Skip to main content

Vegetarian Dish aka 'Jai Choy'


 It's customary for my family to observe a vegetarian diet on the first day of the lunar Chinese New Year.  This mixed veggie is not a stir-fry dish but sort of 'braised' till all the ingredients, especially the mushrooms have been infused with the flavourful 'nam yee' and oyster sauce.



  

Dried shitake mushrooms that have been soaked and cut up, and softened glass vermicelli.
Bean curd puffs that have been halved, crushed ginger and 'nam yee' or preserved bean curd paste.

  

Washed and cut 'wong ngah bak', Chinese cabbage.  
Bean curd sheets that have been deep fried.


All the ingredients simmering in the wok. 


  
My favourite is the deep fried bean curd sheets.  They still maintain a bit of crunchiness even though they've been cooked and the 'juicy' bean curd puffs that have absorbed all the flavours of the sauce...... Delicious!

Recipe for Vegetarian dish aka 'Jai Choy'

Ingredients
  • 80 gm, about 12 pieces dried Shitake mushrooms - soaked and stems cut off 
  • 550 gm Wong Ngah Pak/Chinese cabbage - cut
  • 180 gm bean curd puffs - cut
  • 200 gm dried bean curd sheets - deep fried
  • 1 piece Nam Yee/preserved bean curd
  • 30 gm ginger - crushed
  • 100 gm glass vermicelli - soaked
  • 1 Tbsp vegetarian oyster sauce
  • Oil for frying/deep frying
  • Salt and sugar to taste
Preparation
  1. Heat up some oil in a wok.  Break up the bean curd sheets and deep fry, take out and drain.  Set aside.
  2. In the same wok, heat up 1 tbsp of oil, saute the crushed ginger with the cut mushrooms.  Fry for a while and add in the cut vegetables.  Stir-fry for a while and add in some water to cover the vegetables and mushrooms.
  3. Break up the nam yee, add in some water to make a paste and add this in together with the vegetarian oyster sauce.
  4. Add in the deep fried bean curd sheet and let it simmer till the mushrooms are soft.
  5. Add in the glass vermicelli and bean curd puffs.  You may need to add in some water at this juncture as both these items are very absorbent.  Simmer for a while.
  6. Add some sugar and salt to taste.
  7. Dish out and serve.
Note :  This dish tastes much better when it's cooked a day before.

Comments

  1. Oh yep...nothing beats a vegetarian treat on the first day of CNY!

    ReplyDelete
  2. A nice vegetarian dish it looks so good! Happy Lunar New Year!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. We had this at a restaurant yesterday and it was the worst lo hon jai I ever had, give me your delicious version anytime :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Angie
    Yes, after a great feast at the reunion dinner.

    Thanks, Lyndsey

    3 hungry tummies
    Oh Yes, I've cooked quite a fair bit and stocked some in the freezer.

    ReplyDelete
  5. this is a must during the 1st day of cny in my mum's house.. :p

    ReplyDelete
  6. Gong Xi Fa Cai! We had so much food as well.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Sounds like a delicious specialty for the Chinese New Year celebration! I would love to try this!

    ReplyDelete
  8. renaclaire
    Just following mum's tradition!

    penny
    Yup, food, food and more food!

    5 Star Foodie
    This is normally practised in Buddhist/Taoist households.

    ReplyDelete
  9. That's a very delicious vegetarian dish to start off the year. A friend cooked for me once & I just fell in love with it.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Mary
    It's a favourite amongst my siblings too, after taking so much meat, seafood the night before.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Thanks for dropping by. Please click on 'Anonymous' if you do not have a blog but do leave your name after the comment because I would like to know who you are.

Popular posts from this blog

Snow Swallow Dessert ~ 天然野生雪燕

  Natural Wild Tragacanth Gum 'Snow Swallow' or Xue Yan is a gum derived from different varieties of sterculia trees.  It's actually a sap drained from the root of the plant and  the gum dries as it exudes and is then collected.  Once rehydrated will increase to about ten times in size and their white stringy, jelly like strands texture resembles that of the much prized and highly valued bird's nest.  One thing to take note when cooking this dessert is that the gum is highly soluble in water and cannot be boiled too long. Since it is 'cooling' for our internal organs, the elderlies should take this in moderation and not recommended for nursing mums for the breast milk may cause the baby to purge. Snow Swallow Dessert  ~   天然野生雪燕 Ingredients 8 gm Snow Swallow gums 10 gm red dates 10 gm goji berries 20 gm dried longan Rock or piece sugar to taste 1 litre water Pandan leaves (optional) Method Soak the Snow Swallow gums in plenty of water for at least...

Tamarind Pork Belly (Babi Assam) ~ 亚参五花肉

A very appetising dish with tangy and robust flavour of tamarind juice, red and green chillies added more oomph to the dish.  This dish will surely whet your appetite and you'll go for second helping of rice to soak up the tangy gravy.  This is a Peranakan dish but as always, there are many varieties to this delicacy.  I tweaked the recipe a bit to suit what I have in my pantry and the end result is a very yummy dish that I will not hesitate to whip up again and again. Tamarind Pork Belly (Babi Assam)  ~   亚参 五花肉 Ingredients 450 gm pork belly, cut into bite size 5 cloves of garlic, finely chopped 3 shallots, finely chopped 30 gm tamarind pulp (Assam paste)  + 250 ml water 3 green chillies 2 red chillies 2 tsp tau cheong (preserved bean paste) 2 tsp dark soya sauce 1 Tbsp brown sugar or to taste 1/2 tsp salt 1/2 tsp fish sauce 1 onion, sliced Method Mix the tamarind pulp with a cup of...

Stir-fry Razor clams with mixed vegetables

This is a quickie and easy veggie dish that I whipped up for the 'Winter Solstice' dinner ........ 'Stir-fry Razor clams with mixed vegetables'.