Mock Fish in Sweet and Sour Sauce

Vegetables, also Vegetarian Foods

Mock Fish in Sweet and Sour Sauce
Ingredients:
2 thin sheets bean curd
1 large potato, cooked until soft, then mashed
2 water chestnuts, minced
3 Tablespoons minced bamboo shoots
2 Tablespoons minced coriander leaves
1/2 sheet purple or black seaweed laver, moistened
1 cup cornstarch
2 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 very small Chinese black mushroom, soaked, stem discarded
2 cups vegetable oil
1/2 cup vegetable stock
1 Tablespoon Chinese black vinegar
2 Tablespoons granulated or crushed Chinese brown sugar slab
Preparation:
1. Wet thin bean curd sheets brushing them with warm water, then spread mashed potato across the center, the long way. Top this sprinkling water chestnuts, bamboo shoots, and coriander leaves evenly over the potato.
2. Roll the seaweed into a long thin roll making this roll the length of the potato mixture. Press it into the potato so it is centered down its length.
3. Beat cornstarch and flour with half cup of cold water until there are no lumps left.
4. Fold the edges of the bean curd sheet, one by one, over the potato mixture, wetting each edge with a little of the cornstarch, flour mixture, and brush some more on both sides of this potato package shaping one end to a point to resemble the head, and cut the other end in an inch and separate that to look like a fish tail. Using the cornstarch mixture, paste the mushroom at the fish head end for its eye. Allow to dry for half an hour, then add more of the cornstarch mixture to the other side and allow this to dry, as well. Now cut one-inch slits about one inch apart and down one side of the mock fish, as one would for a real one.
5. In a deep large fry-pan, heat the oil and deep fry the mock fish until crisp and golden in color, then drain on paper towels and put on a platter.
6. In a small sauce pan, mix the stock, vinegar, and brown sugar, and two tablespoons of the cornstarch mixture and bring to the boil. Pour over the fried fish, and serve.

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