Vegetarian beehoon

A complete guide and recipe to make every component from scratch.

Vegetarian beehoon
For the beehoon:
1 onion, peeled and sliced
1-2 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
2 tbs oil
380g water
3 tablespoon soy
3 tablespoons cooking caramel or dark soy sauce
¾ teaspoon sugar
¾ teaspoon salt
240g beehoon, soaked, drained
120g beansprouts, washed and drained

Fry the onion and garlic in oil. Add the water, soy, caramel, sugar and salt and bring to a boil. Add the beehoon and toss well. Cover and cook for 1-2 minutes. Add 120g beansprouts and turn off the heat. Toss well.

For the cabbage:
2 garlic
1 tbs oil
200g cabbage, torn into small pieces
1 teaspoon soy

Saute the garlic in the oil. Add cabbage and soy and cook until softened.

For the pickled chillies:
200g boiling water
75g chillies
120g vinegar
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon sugar

Cover the chillies in the water and allow to sit for 10 minutes before discarding the water. Pour over the vinegar, salt and sugar and allow to pickle overnight.

For the gluten:
1500g flour
1125g water

Mix the flour and water – it should be shaggy, soft and pliable. Rest for 15 minutes, then cover with water and rest another 30 minutes. Knead until the water turns cloudy and drain. Repeat several times – the rice should look like rice water and the dough should look like a rough lump of torn cloth. Soak and rest for 30 minutes in fresh water. This produces about 300g of gluten.

For the char siu:
1 stalk of lemongrass
1 tablespoon angzao (red glutinous wine lees) or ketchup
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
1 tablespoon taucheo
1 tablespoon sugar

Using half of the gluten, twist it to get texture to resemble meat fibers, then tie a knot. Cook in lemongrass water to rid the smell of wheat on medium heat. Simmer for 20 minutes or until it floats. Untie the knot. Mix the angzao, oyster sauce, taucheo and sugar and coat the gluten well. Deep-fry for 5 minutes or until lightly brown. Glaze again and deep fry.

For the black fungus rolls:
2 big piece of black fungus, soaked

Stretch out the remaining half of the gluten. Roll up the black fungus in the gluten. Pull the edges to completely cover the black fungus. Tie it just like you would tie meat and steam for 15-20 minutes or until it feels firm and springy. Slice 3cm thick.

For the vegetarian goose (zai er):
50g beancurd skin
1 teaspoon five spice powder
2 tbs sugar
2 tsp light soy
2 tbs vegetarian oyster sauce
2 tbs sesame oil
480g water

Wipe beancurd skin with damp cloth. Mix together the rest of the ingredients. Dip the beancurd into the marinade and soak until fully rehydrated. Cut into rectangles about 2-3” wide. Thread each with a stay stick to hold them together and to prevent unfolding. Bake 10min at 120C. Flip and bake for another 10min. Deep-fry over low heat until golden brown. Remove satay stick and cut.