Dry-Fried Yellow Warbler
A traditional Zhejiang vegetarian dish featuring bamboo shoot, shiitake mushroom, and pressed tofu shreds wrapped in tofu skin and fried into the shape of a small sparrow. Crispy on the outside, tender within, and lightly aromatic.
Ingredients
tofu skin (moisten, remove tough edges, cut into 5cm wide strips, divide into 20 portions)
10
cooked bamboo shoot meat (cut into fine strips)
100 g
soaked shiitake mushrooms (cut into fine strips)
60 g
fragrant dried tofu (cut into fine strips)
4
top-grade white flour (for making batter)
120 g
clean water (for making batter)
120 g
ginger strips
5 g
refined salt (part for batter, part for filling)
15 g
Sichuan pepper salt (part for filling)
6 g
MSG
3 g
yeast powder
2 g
sweet bean sauce (for dipping)
50 g
cooked vegetable oil (for frying)
750g (approx. 75g consumed)
Instructions
1
Prep and cut
Moisten the tofu skin, remove tough edges, cut into 5cm wide strips, divide into 20 portions; cut bamboo shoots, shiitake mushrooms, and dried tofu into fine strips
2
Make batter
Add 120g water to the flour, add part of the refined salt, stir into a smooth batter, then mix in yeast powder evenly
3
Make filling
Mix bamboo shoot strips, shiitake strips, and fragrant dried tofu strips with 3g Sichuan pepper salt, ginger strips, and MSG until well combined, then divide into 20 portions
4
Wrap
Place each filling portion on a cut tofu skin strip, roll one by one into a 2cm diameter tofu skin roll, allow shiitake and bamboo shoot strips to protrude slightly, and seal the roll opening with flour batter
5
First fry
Heat a wok over high heat, add cooked vegetable oil and heat to 50% temperature (approx. 125℃). Hold each wrapped tofu roll with chopsticks at 3/5 of its length to make both ends stick up into a 'V' shape, dip both ends in batter, then fry one by one in the wok until the batter sets into a warbler-like shape. Release the chopsticks and remove the rolls with a slotted spoon.
6
Second fry
After all rolls are fried and removed (keep oil temperature at around 50% throughout frying), skim out any crumbs from the oil. Once the oil temperature rises to 60% (approx. 150℃), put all the tofu rolls back in and fry until golden brown.
7
Plate and serve
Remove from oil, arrange on a serving plate, and serve with Sichuan pepper salt and sweet bean sauce for dipping.
