Buddha's Delight / Nam Yee Loh Hon Chai 南乳罗汉斋

Buddha's Delight / Nam Yee Loh Hon Chai 南乳罗汉斋

 Recipe source :  Y3K Magazine, Issue No. 71, 3/4 - 2-013 (Boon's Little Kitchen)

I wanted to expand my repertoire on cooking vegetarian dishes. This is to cater for the days when we need to observe a strict vegetarian diet, for example the birthdays of Goddess of Mercy or some other Buddhist ceremonies. In the past, for days which we were required to be vegetarians, we often ended up boiling plain porridge and eating canned vegetarian food. I have been lagging far behind where cooking vegetarian food is concerned. Something which I intend to remedy in the near future. 

Loh Hon Chai is a well known vegetarian dish of Buddhist cuisine. Some people called this dish the Buddha's Delight. There are many variations to cooking this wonderful dish which consists of various vegetables cooked together. 

Today, I am trying out this Loh Hon Chai recipe using nam yee, a reddish fermented bean curd  with a distinct flavour which is unique.  

Fermented red bean curd

Ingredients A

6 slices ginger
2 cubes nam yee ( reddish fermented bean curd )
2 tbsp cooking oil
400ml water

 

Ingredients B

200g Chinese cabbage, cut into pieces
100g carrot, cut into slices
8 mushrooms, soaked until soft and marinate with 1 tsp oil and 1 tsp sugar
30g dried lily bubs, soaked and squeeze dry
2 long bean curd sticks, soaked and cut into sections
10g cloud ears or wan yee in Cantonese
150g broccoli, cut into small florets
20g glass noodles, soaked until soft and drained 

 Top left:  cloud ears. Top right : mushrooms

Bottom left : carrot slices. Bottom right :  lily buds

 Broccoli florets

 Chinese cabbage

 Glass noodles, some called this cellophane noodles

 Soaked bean curd sticks

Seasonings

1 tbsp nam yee liquid
2 tbsp vegetarian oyster sauce
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt

Method

1.  Heat a pot with 1000ml water. Add 1/2 tsp salt, 1 tsp sugar and 1 tsp oil. Bring to a boil then blanch the broccoli for 1 minute. Drain.
2.  Heat wok with 2 tbsp soil. Saute ginger slices. Then add nam yee cubes and fry well.
3.  Add in the first 6 items of ingredients B. Fry well.
4.  Add seasonings and water.When it comes to a boil, add in the glass noodles. Continue to simmer for another 5 minutes or until almost dry.
5.  Lastly add in the blanched broccoli. Mix well.
6.  Dish up and serve. 

    

I am linking this post to My Treasured Recipes # 3 - Taste of Autumn (Oct/Nov 2014)

Hosted by Miss B of Everybody Eats Well In Flanders and 

co-hosted by Charmaine of Mimi Bakery House

I am linking this post to Cook-Your-Book-#18

Hosted by Joyce of Kitchen Flavours

GL's Cooking : Stir-Fried Bok Choy With Glass Noodle 小白菜炒冬粉

GL's Cooking : Stir-Fried Bok Choy With Glass Noodle 小白菜炒冬粉

My daughter, GL works far away from home. Whenever she misses home-cooked food, she would try her hands at cooking. Sometimes she shares her culinary attempts with me. I am happy that she has inherited our love for good food and cooking. 

I would like to share her innovation to make do with substituted ingredients to re-create some of the home-cooked dishes which she misses so much. Today she cooked Stir-Fried Bok Choy With Glass Noodle

 

  GL's cooking : Looks great !

She substituted dried shrimps with 12 pieces of dried scallops. The dish looks great and I'd bet that it tasted wonderful, especially with the 12 pieces of dried scallops.  If  I  may comment, I think it would be better if she added another 1/2 a bowl of water to it because it looks too dry.

 

My previous post : Stir-Fried Bok Choy With Glass Noodle

Glass Noodle Soup With Dried Scallops, Minced Pork & Cherry Tomatoes 粉丝肉碎蕃茄汤

Glass Noodle Soup With Dried Scallops, Minced Pork & Cherry Tomatoes 粉丝肉碎蕃茄汤

 

Recipe Source :  Adapted from Lisa Magazine

 
I have earmarked this recipe for a long, long time but I just got round to trying it out today. I was flipping through my collection of cookbooks, magazines and newspaper cuttings looking for something nice to cook, a dish that uses tomatoes as I wanted to participate in  Little Thumbs Up . Their  theme for March is "tomato". I guess this dish would be perfect for March as it uses cherry tomatoes. 

