Nonya Chap Chai - Mixed vegetable - Blanda grönsaker

Next up, chap cai or mixed vegetable in Nonya style is what I yearned for when I want something that will give me a comforting feeling. It can be considered a vegetarian dish and while the ingredients are very simple, it somehow just hit the notes like a perfectly tuned piano, which no words can describe.

Again, this was my first time making it and I was quite happy with the result, the sort of sweet-sourish, earthly taste with the crunch of the knots of dried lily flower buds. The crucial ingredient in this dish is again the fermented beancurd, which I've used in the making of ham chim peng. The book which I took this recipe from 'Home-made Nonya' by Patsie Cheong did not specify how long to fry the mixture of beancurd and sugar for but what I did was to fry it over medium heat, stirring constantly and the mixture will be like finely minced garlic size until it is slightly brown. The smell of it when you are frying - ermm...some of you may not like it but it definitely changed for the better when you add in the vegetables.

I didn't exactly follow the recipe's recommended amount for each portion of vegetable but I estimated by visualization, but the biggest part of the dish still consist of the cabbage.

Den här är en vegetariskt rätt som ger mig bekvämlighet känslor. Rätten är lagat i Nonya stil och har en viktig ingrediens - fermented beancurd som du kan köpa på asien affärer. Jag var njöd med rätten även om det var min förstå gång att laga det.

Ingredients

500g cabbage

30g lily buds (gim zhen) soaked, and knotted

20g black wood ear, soaked and sliced thinly

30g tang hoon (transparent rice noodles), soaked

5 dried Chinese mushroom, soaked and sliced thinly

2 pieces of fried beancurd sheet

1 piece fermented bean curd

1 teaspoon sugar

2 tablespoon light soy sauce

pepper to taste

2 cups of water

Steps

1. Heat 2 tablespoon oil in a wok over medium heat and stir fry the bean curd and sugar until slightly brown and fragrant.
2. Drain the vegetables thoroughly before adding in the cabbage, lily bulbs, wood ear and mushroom and fry evenly until the cabbage is softened. Add in the tang hoon and beancurd sheet next.
3. Pour in the water, soy sauce and season with pepper and blend well with the vegetables. 
4. Cover and let it simmer over low-medium heat until all the vegetables are cooked through and slightly soft. Serve hot with rice.