Sluttishly Vegetarian: Deep fried bean curd pancakes with yellow bean sauce

Duck rocks. No question. But sometimes the rich flavours and tendency towards fattiness can be a little much. If you fancy going a little Oriental but with a lighter finish, then you'll love this recipe.

My lovely friend Simon grew up in Thailand, and learned to cook there. One festive season in our (very) early 20s we spent Christmas day together. A very drunken, very gluttonous Christmas. He made this as a starter. It was glorious. Simon's been off travelling around the globe working the sailing circuit the past few years, but he's back in town and I managed to corner him and get him to tell me his lovely recipe (I was far too inebriated to remember the first time around!). In exchange I had to promise to edit his novel for free ... but, boy, was it worth it.

You'll need:

• 200g tofu
• One lime
• Fresh ginger (grated)
• Soy sauce
• Spring onion
• Cucumber
• Thai-style pancakes
• Yellow bean sauce

Make it!

• Marinate your tofu in the soy sauce, fresh ginger and lime juice overnight.
• Slice your spring onion and cucumber into fine thin batons.
• Rip the tofu into pieces and deep fry in vegetable oil for about five minutes.
• Take the tofu out of the oil and blot well with kitchen roll.
• Compose your pancake rolls by placing the strips of spring onion and cucumber onto a pancake (heat the pancakes in a lidded plastic container with a corner cut off for five seconds in the microwave before serving), add the tofu strips and top with room temperature yellow bean sauce.
• Roll and serve.