Easy Treasure Pot Pen Cai Recipe 简易盆菜食谱
“Food Abundance. Fortune Abounds. In your treasure pot. 聚宝盆.”
Lunar New Year is the most celebrated religious festival for Chinese. What’s the most important during this celebration, food, of course. Plentiful of symbolical, auspicious and luxurious food will be consumed. Pen Cai is one of the must-eat dishes, especially for Cantonese dialect.
Pen Cai was originally made due to too much left-over from the fifteen days of lunar new festival. In order not to waste food, and people believed to gather all of their left over food/ ingredients in the last day of the lunar new year festival would bring them fortune and savings. Hence, people used a metal basin to contain all of their left over food and cooked altogether, called it the Pen Cai (“food in basin”). However, Pen Cai is no longer using just the “left over”, but mainly luxurious ingredients. We also use beautiful casserole, stainless steel pot, or claypot to serve our Pen Cai, too.
过年吃盆菜，不再像从前的人民，为的只是把过年15天里食用剩下的美食拼起来装进盆里煮成一道大菜，防止浪费食物…… 现在的我们，吃盆菜是为了把山珍海味变成珍贵的年菜，还把吉祥食材聚在一起，讨个好彩头，寓意着自己拥有个“聚宝盆”！
Here’s my version of Pen Cai:
Serves 5-6
Ingredients:
(Dried seafood 乾海味)
1 large piece of dried fish maw (soaked in hot water till overnight) 花胶 (花膠)
2-3 tubes deep fried fish maw 炸鱼鳔
5 dried scallops 干贝 (瑤柱)
5 dried oysters 蚝士 (蚝干)
5 dried Shiitake mushrooms, trimmed stem 花菇
Handful of black moss (fatt choy) 发菜
(Raw seafood 生海鲜)
100g Japanese scallops (frozen) 鲜带子
200g of sea cucumber, cut into chunks (either pre-soaked/ frozen/ dried) 海参
5 large fresh prawns, trimmed legs 大虾
(Vegetables 菜类)
Amount as desired 随意搭配:
Cauliflower, cut 椰菜花
Carrots, cut 萝卜
Sweet corn, cut 玉米
Broccoli florets 西兰花
Whole garlic 蒜头
1 red apple, cut 红苹果 (for cooking gravy)
(Precooked 熟食)
1 can of braised “Hong Shao” Abalone 罐头红烧鲍鱼 200g of roasted pork 烧肉
500ml of water/ chicken stock 水或鸡汤
Method:
(1) All dried seafood ingredients to be soaked in tap water, for at lease 1 hour, except for dried fish maw (must be in hot water) to be overnight.
所有干海味浸泡之前1小时，除花胶需热水泡过夜。
(2) Frozen scallops, thawed. Sea cucumber, if gutted and pre-soaked, just rinse and cut. Frozen type, thawed. Dried type, to be soaked in hot water overnight with multiple water changing process.
冷冻带子，需解冻。海参，如已经去内藏和浸泡过了，只需清洗切块。
(3) Start blanching: Blanch soaked dried fish maw, fried fish maw and sea cucumber, to get rid of anymore impurity. Blanch broccoli, to eliminate greenish taste.
热烫：浸泡后的花胶，鱼鳔和海参都得过沸水，去腥。西兰花多水，去青草味。
(4) Start braising: Pour chicken stock/ water, and abalone sauce from canned abalone into a pot. Add cut apple and whole garlic, bring them to a boil over high heat. Lower heat, add fish maw, dried oysters, dried scallops and mushroom to cook first, for about 1 – 2 hours or until soften. Then, add sea cucumber and fried fish maw, continue to simmer for another 30 min.
焖煮：在锅里加入清水，红烧汁，苹果，大火烧开。改小火，加入花胶，蚝士，干贝和花菇，慢火焖1-2小时或至煮软。再加入海参和鱼鳔，焖煮多30分钟左右。
(5) Assembling and layering Pen Cai: In your casserole (or serving pot of your choice), layer pot base with whole garlic and root vegetables, followed by Napa cabbage (or any preferred leafy veggie). Arrange fresh prawns, raw scallops, dried black moss and cooked ingredients according to your liking. Broccoli can be placed in the middle or around edges of your casserole to presentation purpose. Then, pour in gravy.
拼排入盆：把鲜虾，带子，烧肉, 发菜和煮好的食材顺序排列组合起来。蒜头，蔬菜(除菜花之外)可以铺底层，再把比较珍贵的海味和肉排列上去。菜花美观，也可以铺上层。
(6) Put whole casserole/ claypot to continue simmering for another 30min to 45min (or until root veggie well cooked). Keep pot on super low heat during meal to keep the food hot.
盆菜摆放好了，再煮上30-45分钟(或根菜煮软为止)。享用时，最好能够保持热度不断，热吃比较美味！
加了长鱼面，寓意 ~ 常有……
Different food requires different cooking duration, depending on its texture. This is to avoid over-cooking the precious ingredients.
煮食材的时间需根据食材软硬度调节，不然会煮得过熟或稀烂。
Not sure what’s difference btw dried fish maw and deep fried fish maw? Refer to my IG post now. :)
Fish maw = 花胶 = 鱼鳔？ 什么分别？现在就游览我的IG页看看吧！
Tips: Make sure clay pot/ casserole or aluminum dish tray can withstand long heating process, if not using stainless steel or metal pot.
* Keep adding water, bit by bit during the long braising process, if gravy thickens too quickly.
* Raw prawns and scallops may only be placed to cook on the last stage to avoid shrinkage due to over-cooking. This way to retain freshness and QQ mouthfeel with the seafood.
* Ingredients in your treasure pot can be added to your preference. For example: it can be roasted duck leg and/or chicken drumstick instead of just roast pork. It can be white radish instead of just carrot. Napa cabbage can be added instead of sweet corn. It depends on how large you want your treasure pot to be, and how many servings to cook. :)
温馨提示：用的砂锅或锅盆必须确保可以长时间受热。
* 如果酱汁煮得太过浓稠，可适量地加多点水。
* 以免海鲜煮的过熟，生虾和带子最后才放进锅盆里煮才能保持鲜味和韧度。
* 海味和肉类的选择可以应个人喜好加入。比如：烧肉可换成鸡腿鸭腿，萝卜可以换成大菜头，大白菜可用玉米替换，或以人数份量添加。
If you are looking for Festival dishes, you can also consider the Homemade Tang Yuan in Ginger flavoured Sweet Soup (姜汤手工汤圆)
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