If you have made your own soya bean milk before, you would have noticed a layer of skin forming on top of the surface when you are boiling it. This is how fresh beancurd sheets are made. These sheets are rolled or folded into long tubes and dried to form dried beancurd sticks. They are also known as dried bean milk skin rolls, dried tofu skin rolls, Yuba, fu Zhu or tofu bamboo. They need to be rehydrated before you are able to use them. They can be braised, stewed, cooked in soups or stir-fried. Mildly flavoured, they absorb the flavours of whatever ingredients they are cooked in. They are delicious as one of the ingredients of vegetarian dishes.
Here, I have braised the beancurd stick with dried Shiitake mushroom and Napa cabbage.
Ingredients:
- 50 g dried beancurd sticks
- 150 g Napa cabbage
- 3 pcs Shiitake mushrooms
- 2 tbsp cooking oil
- 3 cloves garlic, chopped
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper powder
- 500 ml water
- 1 small stalk of green onion, cut into 1 cm length
- 1 pc bird's eye chilli, cut into small pieces
- Rehydrate the beancurd sticks with hot water. For the beancurd sticks to be very soft, I prefer to rehydrate it overnight. When they have softened cut them into 4-inch length.
- Cut the Napa into 1-inch length.
- Soak the Shiitake mushrooms till they are soft. Slice them thinly.
- Heat the work with cooking oil.
- When the oil is hot, add the mushroom to the wok and fry till they are aromatic. Then add the chopped garlic and fry till it is fragrant.
- Add the beancurd stick and Napa cabbage to the wok. Stir-fry them for a few minutes.
- Add water to the wok.
- Cover the wok and let the ingredients simmer for about half an hour or till the beancurd sticks and Napa cabbage are very soft and the sauce is greatly reduced.
- Season with salt and pepper.
- Dish them up and decorate the dish with green onion and bird's eyes chilli.
- Serve hot with rice.