Vegetarian Stew Pork Bun (Kong Bak Bao)

Finally, I experimented with Monkey Head Mushroom, they look so lovely and nice to smell too. Special thanks to Veganic for the instructions on how to prepare the monkey head mushroom. He recommends that the mushroom to be soaked in water for 2 hours, then squeeze out the water and put in fresh water, let it absorb the fresh water and squeeze dry before cooking. Blanch the pre-soaked mushroom for a minute or 2 in boiling water to clean it.

Well, I skip the last step, too impatient of me! I used the monkey head mushroom to cook Stew Pork Bun Vegetarian version -五 香 扣 肉包. My first try was much simpler, no marinating and I didn’t simmer the spices plus I added too much sugar. So, I did another round and this was how I spent my whole day yesterday, playing with 200g of monkey head mushroom to get the recipe below.

Hmmm… it is not perfect yet, I should have added vegetarian oyster sauce and maybe I should have marinated the mushroom with Chinese five spice powder too. And I should use corn flour to thicken the sauce (I ran out of corn/tapioca flour and vegetarian oyster sauce, my manual Reorder Point System 2008 didn’t work!).

At the end of the day, I came to a conclusion!

Don’t ever try to make Vegetarian Stew Pork Bun again – its just too much work and time consuming. Just go dine at The Whole Earth Vegetarian Restaurant , their Kong Bak Bao is awesome and wholesome. The good quality winter mushroom used in that dish resembles the fatty layer of the pork belly meat. Perfect and delectable!

Preparation: 30 mins, plus 3 hours standing times
Cooking time: 30 mins

Ingredients (serves 4)
° 100g monkey-head mushrooms
° 2 star anise
° 1 cinnamon stick
° 2 slices ginger
° oil, for deep-frying
° 8-12 lettuce leaves
° 8-12 leaf buns

Marinade
° 2 pieces red fermented bean curd (2cm x 2cm cube), mashed with 1 tablespoon water

Seasoning
° 2 tablespoons light soy sauce
° 1 tablespoon dark soy sauce
° 1 teaspoon Chinese five spice powder
° 375ml water
° ½ teaspoon granulated mushroom bouillon
° 1 teaspoon sugar, or to taste
° 1 teaspoon sesame oil

Method
1. Soak the monkey head mushroom in a big bowl of water for 1½ -2 hours.
2. Squeeze out the water from the monkey head mushroom and soak in fresh water till it absorbs and plump up. Remove and squeeze out all the water. Repeat this for one more round.
3. Cut the mushroom into slices and marinade with the fermented bean curd for ½ hours.
4. Heat oil in a wok over high heat. Drop the marinade monkey head mushroom and fry in batches until lightly golden brown. Remove the monkey head mushroom with a slotted spoon. Drain well on kitchen paper and set aside.
5. Mix all the seasoning ingredients in a bowl and set aside.
6. Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a wok and stir-fry the ginger, star anise and cinnamon for 1 minute. Throw in the seasoning, bring to a boil and simmer for 5 minutes till the spices release its aroma.
7. Add in the deep-fried monkey head monkey and cook till it absorbs all the sauce. Alternatively, thicken with corn flour.
8. Transfer to a serving dish and serve lettuce leaves and leaf buns.