Recipe for Braised Gluten or 'Chai Pao Yu'

Step 1

In a large bowl, measure and combine all the dry ingredients: vital wheat gluten, flour of choice, and curry powder. Make sure they're fully mixed.

Step 2

Pour ½ cup of water into gluten. Use your hand to mix, fold and knead it a little bit.

Step 3

You can add water gradually up until 1 cup, go slow just making sure the mixture is not too wet.

Step 4

The mixture should become spongy and damp dry. If it's still too dry, you can add additional water, go slow as 1 spoon at a time, knead then add some more if need.

Step 5

Once the mixture is at your desired level of wet/dry, dab some oil onto your palms to prevent sticky then roll and shape gluten between the palms of your hand or against a flat non-stick surface into a long 1-inch diameter roll. Let it rest while we're heating the oil and get ready for frying.

Step 6

To deep fry, heat a large pot or deep sauce pan over medium heat. Then add frying oil. While waiting, prepare a setting of dripping tray/mesh and get a cutting tool(i.e scissor dabbed with oil or cake scratch)

Step 7

When oil is hot, adjust heat to low. Depend on your pot/pan size, divide gluten roll in to 3-4 batches for frying.

Step 8

Use a scissor or non-stick cake scratch to cut gluten roll into thin slices and drop them straight into frying pot. Be careful to avoid splatter. Just make sure the slices are thin enough.

Step 9

Gluten slices will be expand enormously in hot oil, when so, turn them over to fry the other sides.

Step 10

When both sides are lightly fried, quickly transfer them over to the dripping mesh tray.

Step 11

Repeat and continue to fry the next batch.

Step 12

(Optional) Shake, squeeze or rinse the fried gluten pieces with water to wash off excessive oil if need.

Step 13

In a stockpot on medium/high heat, add fried gluten, all seasoning, and vegetable broth (used store-bought or as the recipe above).

Step 14

Bring the pot to boil, when boil adjusts heat source to low, and keep simmering for at least 30 minutes to 1 hour (with the lid on) to let gluten absorbs all the flavor. You can also use a slow cooker for attention-free.

Step 15

After enough absorption/hot soak time, you may increase heat to reduce the liquid to about 2/3 of what was original.

Step 16

Once done, you can serve this braised gluten immediately or let cool at room temperature before preserving (chill in fridge/freezer) for future meal/cooking.