Fried Tofu Skin Rolls


My mom and I meet for lunch quite often and nearly always meet at a Chinese restaurant next to a Chinese grocery store which are somewhat equidistant between our two houses.  The restaurant serves dim sum at lunch, and though we each normally order one of their 'lunch special' items, I am always tempted to get one dim sum item to share.  A steamed tofu skin roll is a favorite and is something I had never made before.  In looking for new things to try for this Chinese New Year, I decided to make a fried version thinking the kids and Chris may prefer that to steamed.  This roll can either be steamed or fried, so the preparation of it is the same, and once rolled, you can decide whether you'd prefer to steam or fry them.

Makes approximately 16 rolls:

1 ¼  pound ground pork
6 ounces small shrimp, shelled, deveined and finely chopped
5 dried shiitake mushrooms
5 ounces water chestnuts, finely chopped
2 scallions, thinly sliced
2 tsp finely minced ginger
2 tablespoons tapioca starch
1 egg white
2 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tbsp rice wine
1 tsp sesame oil
½ tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
¼ tsp ground white pepper
4 tbsp reserved liquid from shiitake mushrooms
tofu skin

1 egg beaten for wrapping the rolls



Rinse and soak the shiitake mushrooms in boiling water until softened. Squeeze excess water from mushrooms, reserve soaking liquid and cut the mushrooms into tiny pieces.  Combine all ingredients, except tofu skin, in a large bowl and mix well.  Cover and refrigerate for an hour or so or overnight.



Unless you can find fresh tofu skins, they are dried but are found in the freezer section.  Per my mom, if left just dried and not frozen, they would easily break apart.  To prepare the skins, defrost them in the refrigerator.  They defrost rather quickly.  The package of skins I had were large round pieces which I quartered, cutting them with scissors.  Soak each piece in cold water for about 30 seconds or until softened. Gently squeeze out the excess water.



Form a small roll of the ground pork mixture at the base and center of the tofu skin.  Roll over twice and then fold one side of the skin over onto itself, roll again, and fold the other side of the skin over onto itself.  Then finish rolling to the end and brush the edge of the skin to help seal the roll.  


The tofu skins felt wet and since I rolled these ahead of time, I let them sit in the refrigerator, uncovered, until ready to fry.  You don't want to drop a wet roll into the hot oil as you will have a lot of splatter.  



Heat a pot of oil until it reaches 350f.  If you are only frying a few, you can use a smaller pot, therefore having to use less oil and you only need oil deep enough so that the rolls will not touch the bottom of the pot when frying.  But keep in mind, if you overcrowd the pot, the oil temp will drop a lot and therefore take longer to get back up to heat.  This will cause uneven frying.  I gave some uncooked rolls to my mom and froze the rest and will try steaming them next time.  But these fried ones sure were delicious!

Comments

  1. Quite exquisite, both the dish and the article. The engaging language makes it fun to read and the pictures of the dish are absolutely mouth watering. Excellent job.

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  2. Thank you. I am still struggling how to make them "stick" once rolled. Mine fell apart in the deep fryer.

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