SK, YS and I, gave the thumbs up to this glass noodle soup!

Ingredients

50g dried scallops (soak and shred)
120g glass noodle (soak till soft, drain and set aside)
200g minced pork
1 thumb-sized piece of ginger
1200 ml of chicken stock
120 g cherry tomatoes
1 tbsp cooking oil 

Marinade For Minced Pork

1 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp oil
1 tbsp cornflour
1 tbsp water

Marinate the minced pork with the above marinade ingredients for 15 minutes. 

Marinated pork

 Shredded scallops

 Halved cherry tomatoes

Instructions

1.  Soak the dried scallops until soft. Shred into thin pieces. Set aside.

2.  Soak the glass noodles until soft. Drain dry and set aside.

3.  Wash the cherry tomatoes. Remove the stems and cut them into halves.

4.  Cut the ginger into thin slices.

5.  Marinate the minced pork with the marinade ingredients for 15 minutes. Set aside.

6.  Heat 1 tbsp cooking oil in a wok. Saute the ginger slices and add in the marinated minced pork.

7.  Stir-fry the minced pork until it is broken up and its colour turn whitish.

8.  Add in the stock and bring to the boil.

9.  Add in the glass noodles and cherry tomatoes.

10. Once it boils again, switch off the flame.

11.  Serve immediately.

 This event is linked to Little Thumbs Up

The event is organised by  Zoe of Bake For Happy Kids  and Mui Mui of My Little Favourtie DIY

 

The theme for the month of March is "tomato" and the host for March is Mui Mui of My Little Favourite DIY

Steamboat 火锅

Steamboat 火锅

Setting the table and getting the food ready for the steamboat dinner

Steamboat is my family's favourite choice for reunion dinner. We like our steamboat light and easy after a heavy lunch of steamed chicken and various meat dishes which were prepared for ancestral worship. Steamboat is pretty easy to prepare and there is literally no "slaving over the hot stove".  It  largely involves cleaning and washing vegetables and getting our favourite seafood items together on the dinner table. The "cooking" is done by dipping pieces of food into the hot boiling stock. If you are particular about sauces, then you have to make your own chili sauces or ginger sauces. As for my family and I, it is just cutting a couple of chili padi and squeezing the juice from one small lime into the chili padi and soya sauce. This chili padi and lime sauce is a great dipping sauce for seafood. 

Ingredients

2 litres of clear chicken stock
10 medium-sized prawns
2 cuttle fish ( the pre-soaked variety )
2 tins of canned abalone
30 pieces of sui-kow dumplings
1 kg jelly fish, soaked one day in advance. You need to change the water several times

1 can of sea asparagus

1 packet of bottle-shaped mushrooms ( or Hang Pau Koo in Cantonese ) 
2 packets of inoki mushrooms

1 handful of glass noodles, soak in water until soft

4 large leaves of Wong ngah pak, wash and cut into sections

1 small head of Chinese cabbage, wash and cut into bite-sized pieces

1 small head of lettuce, wash and cut into halves

2 stalks of Chinese celery, wash and cut into sections

Chili Sauce

8 chili padi, cut into small pieces
1 small lime, squeeze out the juice
2 tbsp soya sauce

Mix the ingredients together and you'll get a hot, and sour sauce

 Canned baby abalone

A plate of wrapped sui-kow dumplings. You can read up my previous post on how to make sui-kow dumplings

 2 pre-soaked cuttle fish, cut into small pieces

Canned sea asparagus

 A handful of glass noodles, soaked in water until soft

 Medium-sized prawns, trimmed and washed

 3 bottle-shaped mushrooms, cut into thin slices

Inoki mushrooms

Chinese cabbage on the left and lettuce on the right

Bottom : Chinese celery cut into sections

 

Jelly fish, soaked overnight and cut into small pieces

4 leaves of wong ngah pak, cut into sections

Place the steamboat over the gas stove

Instructions

 

1.  Prepare all the ingredients and place them around the steamboat.
2.  Fill the steamboat to two-thirds full of clear chicken stock
3.  Place the steamboat over the gas stove and bring the stock to the boil.
4.  Add pieces of the above ingredients into the stock and boil them until cooked.
5.  Dip the cooked food into the chili dipping sauce
6.  Enjoy !


Note :  You can use store-bought chili sauces of your choice, tomato sauce, hoi sin sauce or just plain soya sauce. 

