Chinese Vegetarian Chicken

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One of my favorite chinese vegetarian dishes is this vegetarian chicken. Chinese cooking has been working wonders with soy for a long time. This is one of my grandmother's many specialties. She visited for the holidays one year and let me document her recipe. Although the listed recipe includes mushrooms and bamboo shoots, the version shown here doesn't use them. Both are excellent.

Ingredients

1/2 cup shitake mushrooms, sliced thin and squeezed dry
1/2 cup bamboo shoots strips, squeezed dry
2 pkgs of dried tofu skin sheets
1/2 cup soy sauce
dash sesame oil
1/4 cup sugar

If you make this recipe with vegetables, the first step is to stir fry the mushrooms and bamboo shoots together with a little oil. Set aside.

Instructions

Grandma showed me where to look for packages of dried tofu skin in the freezer section of the Chinese grocery store. She let the package thaw and then removed the sheets and rinsed them in the sink under cold water. Then she pat them dry with a papertowel. Reserve out the "good" tofu skins (whole without tears, holes) and trim them to the largest possible rectangle. Set the torn sheets and trimmings aside.

In a saucepan, combine the soy sauce and sugar and bring to boil. Remove from heat and add sesame oil. Add 1/2 cup water. Soak the torn tofu sheets and trimmings in the sauce and mix well.

Grab a handful of the soaking tofu skin and wipe down both sides of a good tofu sheet.

Place a pile of the soaked skin on the sheet (add some vegetables on top of that if you are doing this with vegetables and fold the soaked tofu over the veggies to keep them centered). Reserve the sauce.

See how grandma is wrapping on the diagonal? Start at one corner and fold it up into a little rectangular package.

Fold with another sheet the same way. Seal the edges by wiping some flour along the edge and folding it onto the moistened tofu skin.

This is what they should look like.

Pour 2 or 3 tablespoons of oil into a frying pan on medium high heat. Sear the tofu packets in the pan. Flip to sear both sides. Poke holes with chopsticks in the sides.

Pour in the some of the remaining sauce, cover the pan and let the tofu simmer for 5 minutes.

When the tofu is done, remove from pan. You can serve sliced, hot or cold.

	Grandma showed me where to look for packages of dried tofu skin in the freezer section of the Chinese grocery store. She let the package thaw and then removed the sheets and rinsed them in the sink under cold water. Then she pat them dry with a papertowel. Reserve out the "good" tofu skins (whole without tears, holes) and trim them to the largest possible rectangle. Set the torn sheets and trimmings aside.
	In a saucepan, combine the soy sauce and sugar and bring to boil. Remove from heat and add sesame oil. Add 1/2 cup water. Soak the torn tofu sheets and trimmings in the sauce and mix well.
	Grab a handful of the soaking tofu skin and wipe down both sides of a good tofu sheet.
	Place a pile of the soaked skin on the sheet (add some vegetables on top of that if you are doing this with vegetables and fold the soaked tofu over the veggies to keep them centered). Reserve the sauce.
	See how grandma is wrapping on the diagonal? Start at one corner and fold it up into a little rectangular package.
	Fold with another sheet the same way. Seal the edges by wiping some flour along the edge and folding it onto the moistened tofu skin.
	This is what they should look like.
	Pour 2 or 3 tablespoons of oil into a frying pan on medium high heat. Sear the tofu packets in the pan. Flip to sear both sides. Poke holes with chopsticks in the sides.
	Pour in the some of the remaining sauce, cover the pan and let the tofu simmer for 5 minutes.
	When the tofu is done, remove from pan. You can serve sliced, hot or cold.