Where cabbage is king

Recipe

Vegetarian cabbage wraps

1 large head of cabbage

200 g dried shiitake mushrooms, soaked and sliced

1 carrot, peeled and shredded

1 can bamboo shoots, shredded

1 can or eight freshly peeled water chestnuts, minced

1 tablespoon yellow fermented bean sauce, huangdoujiang

1 teaspoon sesame oil

Salt and a bit of sugar to taste

1 liter mushroom stock

Blanch the whole cabbage and carefully remove the large outer leaves. Take out the short tender heart of cabbage and finely chop it up.

Heat vegetable oil in a large frying pan and add the yellow fermented bean sauce. Fry until fragrant, then add sliced mushrooms, minced water chestnuts, shredded bamboo shoots and carrot. When the mixture is well seasoned, add the chopped cabbage. Season with sesame oil, salt and sugar to taste.

Fry the ingredients until the mixture is relatively dry and the vegetable juices are reabsorbed. Cool.

Spread out each large cabbage leaf and place a generous spoon of fried ingredients on the stem end. Roll up like an envelope and place the roll at the bottom of a shallow nonstick pot. Continue to pack the rolls into the pot until the cabbage leaves and ingredients are used up.

Pour the liter of mushroom stock into the pot and slowly let it simmer for an hour.