Jai (齋) Vegetable Dish
A Cantonese-style new year, or every day dish
Servings: 4 servings
Cost: $5
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup cooking oil (plus more)
- 1 bundle (2 oz) dry bean thread noodles
- 3 oz dried bean curd sheet, lightly broken up to about 2 in x 8 in strips (about 2 loose cups worth)
- 2 large dried shiitake mushroom, soaked
- 1 tsp soy sauce
- 1/2 tsp sugar
- 2 cloves garlic, smashed
- 1/2 cup cloud ear fungus, soaked
- 1/2 cup dried black moss (fat choy) soaked
- 1/4 cup dried red dates (jujube) soaked and pitted
- 1 can baby corn, drained and sliced lengthwise
- 1/4 cup water
- 1/2 head green cabbage (about 2 cups) chopped
- 10-12 stalks chinese broccoli (gai lan) washed and chopped
- 3 Tbsp oyster sauce
- 1 tsp salt
Instructions
- Start by prepping all the ingredients because the cooking process is fast.
- Drain the mushrooms. Slice them, discard the stems. Marinate them with soy sauce and sugar.
- Heat the cooking oil in a deep pot or pan over medium-high heat. Meanwhile, you can prep the noodles and dried bean curd by separating them out into small batches. Once at the steaming point (oil should show signs of steam vapor), add in the bean thread noodles a little at a time. It should take a few seconds for the noodles to start puffing up and sizzling. When the noodles are mostly puffy, remove from the pot and set aside. Repeat until the noodles and bean curd are all fried. Take care not to burn or over fry the bean curd. Continue to more oil to the pan between batches, as necessary.
- Add oil to a large pan and set it on medium-high heat. Reuse the oil from previous if any left.
- Add the mushrooms and let them cook for 2 minutes. Then add the garlic, cloud ear fungi, hair moss and red dates. Give it a good stir.
- Add the fried bean curd and noodles. This will help them to fully cook and absorb more liquid. Add the baby corn and 1/4 cup water and cover. Cook on medium for about 5 minutes, until everything starts to take up less volume.
- Then add the leafy greens, ingredients that take less time to cook. First add the green cabbage. Cover the pan again and cook for another 3-4 minutes. Add a couple more tablespoons of water as it evaporates and gets absorbed by the vegetables. Stir it around every minute or so to help evenly cook the cabbage.
- Lastly, add in the chinese broccoli. Cover and cook for 3 minutes, until the leaves appear dark green and lightly wilted. Stir to mix everything together. Add oyster sauce and salt to taste. Plate and enjoy!
Notes
- You can definitely mix and match amount of ingredients, as long as you make sure to taste test as you go!
- Bean curd sheets are also sold as tofu skins and is a soy product
- Dried shiitake mushrooms often have more flavor than fresh. It takes about 15 minutes to really soak them back to life