Smoky Wok

Happy Chinese New Year! It's the official first day of the Spring Festival and I hope that all of you have had a good start to the year of the Dragon.  I know this is a little late, but today's feature is an excellent dish for the festive season, (hey there are 15 days officially for Chinese New Year so perhaps, it's not too late :O), as you know at most Chinese festivities, a lot of rich (and delicious!) food is served so it is always good to serve a less meaty alternative to balance everything out.  Today's dish is a simple braised dish of mushrooms and a mixture of vegetables in abalone sauce and chicken broth.  To make it entirely vegetarian, use vegetarian oyster sauce instead and use vegetable broth in place of the chicken broth.




This is a very easy dish to whip up but do note that each ingredient is required to be stir-fried quickly on its' own first before placing everything together to braise to perfection.  This is to avoid muddled flavours and although a bit more time consuming, this step is really worth it - a big contrast to my college days when I thought just dumping everything together worked well.  I hope you like this dish and do give it a try soon!






This post is a part of my series in Yuen Chun Recipes, an ongoing project on this blog.


Serves 4-6 as part of a meal (best served with steamed rice)


Ingredients:


18 good quality shiitake mushrooms (soak the dried version for at least 2 hours in warm water) or alternatively use fresh versions but the dried versions are richer in flavour, once softened, squeeze out excess water and slice in half
3 cloves garlic, smashed
1/2 nappa cabbage, sliced to bite-sized pieces (blanch until soft)
1 bundle 'fatt choy' (black moss) - optional
6 dried lily buds (soaked in warm water for about 1 hour)



Seasoning:
4 tablespoons abalone sauce (I used Yuen Chun's)
1 1/2 cup chicken broth
1 tablespoon light soy sauce or to taste


Method:


Firstly, heat your wok until almost smoking.  Turn heat to low and add 2 tablespoons oil to swirl and coat.  Add the mushrooms and stir-fry for about 1 minute.  Remove and plate.


Lightly rinse the wok.  Heat until hot again and add oil to coat.  Add in the garlic cloves.  Stir-fry until aromatic.  Add nappa cabbage and stir-fry for about 1 minute.  Remove and plate.


Rinse the wok again.  Heat wok until almost smoking.  Turn heat to low.  Add about 3 tablespoons of oil to coat wok.  Add in the garlic with nappa cabbage, mushrooms and lily buds.  Add abalone sauce.  stir fry to coat well.


Add chicken broth and soy sauce.  Bring to a boil.  Cover and allow to simmer for about 30 minutes on low heat.  The mushrooms should have soaked up most of the liquid.  Do a taste test and add more soy sauce if required.  Finally, add in the black moss if using.  Plate and serve hot.


Note that you can make this dish as 'watery' or as dry as you like, add more chicken broth if you like and to thicken, add in a corn starch slurry of about 1 teaspoon of corn starch dissolved in 1 tablespoon water.