Monday, October 20, 2008

Grace's Vegetarian Turkey

oct 13 058


My friend Grace has many talents. On top of being a fantastic baker, cake decorator extraordinaire and photographer, she is also a terrific cook. Last July, I had the pleasure of partaking in a feast she whipped up for her birthday party. This vegetarian turkey was one of the dishes she served.

Grace's vegetarian turkey reminds me of my good friend K in Malaysia, who has been a vegetarian for more than 15 years. Whenever I am in town, I like her to bring me to her favorite chinese vegetarian restaurant and let her do the ordering. There will be a table full of mock chicken, mock ham, mock bacon, and mock roast pork, mock fish and vegetables. I find it fascinating that one can name any meat, and the restaurant will surely has a vegetarian version, make with the mock meat in which the ingredients are essentially soy bean and mushroom, flavored to mimic the real deal.

oct 13 056


I have not seen this kind of chinese vegetarian restaurants in the US, so I was excited when Grace served the vegetarian turkey. I knew I need to learn this dish. K will be impressed if I bring this to the next potluck party when I go home this Nov!

Grace uses an assortment of vegetables as filling/meat, and the beancurd sheet, which can be found at the freezer section of Asian grocery store, as the "turkey skin". That's our friend T, hiding behind the beancurd sheet.

ingredients


Here's the step by step photo instructions I have taken while Grace was demonstrating the process. If you can read Chinese,check out the recipe on Grace's blog and other mouth watering creations she make. That woman is insanely talented, I miss her food.

step by step


step by step2


Here's Grace posing with the vegetarian turkey. She will be so proud to know that I finally made it last week on a rainy day. It is as good as my mentor's! ;)

vegetarian turkey



Grace's Vegetarian Turkey
see the recipe in Chinese here


1 pack of beancurd sheet (see the picture above)
1 medium carrot, finely shredded
1 cup wood ear mushroom, rehydrated in water, for 1 hour, and finely shredded
6 dried shiitake mushroom, rehydrated in water, for 1 hour, and finely shredded
vegetarian oyster sauce
soy sauce
1/2 cup vegetable broth
sesame oil
dark soy sauce

For the filling:
Add 2 tablespoons of oil in a nonstick pan, and stirfry the carrot and mushrooms. Season with 1 teaspoon of sesame oil, 1/2 tablespoon of vegetarian oyster sauce and 1 teaspoon of soy sauce. Taste and adjust the seasoning according to your preference. Continue to stirfry until all the ingredients are soft and cook.

Remove from the pan and put the filling in a pan to cool slightly.

Make sauce:
In a small or medium bowl,mix together 1/2 cup of vegetarian broth with 1.5 tablespoons of vegetarian oyster sauce, 1 tespoon of sesame oil, 1/2 tablespoon of soy sauce,1/2 teaspoon of dark soy sauce and 1 teaspoon of granulated sugar.

To assemble the vegetarian turkey:
Remove 2 pieces of the bean curd sheets from the package,fold the sheets in half and cut with a scissor. You will have 4 pieces of half circle now. Using a pastry brush, generously brush the sauce onto a piece of half circle, cover with another half circle, and brush with the sauce. Repeat for 2 more times. You will have 4 pieces of overlapping beancurd sheets.

Put some of the filling in the center of the beancurd sheets, and fold following the step by step instructions above. Secure with a toothpick.

Heat a nonstick pan with oil, add in the "turkeys", and sear until both sides are lightly golden. Pour in th remaining sauce, the turkeys are ready when the sauce is almost fully absorb. Remove from pan, and cool.

At this point, you can keep the vegetarian turkey in the fridge and keep for up to 2 days. Cut when ready to serve.

16 comments:

Patsyk said...

What mouth-watering pictures! I can almost taste it now!

Snooky doodle said...

Nice recipe. :-)

Maria said...

Wow, this looks good. I don't eat real turkey so I will for sure be trying this version!

Anonymous said...

Interesting. I've never seen those bean curd sheets before. But, does the end result really taste like turkey?

Stardust said...

AHHH!! I'm going crazy! This is definitely one of those must-haves when I'm having vegetarian! It surpasses real meat!

I'm drooling. Glad for you that you've got such a close friend who cooks so well. =)

Anonymous said...

i love bean curd skin... great looking dish you have there... :)

Mandy said...

Dana,

the vegetarian turkey doesn't taste like the real deal. Come to think of it, I don't know why the dish is named vegetarian turkey.

Clumbsy Cookie said...

Lol! Maybe this was maid with turkey before and someone vegetarianezed it, taking the turkey and leaving the name. Either way looks fun to make and delicious!

Stardust said...

Mandy, do find the dish mildly sweet?

I'm familiar with the sweet ones, quite surprized that sweetening stuff isn't listed within. Or could it be the vegetarian oyster sauce?

Venus ~ Vi said...

I am drolling madly right now. I shouldn't have drop by before lunch >.<

Piee and JSBanana said...

This looks delicious! I can't wait till I try this one out. I only hope that it tastes half as good as this one. ^^

--JSBanana

Nazarina A said...

Your picture is amazing, makes me want to try it!!!

I have an award for you!
http://giddygastronome.blogspot.com/2008/10/happy-halloween-eat-drink-and-be-scary.html

Food For Tots said...

I had also never seen this dish before in Msia. Looks so impressive and mouth-watering! Can't wait to try it out! :p

Jennywenny said...

This looks delicious, thanks for sharing. It will also stop me being stupid enough to buy a tofurkey ever again. As the sole veggie in the house I was doomed to tofurkey leftovers for a week(and it wasnt very good in the first place)!

Anonymous said...

Grace calls this vegetarian duck/goose on her blog, which is how I've seen it here. This makes more sense -- the tofu skin in this case emulates the fowl's skin, etc. My fav of the vegetarian meats are the vegetarian "fish" (e.g. here: http://www.fotop.net/James/james1020661), but this looks just as yummy -- def want to try it at home!

Thanks for linking Grace's blog, btw. I've just become familiar with food blogs and reading Chinese ones is just as good. :)

A_and_N said...

Wow I've never seen anything like this before! simply superb :) Where is this Chinese vegetarian restaurant? I never thought i'd see a place like that!

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