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A friend of mine who is a vegetarian asked me to prepare some vegetarian dishes sometime in our post. I remembered one time we went to this local vegetarian restaurant and she introduced many good vegetarian dishes. They definitely didn’t taste like the “real deals” but I enjoyed them very much. One dish I like the best was the “Salt and Pepper Oyster Mushroom”. The dish is an imitation of the Salt & Pepper Chicken, but instead of using chicken, the mushroom was used as an substitution and it is so good.

This was my first time of making this scrumptious vegetarian dish and apparently I need more practice and time to master it. I over-fried the basil leaves twice and finally I got it right.  Do not use too high heat or it will burn the basil leaves. However I would need her advises in mastering this dish. For my friend and all my vegetarian friends, this dish is specially dedicated to you all.

Ingredients:

1 packet fresh oyster mushrooms (豪菇)
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 fermented bean curd (mashed)
1 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp sesame oil
3 tbsp cornstarch
1/2 cup yam flour (地瓜粉)
A bunch of basil leaves

For the seasoning:

1/4 tsp of all-spice powder
1/4 tsp white pepper powder
1/4 tsp Salt
2 Green Chili Pepper (chopped one into smaller bits and sliced the remaining)
2 tsp minced garlic

Cooking Method:

1. Marinate the fresh oyster mushrooms with soy sauce, fermented bean curd, minced garlic, salt, sugar and sesame oil.
2. Mix the cornstarch and yam flour together. Coat mushrooms with flour evenly.
3. Heat oil to medium to deep fry the mushrooms in batches till golden brown. Drain with paper towel and set to a platter.
4. Heat oil to medium low, test with a basil leave to make sure  it fries nicely and don’t burnt the leave. Then quickly deep fry the basil leaves, the leaves should turned slightly transparent, crispy and in a nice greenie color. (If the basil leaves turned into dark green color means over burnt, need reduce the heat.) Garnish with mushrooms.
5. In a pan add a couple drips of oil and pan fry the garlic and green chili pepper. Mix in with the mushrooms.
6. Mix five spice powder, white pepper powder and salt, sprinkle on top of the mushrooms. Serve.