My late mum used to make a Chinese vegetarian dish (Loh Hon Jai) on the first day of Chinese New Year. I
have not eaten this dish for a long time until my next door neighbour, Richard and Jeanie shared it with me.
The dish brought back so much sweet memories and Im really grateful to Richard and Jeanie for sharing the
recipe with me.
Ingredients
Fresh oyster mushrooms
Dried shiitake mushrooms, reconstituted or fresh shiitake mushrooms
Cloud ear mushrooms, reconstituted
Cabbages, blanched
Fried gluten (mien gen), blanched to remove excess oil
Can fried gluten, remove top later of oil but reserve the liquid
Fried tofu puff, the rectangular type
Fried bean curd stick, blanched until soft
Bean curd skin, lightly fried
Vemicelli (tung fen), cooked in boiling water for 2 minutes and rinse off in cold water
Shanghai bean curd, red (lam yue), mushed up to dissolve in some water and strain if necessary
Corn starch solution
few cloves of garlic, chopped
You may any mushrooms in season or can mushroom like straw mushroom, button mushroom, inoki
mushroom, etc. The Shanghai red bean curd can be substituted with oyster sauce.
nstructions
The night before, reconstitute the dried mushrooms like cloud ear, dried shiitake mushrooms and lily bud (if
using). Keep the water for reconstituting the shiitake mushroom for use in the cooking later.
Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Blanch the cabbage
until soften. Use the same pot of water to cook the
vermicelli. Lastly, blanch the fried gluten, fried tofu
puff and fried bean curd stick to remove excess oil.
On medium heat, heat a few tablespoons of oil in a
large wok and fry the chopped garlic until fragrant but
not burn. Remove the garlic for returning to the dish
later.
Stir fry all the mushrooms, with the hardy ones in first
for a few minutes. Season with white pepper.
Then add in the blanched fried gluten, tofu puff, bean
curd skin, garlic and the can fried gluten together with
the liquid in the can. Also add the shiitake mushrooms
soaking water and continue to stir fry. Season with
more white pepper. The dish can be frozen at this
point.
Next, the cabbage and the cloud ear mushrooms go in.
Stir fry for another few minutes to combine well.
Season the dish with the Shanghai red bean curd
mixtures or oyster sauce. Add more water if needed so
that there is enough liquid in the dish.
Thicken the sauce with some corn starch solutions.
Lastly, toss in the cooked vermicelli and mix well. Add
salt to taste.
Buttermilk Fried Chicken
Ingredients:
3 1/2 pound chicken, cut in 8 pieces
1 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp cayenne
1/2 tsp white pepper
1 tsp ground dried herbs (oregano, thyme, rosemary, sage)
2 cups buttermilk
*marinate 6 hrs in the fridge
for the seasoned flour:
2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp cayenne
1/2 tsp white pepper
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp onion powder
2 1/2 quarts peanut oil for frying
Fry at 350F for about 20 25 mins in total
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