I have been listening to many health and longevity-related podcasts, and everything leads to a plant-based diet. This leads me to think of my go-to Chinese Vegetarian dish 南乳炆齋, Fermented Beancurd Vegetarian Stew. Buddhists also eat this dish during the 1st and 15th of each month, especially Chinese New Year. This Buddhist tradition pays respect to the Buddha and generates good karma twice a month by not killing animals.
Originating from Guangdong, I remember my Grandma buying these long cabbages and hanging them for a few days before CNY. Then, on New Year's Eve, they would make a big pot of this dish, and we would eat it for 2-3 days. The longer it sits, the more the taste of the Namyu permeates all the vegetables. This is probably the only vegetarian dish I always return for seconds.
The Key ingredient, Nam Yu 南乳, also known as Red Fermented BeanCurd, is like blue cheese for the Chinese. Specifically, Red Beancurd is made with a special kind of Red fermented rice, along with rich Xiuhing Chinese wine, and fermented for over six months to create this special flavour.
You can put almost any veggie you like in this dish. But the main attraction is Bean curd-related products such as Fried Tofu and beancurd sheets. Then you have a variety of fungi, like snow and wood fungi and mushrooms. These items are great because they soak up all the flavor from the beancurd. You must also have 紹菜, which is a form of cabbage, some carrots for color and sweetness, and I like bamboo for crunch.
南乳炆齋 Red Beancurd Vegetarian Stew Recipe (Vegan)
Ingredients:
3 tablespoons of Red Beancurd with 1 table spoon of red sauce, mashed into paste
2 tablespoon of chopped ginger
1 large Snow fungas, soaked and cut into bite size pieces
1/2 cup of dried woodear, soaked and cut into bite size pieces
3 shitake mushrooms, fresh or dried, soaked and cut into slices
1 cup other mushrooms of your choice, cut into bite size
1 medium size carrot, cut into 1.5 by 1inch slices
1 cup of bamboo shoots
10 pieces of deep fried Tofu or Firm Tofu
10 pieces of Deep fried Tofu sheets
1/2 cup Edamame
Half a Napa Cabbage about 4 cups cut into bite size
1 bag of Vemechilli, soak in water
Seasoning for sauce:
1 tablespoon of Sugar
1 tablespoon of Oyster sauce (Vegetarian option)
1 tablespoon of good quality soy sauce
1 tablespoon of rice wine
1 tablespoon of cornstarch
1/2 cup water
Procedure:
In a large wok, prepare some boiling water and a dash of salt
Start with all the Vegetables and mushrooms and blanch each vegetable for 2 minutes until water comes back to a boil
Drain and reserve for later use
Then add beancurd items, blanch, and squeeze extra liquid out of the Tofu to remove excess water and oil. Reserve for later use
Remove water from the wok and heat wok to low medium heat
Add one tablespoon of oil and sautee diced ginger.
Add Red Beancurd paste and sautee until fragrant and then add 2 tablespoon of water
Add mushrooms and fungus and stir for 2 minutes
Add Tofu items and cook for 2 minutes
Add carrots and bamboo shoot and cook for 2 minutes
Reduce heat and let it cook for 15 minutes until tofu sheet is tender
Add Vemichilli to soak up all the sauce and give it a through stir
Add Nappa cabbage
Mix all the sauce ingredients together in a bowl and turn the heat up to medium high
Pour in the sauce and cook until thickened.
Taste and add extra red beancurd to your liking.
This dish should not be soupy. A thick sauce is what you are looking for.
Serve Hot or leave it overnight and serve hot the next day.
Tips: Blanch all veggies to remove raw green taste and excess liquid. Keep overnight for better flavor.
Red Beancurd has good source of Microbiome and give a punchy flavor. I would highly recommend this for chinese marinade with mushrooms or meatz and great vegetarian flavour options.
With such a fragrant taste, your dish almost taste like there is meat inside. Quite addictive.
I had the pleasure to visit Mee Chun Canning Company to see some of the traditional Chinese sauces be made the traditional way. Mr. Wong Kwok Chiu from the Company explained to me that most of their long fermentation items like Nam Yu is now made in their factory in China. But they still make their traditonal soy sauce in their Hong Kong Ping Shan Factory.
I used their soy sauce to make this stew and it was delicious.
I also invited my doggie Brownie to watch me cook this dish in this episode. I made a special version of this dish without the salt and Nam yu for her, and I was amazed at how much she also enjoyed her vegetarian dish.
Special Thanks to
Mr. Wong
Kowloon Soy Company
Mee Chun Canning Company
Research and development
Calvin Lai
Video photography
Bernie and Rochelle
Intern
Anush Kasachan
#ClassicChineseCuisine #VegetarianDish #NamYu #SoySauce #CanningFactory #TraditionalAsianFood #HealthyEating #DogFoodRecipe #FoodStory #FoodHistory #AsianCooking #PlantBasedDiet #HealthyLifestyle #FoodAdventures #FoodBlogger #FoodLover