Ingredients
Pine nuts, cooked potato, cooked carrot, dried shiitake mushrooms, rehydrated bamboo shoots, cooked wheat gluten, water chestnuts (peeled), walnuts, green bell pepper (or cucumber), and leafy greens (or spinach), each to taste.
Seasonings
Sugar, cooking wine, vinegar, soy sauce, MSG, salt, cornstarch, minced ginger, sesame oil, and white pepper, each to taste.
Instructions
1. Rehydrate the dried shiitake mushrooms, then cut them into 4 cm long by 3 cm wide strips. Lightly marinate with MSG, salt, sugar, and cooking wine, then roll them in dry cornstarch.
2. Finely dice the winter bamboo shoots and wheat gluten into rice-grain-sized pieces, mix with salt, MSG, and minced ginger, then stir in wet starch; briefly deep-fry the pine nuts in oil heated to 40% of its smoking point (about 280°F/140°C) and remove.
3. Mash the cooked potatoes and carrots together into a paste, wrap in a cloth and squeeze out excess moisture, then mix in minced ginger; shred the rehydrated shiitake mushrooms and fold them into the potato-carrot mixture.
4. Blanch the green bell peppers in boiling water, then toss with salt and MSG to taste, and cut into leaf shapes; arrange the water chestnuts and walnut halves around the edges of the long platter to complement the peppers.
5. Heat oil in a wok to about 140°C (285°F), add the coated winter bamboo shoots and water gluten balls, fry until they turn white, then remove. In a separate wok, bring broth, MSG, and salt to a boil, thicken with cornstarch slurry, then immediately add the fried bamboo shoots, gluten, and pine nuts, splash in cooking wine, and serve on one end of a long platter.
6. Heat a wok over high heat, add oil, then stir in the seasoned mashed potatoes with salt, MSG, sugar, and white vinegar, mix well, and transfer to the other end of a long platter. This dish is aromatic, fresh, and crispy.