Poon Choy Diaries - Part One

The cantonese call it 'Poon Choy' and it's also known as 'pen cai' in mandarin. I first tried it almost 2 years ago with some colleagues at Crystal Jade. I thought it was worth the shot in making this dish since it's basically a smorgasbord of chinese delicacies all layered in a single claypot. My attempt last Lunar New Year made it look more like "Buddha Jumps Over The Wall" dish. This year, I'm attempting it again and I'll spend alittle bit more effort in learning from last year's 'mistake'. I'll specifically cook each layer and then separate them out carefully to achieve that 'layering' effect at the final presentation. I shall call this concoction the 'Munn Choy', coz 'munn' in cantonese sounds like 'braising', and I intend to prepare the dish like so.

To start the ball rolling, I prepared the first layer today with the hopes that keeping the mixtured broth overnight would make it tastier tomorrow (in time for tomorrow night's prematured reunion dinner):

Ingredients for first layer: pork belly, dried oysters, shitake mushrooms, button mushrooms (not shown), cinnamon bark and star anise spice (not shown)

Stir fry the pork belly until fragrant and slightly crispy. Make sure wok is hot (that means heating the wok for a couple of minutes before throwing pork belly into wok)

Then throw in the dried oysters (washed), and stir fry with pork belly.

Add water, shitake mushrooms, button mushrooms and the spices into the wok and braise the mixture. Oh yes, cover the wok.

I transferred the mixtured broth into a vacuum pot to cook it further (and overnight).

Stay tuned for tomorrow's Poon Choy Diaries......