Vegetarian Pork Chop
Vegetarian pork chops made with baked gluten and yam, coated in breadcrumbs and deep-fried until crispy outside and tender inside. Serve with dipping sauce.
Ingredients
Black pepper
2 g
Tomato ketchup
10 g
Worcestershire sauce
10 g
Vinegar
5 g
Salted bread (crumbled)
50 g
Sugar
10 g
Flour
60 g
Peanut oil (for frying)
1000 g
Wheat gluten (cut into mung bean-sized dice)
Yam (steamed, peeled, and mashed into puree)
Fine salt
MSG
Starch slurry
Braised bamboo shoots (inserted at both ends to resemble bones)
Broth
Instructions
1
Form the 'pork chop' base
Cut the wheat gluten into mung bean-sized dice and place in a bowl. Wash the yam, steam until fully cooked, peel, and mash into a puree using the back of a knife. Add the yam puree to the bowl with wheat gluten, then mix in fine salt, MSG, black pepper, starch slurry, and flour until evenly combined to form the 'pork chop' mixture.
2
Shape the cutlets
Spread the crumbled salted bread onto a large plate. Coat both sides of each 'pork chop' piece evenly with the bread crumbs, press gently with your hand to form cutlets about 7mm thick. Insert braised bamboo shoots at both ends of each cutlet to resemble 'pork bones'.
3
Fry the cutlets
Rinse the wok and place over heat, pour in peanut oil and heat to medium-high. Add the 'pork chop' pieces one by one and fry until they float to the surface and turn golden brown. Remove from the oil, drain excess oil, cut into 1cm-wide strips, and arrange on a plate in the original 'pork chop' shape.
4
Make sauce and serve
Stir-fry tomato ketchup in a pan, add fine salt, sugar, vinegar, broth, and MSG. Cook until the sauce thickens, then transfer to a small dipping dish. Serve with Worcestershire sauce alongside the 'pork chops' for dipping.
