Vegetarian Beancurd Roll

With Chinese New Year fast approaching, these vegetarian rolls would be perfect to celebrate the first day of CNY. Usually we eat only vegetarian food on the first day of CNY as a tradition (right after we return from the temple where I usually have to fight the crowd to retrieve my shoes from the entrance - I learnt to always wear an old pair of shoes or a least favourite pair on CNY or other festivals to the temple).

Besides being tasty and meat free, these vegetarian rolls can also represent gold bullions and so is an auspicious dish to have on the table.

This dish benefits from having a julienne peeler. Otherwise, be prepared to spend half a day hunched over the chopping board... Julienne peelers cost less than mandolins and are much easier to use and clean.

I usually use julienned carrots, sliced re-hydrated shitake mushrooms, sliced black fungus and re-hydrated mung bean noodles. I have also used enoki mushrooms when I ran out of black fungus, for the crunch texture in the dish.

Carrots, shitake mushrooms, black fungus, mung bean noodles

Stir fry all the ingredients in a pan with some salt and pepper.

When the filling has cooled, wrap some two tablespoons worth with the dried beancurd sheet. The beancurd sheet can be quite salty, so I usually wipe them down with some wet kitchen towels before wrapping. I also cut them to size before wrapping.

Gaz prefers I pan fry these rolls for the crispy texture but I sometimes steam them for a healthier alternative. They do not take long to steam or pan fry, as the filling is already cooked.