golden thread mushrooms into the wok, sprinkle flippantly with salt, then prepare dinner, stirring frequently, for about 90 seconds.

15 Incorporate the bean curd pores and skin, bamboo pith, bamboo, water chestnuts and pressed bean curd and stir-fry for a minute.

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Stir-fry the ingredients in a wok. Photo: SCMP / Jonathan Wong

16 Insert the fen si, carrot and bell pepper and mix very well.

17 Drizzle in the fermented bean curd mixture and mix totally so the elements are evenly seasoned. Convert the heat to reduced, then cover the wok with the lid and cook dinner for about three minutes, stirring from time to time.

18 Eliminate the lid and stir nicely, then flavor the mixture and suitable the seasonings, if necessary. If it would seem dry, increase some of the reserved mushroom soaking liquid. Place the mixture on a serving plate.

19 Clear away the core from the heads of lettuce, then independent them into unique leaves. Pile the leaves on a plate and set some hoisin sauce in a modest bowl.

20 To provide, smear a small amount of money of hoisin sauce in a lettuce cup and add the vegetable combination. Roll loosely ahead of taking in.

This report originally appeared on the South China Early morning Put up (www.scmp.com), the top information media reporting on China and Asia.

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