Star Advertiser Cabbage Beef Stew Recipe
By Ken Sakamoto, Star-Bulletin
Kwong Leong Ng, chef at Hee Hing Eating house, stir-chips jai for the new year.
Greet the Twelvemonth of the Tiger with a traditional new year's day'southward stew
By Catherine Kekoa EnomotoStar-Message
James Hon Quon Lee, co-possessor of Hee Hing Eating place, and Kwong Leong Ng, executive chef of the 35-twelvemonth-old institution, share family and restaurant recipes for jai, to heighten i's health, wealth and prosperity in the Chinese New year's day of the Tiger 4696, starting January. 28.
Their jai dishes are crunchy with water chestnuts, peanuts and fresh arrowroot; smooth with ginkgo nuts, lotus seeds and harbinger mushrooms; glutinous with long rice and wheat gluten; and savory with soy sauce, sesame oil and sticks of Chinese brown sugar.
Photo past George F. Lee, Star-Bulletin
The jai ingredients above are used in James Lee's family recipe, in the Southern Chinese way, which incorporates oysters. The significance of the ingredients comes from Lee, co-owner of Hee Hing Restaurant, and "Bruce Cost's Asian Ingredients."
"The Chinese connect the eating of meat with man'southward animal nature and think of a vegetable diet as more spiritual than ane including meat," Mary Sia wrote in her "Mary Sia's Chinese Cookbook" (University of Hawai'i Printing). "It is customary that the offset meal of the new year's day be completely vegetarian."
Added Lee, "Jai actually is the Chinese word for principle. When you say 'lo han jai,' information technology ways the 500 disciples of Buddha; so jai is really the principles of Buddha.
"Buddhism taught that y'all don't eat whatever meat and y'all don't slaughter whatsoever animals. It (jai) came to be the name of the dish. It'south strictly vegetarian food. The Taoist and Buddhist monks consume all forms of jai. Jai is a unlike form of cooking; when you say jai food, information technology'south vegetarian food."
Lee said jai varies from region to region in China. Northern Chinese jai is spicy with chiles and contains wheat gluten in identify of out-of-flavor vegetables. Southern Chinese jai is a milder stir-fry repleat with greens, such as won bok and snow peas.
Although jai is traditionally vegetarian, the Lee family unit recipe contains oysters.
"A true Buddhist won't eat oysters. Information technology'southward live seafood," said Lee, whose father, the late Kin Ball Lee, emigrated to Hawaii from County in 1940. "Merely in Southern China, the Chinese word for oyster is ho-see, which has the connotation of a good thing; so all Southern Chinese jai will have oysters."
Besides smoky dried oysters, jai can feature chewy bamboo shoots, lily flowers and bamboo piths. These contrast with the darker shiitake, blackness tree-ear mucus and hairy blackness moss. Leafy, green won bok and orange carrot coins add splashes of color.
The fresh ginkgo nut, at $7.50 a pound, is i of the most expensive ingredients.
"At home nosotros use fresh ginkgo basics, because nosotros got a lot of time to crack each nut, but at the restaurant we have to use canned ones," said Lee, 41, the financial architect behind Hee Hing, as well as four of Sam Choy's v restaurants.
"Most of the Chinese groceries sell fresh ginkgo nuts. A couple stores sell all the New Year's jai ingredients - like Hing Mau, Shun Fat Cheong at the corner of Male monarch and Kekaulike streets, and Bo Wah. They have all the ingredients, including fresh water chestnuts and fresh arrowroot. All of that is fix for purchase."
Lee estimated that after shopping, jai preparation takes an hr and a half.
"Once you lot become all the ingredients together, to soak and cut everything takes ane hour, and actual cooking takes another 25 minutes to half an hour. I cook jai on New year's day's morning time. I try to get it fix before the (2) kids head out for schoolhouse. We all get together and at least have traditional jai for breakfast; then they're off and running. I usually get upwards almost 5 o'clock and first cooking.
"My whole family - my brother and his kids, my sis and their kids - nosotros have jai. At least we exercise something together for the Chinese New Year."
The Lee family unit version of jai follows, forth with Hee Hing Eating place takes on jai and another traditional Chinese New Year's dish, steamed chicken and ham with mustard cabbage greens.
On New Twelvemonth's eve and twenty-four hour period, the eating house features a lion trip the light fantastic at half dozen:15 p.m. and an improvident 10-course family unit carte for $19 to $23 per person - with jai, of class.
"I attempt to eat it for two or three days later," said lawyer cum restaurateur cum home chef Lee. "I beloved jai, it's good with hot rice."
