Cooking 7: Lunar New Year Homemade "Pen Cai" Recipe that could save you at least $200 SGD!

Hello, my fellow steemians~

It's been a week since I posted due to the Lunar New Year. Going back to hometown, gathering with families that are finally home from all around the world. Celebrating the precious time together, eating and catching up all the conversations that have been done for a million years.

Anyway, if we are speaking about Lunar New Year, we often celebrate it with tons and tons of dishes. But, the signature one is the ultimate "Pen Cai (盆菜)"

"Pen Cai" is a traditional one-pot Chinese dish of Cantonese origin, cooked in a clay-pot and braised with an assortment of seafood delicacies that fit for the Emporer at the ancient time by including all the luxurious seafood such as abalone, scallops and giant prawns. In Chinese believe, eating "Pen Cai" signifies abundance and prosperity in for the year.

Source

"Pen Cai" also uses different auspicious ingredients that symbolize different good luck to a person.

For Example,

• Prawns symbolized laughter & happiness because it's pronounced to be "Ha" in Cantonese
• Dried moss (Fat Choi) symbolized prosperity
• Daikon symbolized increasing growth
• Luxury ingredients like abalone, scallops, clams, fish maws, sea cucumbers symbolized high status and abundance of wealth
• Red dates & Goji Berries the red ingredients that symbolized good fortune

Ingredients:
Servings: 4 pax

Broth:

• 1 litre of water
• 300 ml abalone broth
• 2 tablespoons of oyster sauce
• 2 tablespoons abalone sauce
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 teaspoon cooking wine
• 1 teaspoon soy sauce
• pinch of salt & pepper to taste
• a handful of goji berries & red dates

Braise Ingredients:

• 300grams Napa Cabbage (depending on your liking)
• 200 grams razor clams
• 1 big daikon ( cut into 5 cm thick pieces)
• 2 sea cucumbers (chopped into small pieces)
• 2 grams fat choy (dried moss, rinsed with running water)
• 4 big dried oysters
• 4 big dried scallops
• 8 Shitake mushrooms ( soaked in water)
• 8 XXXL Prawns (Non-peeled)
• 10 Fresh Scallops
• 80g fish maws (Blanch until soften)

Method:

1.Blanch Napa cabbage, daikon, fish maws, dried oyster and dried scallop until soft.

2.Use the blanch broth to make the sauce by adding all the measure broth ingredients into the pot for 10 minutes.

3.Layer blanched napa cabbage & daikon at the bottom of the pot so that it will absorb the sauce.

4.After sauces starting to boil, add all the ingredients into the pot.

5.Let all ingredients to braise for at least 30 minutes and it's ready to serve.

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