Stir-Fried Bok Choy With Glass Noodle 小白菜炒粉丝

Stir-Fried Bok Choy With Glass Noodle 小白菜炒粉丝

 

Simple home cooking

It's always crowded in the wet market on Sundays, so crowded that we could not find a space to park our car. SK had to stop at the roadside while I went across the road to buy something to cook for lunch and dinner. The stalls were jam-packed with people, one could hardly squeeze through. Not wanting to get stuck in the crowd of people, I decided to cook simple food today. I bought bok choy, chicken, spring onion and parsley, all readily available along the edge of the market close to the roadside. 

I decided to cook the bok choy with glass noodle and dried shrimps. 

Ingredients

150g bok choy
30g glass noodle
30g dried shrimps
1 1/2 bowls water
1 tbsp minced garlic
2 tbsp cooking oil
3/4 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar

 Soak glass noodle in water until soft. Drain dry and set aside

 Wash bok choy and cut into sections of 6 cm

Soak dried shrimps in water for 10 to 15 minutes. Drain dry and set aside

Instructions

1.  Heat a wok until hot. Add in cooking oil.
2.  Saute the minced garlic until fragrant and add in the dried shrimps. Stir-fry for 1 minute.
3.. Add in the bok choy and fry over high heat for 2 minutes.
4.  Add in 1 1/2 bowls of water and add in glass noodles. Let it simmer for about 4 to 5 minutes.
5.  Add salt and sugar to taste.
6.   Switch off the flame and dish up.

Clay-pot Drunken Prawns 瓦煲醉虾

  Clay-pot Drunken Prawns 瓦煲醉虾

 

 Steaming hot and delicious soup!

Years ago, SK and I used to patronise one eatery in Brickfields in Kuala Lumpur. The eatery was a very popular diner among my colleagues. One of the major attractions was the drunken prawns cooked in a clay-pot. The eatery was not housed in a shop like a regular restaurant yet it was pricey. But the food was good. I remember there were lots of ginger in the soup, too much ginger actually and here is the replica.

Ingredients

 

300g medium-sized prawns ( leave the heads and shells intact )
50g glass noodles, soaked in water until softened, drained and set aside.
50g black fungus, soaked in water until softened and cut into bite-sized pieces
1 stalk spring onion, cut into sections of 5 cm
1 stalk Chinese parsley, cut into sections of 5 cm
4 tbsp shao hsing wine
1 tbsp minced garlic
1 tbsp ginger, finely shredded
700ml chicken stock
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp cooking oil

Instructions

1.  Heat a clay-pot. Add 2 tbsp cooking oil and saute the minced ginger and garlic until it becomes aromatic.
2.  Add  the chicken stock and bring it to the boil.
3.  Add  the black fungus and cook until it boils again.
4.  Add  the prawns and boil for 3 minutes.
5.  Add  the shao hsing wine and glass noodles.
6.  Lastly, add in the salt, spring onions and Chinese parsley.
7.  Switch off the flame and serve immediately.

 

Stir-Fried Glass Noodles (Tang Hoon) 炒粉丝

Stir-Fried Glass Noodles ( Tang Hoon ) 炒粉丝

 Simply delicious!

Ingredients

 

100g glass noodles ( soak for 20 minutes until soft. Drain and set aside ) 
150g pork slices
100g shrimps  ( after shelling and with the veins removed )
15g Chinese celery ( cut into sections )
20g spring onion ( cut into sections )
2 tbsp cooking oil
1 tbsp minced garlic

Pork Marinade

 

1/2 tsp shao hsing wine
1 tsp cornflour

Add wine to the pork slices in a bowl. Mix well. Then add cornflour and mix thoroughly. Set aside for later use.

Sauce Ingredients

 

1 1/2 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp dark soy sauce
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 Chinese rice bowl water

Dissolve all the sauce ingredients in a large bowl 

 Chinese celery and spring onions

 Soaked glass noodles

Marinated pork slices and shrimps

Instructions

1.  Heat 2 tbsp cooking oil in a wok and saute minced garlic till fragrant.
2.  Add in the sauce ingredients and bring to a boil over medium fire
3.  Add in the pork slices and cook for 3 minutes. Then add in the shrimps to cook for 1 minute, stirring all the time.
4.  Add the glass noodles and use a pair of long bamboo chopsticks to stir until almost dry.
5.  Add the Chinese celery and spring onions  and keep stirring for 1 to 2 minutes
6.  Dish up and serve immediately