Asian-style Vegan Roast 'Chicken' mushroom - 素烧鸡
Made from just a few simple ingredients, this Asian-style vegan roast 'chicken' mushroom is so succulent and tasty. The marinated tofu skin (yuba) definitely gives this dish an amazing roasted look that you can't resist having a bite.
Servings: 3
Ingredients
- 4 large King oyster mushrooms ~1.2 lbs
- 1 large tofu skin yuba
Salt rub
- ½ teaspoon mushrooms seasoning
- ½ teaspoon sugar
- ½ teaspoon salt
- dash of Chinese 5-spice powder
Marinade
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon maple syrup
- ¼ teaspoon mushroom seasoning
- ¼ cup of water
Instructions
- Prepare the mushrooms. Clean the stems with a brush to remove debris. Then, slice the top off. Fill a large pot or wok with water and bring it to a boil. While waiting for the water to come to a boil, prepare a bowl of ice water.
- Season the hot water with salt and carefully slide in the mushrooms.
- Boil the mushrooms, turning occasionally and immerse them into the hot water when they float up. Cook for about 10 minutes until the outer layer turn slightly grayish. To check the doness, insert a cake tester into the stem and if it goes through easily, it's done. If not, cook for another minute or so. The mushroom should feel heavy when you lift it up.
- When ready, remove the stems and soak them in the ice water bath.
- Prepare the salt rub by mixing together mushrooms seasoning, sugar, salt, and Chinese 5-spice powder in a bowl until well combined.
- Next, drain out the mushrooms water. Take a stem and pat dry with paper towel and gently squeeze to remove the water that's trapped inside.
- To create a cutlet, place the stem on a chopping board with the length facing you like the number 1. Using a sharp knife, carefully slice the mushrooms in a spiral motion (think of peeling an apple) until you get a large cutlet. At this time, the cutlet will curl up, turn it over and score the side. This should flatten the cutlet. Now, turn it over and score the other side. Repeat until you get 4 cutlets.
- To season the cutlet, pat dry the cutlet with towel, if needed. Then, rub each side with the salt rub and let them sit for at least 15 minutes.
- Prepare the soy sauce liquid by whisk together soy sauce, maple syrup, mushroom seasoning, and water in a bowl until well combined.
- Next, using a pair of scissors, cut the large tofu skin into half. Brush one side with the soy sauce liquid until they start to soften.
- Stack two cutlets together and place it on one end of the tofu skin. Lift the bottom of the tofu skin up and fold over the cutlets. Tuck the tofu skin under the bottom cutlet to secure it. Then, fold in the sides and flip to roll up the cutlet. Brush the tofu skin with each roll (check my video or pictures above). Repeat the same steps with the next cutlet.
- To cook the cutlet, fill a non-stick skillet with oil to rise up to 2-cm to the side of the pan. Heat the oil to 300F. To check the oil, drop a piece of tofu skin into the hot oil, if it sizzles, then the oil is ready. Carefully slide the cutlet and shallow fry, turning occasionally with a tong, until golden brown. Fry in 2 batches if needed.
- When ready, dish out the cutlet and transfer to a drain rack to cool. The drain rack will keep the cutlet crispy as well.
- Then, cut each cutlet into bite-sized slices and serve with a side of ginger-garlic sauce.