If you have been to any Chinese vegetarian restaurant, especially those Buddhist-inspired, you have probably encountered a lot of ‘mock meat’ or ‘faux meat’ dishes. The texture and shape are made to resemble the real meat, as closely as possible.

Industry produced mock meat products are mostly a mixture of wheat gluten and isolated soy protein. Some people don’t like mock meat as they prefer the “real thing”. Some vegetarians despise it as they think it’s absurd for one to cling to meat when they decide to be vegetarian. However, there are surely people who love meat but are concerned about their health, environment or animals, would happily give mock meat a try. I embrace the mock meat products as I think it is an easier introduction to vegan food. It takes time for people who are used to eating a lot of meat to learn to appreciate natural, whole plant-based food. So even though I don’t make it often for myself, I love to make it for my family and friends from time to time, or take them to the restaurants where those dishes are served. 😉 Most of them say if those are more widely available they would eat more vegan dishes!

This dish is supposed to imitate Shredded Meat with Beijing Sauce (京酱肉丝), which is usually made of pork and sweet flour paste (甜面酱). Usually this dish is served together with cucumbers, thin rice pancake, and sweet flour paste. You put some shredded meat and cucumber inside the rice pancake, then wrap it up, dip into the sweet flour paste and eat it. Alternatively, you can eat it as a plain dish with rice.

Kitchen Gadgets: Wok

Serves: 2

Ingredients

• 1 cup dried vegan meat shreds
• 2 tbsp corn starch
• ½ cup or more canola oil for deep frying
• 2 tbsp sweet flour paste
• 1 tsp soy sauce
• 1 tsp packed dark brown sugar
• 1 tsp Chinese cooking wine

Instructions

1. soak the vegan meat shreds for 10 mins. Squeeze to remove the water.
2. add corn starch and use your hand or chopsticks to mix, to evenly coat the shreds.
3. place a kitchen tissue on a plate. Heat the wok and add oil, deep fry coated shreds for 2 mins. Use a sieve to scoop out the shreds and lay on the plate to drip some excessive oil.
4. in a small bowl, mix sweet flour paste, soy sauce, sugar and cooking wine.
5. discard the oil but don't wash the wok yet. Heat it and add the shreds and stir fry for 1 min. Press it against the sides of the wok.
6. add the soy sauce mixture and stir fry for 1 more min. You can serve it plain or with cucumber, sweet flour paste, and rice wrapper.