Friday, October 10, 2014

Vegetarian Roasted Duck Rice



Years back when I used to work in Jalan Ampang, KL, Malaysia. Among all the tall office buildings around Jalan Ampang, right opposite of my then office hides a small heritage Chinese temple. It is a very interesting scene to see white collars visiting the temple and do their prayers during lunch break or after working hours.

The temple also has a small canteen that sells delicious vegetarian/vegan meals. I loved their vegetarian wonton noodle and also the vegetarian chicken rice that they sell every Friday. Their Vegetarian roasted duck was also one dish to die for. Just like my hometown friend Stephanie said: " I don't mind being vegetarian eating this everyday!"

I was searching for recipe for this vegetarian roasted duck online and most of the recipes called for stuffing like mushrooms and shredded carrot. I liked that version too but it was not the ones that I really missed. I like my vegetarian roasted duck a little crunchy on the outside and chewy on the inside.

So I decided to create my own version and this comes quite close to what I remembered! 


Ingredients:
2 sheets of fresh soy skin (fresh Fu Zhok) 
5-6 tooth picks
1 cup of steamed white rice
some sliced tomatoes or cucumber as accompaniment

For marinates/seasoning:
2 cubes of Nam Yu (Fermented Soy bean curd)
2 tbsp of water
1 tsp of ABC sweet soy sauce (add a little sugar for less sweet version of dark soy sauce)
1 tsp of hoisin sauce
1 tsp of sesame oil
1/8 tsp of Chinese five spice (Ngor Hiong Hhun/五香粉)

For Sauce/Gravy:
1 tbsp of Teriyaki Sauce
1/2 tsp corn starch
1/4 cup of water



1. Whisk together all ingredients under For marinates/seasoning and set aside.

2. Use a clean towel and wet with clean warm drinking water, mopping the soy skin thoroughly using the wet towel. This is to soften the soy skin, if the version you bought is soft enough, you can skip this step. Cut the soy skin into half (the one I bought was a big large circle in shape, so I cut it into half).

3. Use a brush and dipped into the seasoning sauce, brush the sauce all over the soy skin, do it on all 4 half circular sheets, stack them up with the seasoning side up.

4. Cut the stacks into half from the middle, fold each half like you would for egg roll to form two 3 inches wide and 6-7 inches long rolls. Use toothpick to secure the rolls in shape. 

5. I cut mine into half in length again for easier handling. Let the soy skin side aside for around 20 minutes for the sauce to sink in or to marinate.

6. Heat up about 1 inch of oil in a cooking pan, shallow fry the roasted duck until the surface a little crunchy. Dish out and drain. Cut into 1 inch width stripes, assemble with rice and accompaniments on a plate.

7.  In a sauce pan, whisk together all ingredients listed under sauce/gravy, bring to boil on stove at medium heat. When the sauce thickened, drizzle it over the roasted duck on the plate and place a tbsp of sauce over steamed white rice.

Serve with this delicious homemade Chili Sauce.


I couldn't be happier for this lunch, next time I may make my "duck" pieces a little thicker!



2 comments:

  1. Thanks for drawing my attention to soy skin. I have never seen a product like that available here in Australia and I definitely will be keeping my eyes peeled for it in specialty stores now!

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    Replies
    1. Oh yes it is almost like a staple in the Chinese version of vegetarian foods, It is versatile and very healthy! You should check it out!

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