Vegetarian's Duck

1) Sliver winter mushrooms and bamboo shoots. Shred half of scallion and ginger; cut the other half respectively into sections and slices.

2) Heat sesame oil (2 tablespoons) in pan. Stir-fry bamboo shoots and mushrooms, follow first with shredded scallion and ginger and then with soya sauce (1 tablespoon), cooking wine (1 tablespoon), and gourmet powder (1/4 teaspoon). Mix well and pour into plate to cool. This will be the filling.

3) Mix in a small pot scallion sections, ginger slices, salt, soya sauce (1 tablespoon), cooking wine (1 tablespoon), gourmet powder (1/2 teaspoon), five-spice powder, sesame oil (2 tablespoons) and an adequate amount of water. Put bean-milk skins in for steeping, just submerged.

4) Take two bean-milk skins (semicircular in their commercial form), one exactly on top of the other and spread the pair on the workboard with the straight edge on one side. Take another two, one on top the other, and spread them half overlapping the previous two but with the straight edge on the other side. Put a third pair in the middle.

Arrange the stir-fried filling in a strip in the middle, with the sauce poured on, leaving some space on the sides as well as the edges. Pick up one side and fold it over the filling to make a roll; after the first round, fold in the loose edges and continue to roll so that the whole thing becomes a flat roll of about 2 inches wide. And this is the vegetarian's duck.

5) Wet a piece of muslin and spread it over the rack of a steamer. Leave vegetarian's duck on cloth (with the loose end underneath). Steam on high flame for 10 minutes. Then remove and cool.

6) Heat peanut oil and fry vegetarian's duck till dark red. Remove and drain. Cut into thick slices (holding knife at an angle) before serving.

Notes:

(1) The roll (step 4) should be uniform in thickness for good presentation.

(2) The vegetarian's duck should be fried (step 6) only till it becomes dark red. Overfrying will make it too dry and too hard for good taste.

(3) Neither should the steaming (step 5) be overdone. Oversteaming would make the bean-milk skins stick together and affect the taste adversely.