Lee family jai (in a higher place)
6 cups waterBoil 6 cups h2o, add together brown sugar and prepare aside to deliquesce.
i/2 pound Chinese dark-brown carbohydrate sticks
1/2 cup raw peanuts
two-ounce bundle long rice (dried mung-bean thread)
1 ounce black tree-ear fungus
1 ounce dried lily flowers
4 ounces dried mushrooms
1 ounce stale black moss
1/4 pound fried wheat gluten
1/4 pound fried tofu (run into note)
1/four pound dried bean curd sticks (foo jook)
ii tablespoons oil
3 pieces red beancurd (about iv ounces)
vi ounces garbanzo beans
iv ounces ginkgo nuts (encounter note)
four ounces dried oyster, optional
2 cups shredded Chinese cabbage (won bok)
4 ounces sliced arrowroot (see note)
four ounces sliced water chestnuts
2 ounces snowfall peas
one tablespoon salt or to taste
To prepare dried ingredients: Soak the following in carve up bowls of warm water for fifteen minutes each: raw peanuts, long rice, black tree-ear fungus, and dried lily flowers. And then, boil raw peanuts xv minutes; drain long rice; rinse and drain blackness tree-ear fungus; rinse and bleed stale lily flowers, and cut off stems.
Soak dried mushrooms 12 minutes and discard stems.
Soak dried black moss in warm water 5 minutes, rinse and drain.
Boil wheat gluten in water two minutes; drain.
Boil fried tofu in water i minute; drain.
Soak bean-curd sticks in water, then cutting in 3-inch lengths.
To stir-fry jai: In a wok, heat oil, add together red bean curd, then stir and intermission up curd. Fold in peanuts, black tree ears, dried lily flowers, bean-curd sticks, garbanzo beans, ginkgo nuts and oysters, if used. Stir-fry 2 minutes.
To braise jai: Add chocolate-brown-sugar liquid and bring to boil. Add long rice, black moss, gluten, tofu, Chinese cabbage, arrowroot and water chestnuts. Bring to eddy, lower heat and simmer 20 to thirty minutes, adding water if needed.
Add together Chinese peas and salt to taste. Lower heat. Makes 12 ane-cup servings.
Note: If prepared fried tofu is unavailable, fry tofu according to instructions in lo han jai recipe, beneath. Fresh water chestnuts, fresh arrowroot and fresh ginkgo basics are available in Chinatown during Chinese New year's day's.
Hee Hing'southward Buddha's delight (lo han jai)
1/4 cup black tree-ear fungusIn separate bowls of warm water, soak the post-obit for xv minutes each, so rinse and drain: blackness tree-ear fungus, dried snowfall fungus, dried bean-curd stick, stale bamboo piths, and long rice.
1/iv loving cup dried snowfall fungus
3 ounces stale bean-curd stick
2 ounces dried bamboo piths
2 ounces long rice (dried mung-edible bean thread)
1 loving cup vegetable oil
8 ounces fresh tofu (bean curd), cut in 1-inch cubes
4 cups shredded won bok (Chinese cabbage)
1/2 cup sliced carrots
1/two cup bamboo shoots
3 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons sugar
iii cups water
1/2 cup black mushrooms, soaked and rinsed
1/2 cup straw mushrooms
1/2 cup raw peanuts
1 teaspoon sesame oil
Table salt to taste
In a wok or skillet, heat vegetable oil over medium-high heat to 375 degrees. Deep-fry fresh tofu squares for five minutes or until gold. Remove and drain tofu on paper towels. Pour off all just one/4 cup oil.
Reheat wok to medium heat. Add together won bok, carrots and bamboo shoots; stir-fry 1 minute.
Add together black tree-ear fungus, snow fungus, bean curd sticks, bamboo piths, long rice, fried tofu, soy sauce and carbohydrate. Toss to mix well.
Add 3 cups h2o, black mushrooms, straw mushrooms and raw peanuts. Return to a boil, reduce heat to medium-low, encompass and simmer 20 minutes or until vegetables are tender and flavors absorbed. Season with sesame oil and salt. Serves 6 or more than.
Steamed craven and ham with mustard cabbage
ane/2 chicken, about one-1/2 poundsCombine marinade ingredients and rub mixture over craven.
iii ounces Virginia ham, cutting into 2-by-1/2-inch strips
3 to 4 tablespoons peanut oil
6 to 8 mustard-cabbage stems
Salt to gustation, optional
1 cup water
i tablespoon Chinese rice wine
1 teaspoon sesame oil
i teaspoon salt
1-i/2 cups chicken stock
1 tablespoon light soy sauce
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 teaspoon carbohydrate
1 teaspoon Chinese rice wine
Boil water in a big pan, place a rack in the eye and steam chicken over medium estrus 18 to twenty minutes. Remove craven.
Chop cooled chicken into ii-by-i/ii-inch pieces. Arrange on a serving platter, alternating chicken and ham.
In a wok or skillet, heat 2 to three tablespoons of the peanut oil. Add mustard cabbage and stir-fry xxx seconds. Add together salt and water, and cook over medium heat 3 minutes. Remove, drain and arrange cabbage beside chicken and ham.
Combine sauce ingredients thoroughly. In a wok, rut remaining 1 to 2 tablespoons oil. Add sauce mixture and bring to a eddy. Pour sauce over meat and mustard cabbage. Serves iv to six.
Torso & Soul section indicates calculations by Joannie Dobbs of
Exploring New Concepts, a nutritional consulting firm.
Source: http://archives.starbulletin.com/98/01/14/features/story1.html