Mock Chicken (Buddhist)

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Title: Mock Chicken (Buddhist)
Categories: Chinese, Vegetarian, Ceideburg 2
Yield: 1 batch

3/4 c Basic chicken stock
2 tb Light soy sauce
1 tb Sugar
1 tb Oriental sesame oil
1 ts Salt
8 Dried bean-curd sheets,
-soaked to soften
Peanut oil for deep-frying

I got into the cookbooks looking for the Buddhist mock meat dishes
and ran across a bunch of other "mock" stuff, some of it vegetarian
and meant to satisfy the craving for meat and some of it meant to
represent other ingredients not available at the time. This first
recipe is for "Mock Chicken". I'm not sure if the use of chicken
stock would be permitted to a strict Buddhist vegetarian++I suspect
not++but I imagine a hearty veggie stock could be substituted. Dried
bean curd can give a surprisingly realistic impression of meat
products.

Bring stock, soy, sugar, sesame oil and salt to boil. Cool. fold
bean-curd sheets into oblongs (approximately 4 by 8 inches) and stack
the sheets on top of each other, spooning the stock mixture between
each layer. Roll stacked sheets into oblong loaf, wrap in cheesecloth
and steam on rack over boiling water for 20 0minutes. Remove
cheesecloth and fry loaf in deep oil until golden. Drain and cut
into 1/2-inch diagonal slices.

From "The Regional Cooking of China" by Margaret Gin and Alfred E.
Castle. 101 Productions, San Francisco, 1975.

Posted by Stephen Ceideburg; December 20 1990.

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