Travelling in Mary Janes

Today is the last day of Chinese New Year! So Gong Xi Fa Cai, hopefully you had a fantastic celebration on the Eve and CNY day itself and especially today!

Hang on, you say. Currently CNY? Wasn’t it long over?

The answer is no, Chinese New Year actually lasts for 15 days. But we can’t really be celebrating, eating and holidaying the whole 15 days, can we? So traditionally only the Eve, Day 1 and Day 2 are celebrated and in some countries like Malaysia and Singapore, those three days would be the designated Public Holidays to commemorate Chinese New Year.

I love Chinese New Year. It’s an excuse to eat a lot of different dishes, and many of them are special CNY-only dishes. My family’s tradition is to cook and eat at home. There’s just something amazingly special about the whole family gathering around in the kitchen to all put in work to bring together a feast for the table. However being far from my family means I don’t get to eat Mum’s amazing dishes. Instead I decided I’d recreate some of the dishes that Mum cooks.

Luo Han Zhai (罗汉斋)

Luo Han Zhai (Buddha’s Delight)

Luo Han Zhai (罗汉斋) is a vegetarian dish, and as the name might suggest: it used to be a dish enjoyed by Buddhist vegetarians. It is usually taken on the first day of Chinese New Year, following the old Buddhist practice that one should maintain a vegetarian diet on the first 5 days of Chinese New Year. The ingredients vary from household to household with each ingredient having an auspicious symbolism behind it but while not every single ingredient may be used in all the different versions of this dish, the idea remains that it is a vegetarian dish.

This recipe for Luo Han Zhai is from my mother and incredibly simple yet very tasty, so I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

Please note that there are no measurements included. Everything was done by without measurements, and this is not a written recipe from my mother, so I have no idea what the measurements are. I followed my instincts, and I encourage you to do so as well. Just include everything in moderation, and estimate accordingly.

Wombok

Ingredients

Shiitake Mushrooms
Enoki Mushrooms
Oyster Mushrooms
Button Mushrooms
Wombok / Chinese Cabbage
Snow Peas
Carrots
Bamboo Shoots
Gingko Nuts
Cashew Nuts
Celery

Despite it being a vegetarian dish traditionally,
I snucked in a very small quantity of chicken meat. Shh!

Method

1. Wash all vegetables accordingly, cut oyster mushrooms, celery and wombok up into bite-size chunks.
2. Julienne the carrots.

Assorted mushrooms, and the secret chicken pieces.

3. Soak the Shiitake Mushrooms in hot water till soft and remove stems. Cut into bite size chunks.
4. Stir fry everything, starting with the celery, bamboo shoots and wombok, then all the different mushrooms, carrots, snow peas, followed by gingko nuts and ending with the cashew nuts.
5. Salt to taste.
6. Add (some) water (enough to create a small amount of gravy, don’t flood it!) and oyster sauce (to taste).

The very colourful Luo Han Zhai

7. Stir fry for a couple more minutes, making sure that the oyster sauce and water have been evenly stirred in.
8. Serve!

Cooking time: 8 minutes.

It doesn’t take very long! Simple and yet tasty dish for Chinese New Year. I’d eat it a lot more often, but all those mushrooms and nuts actually cost a fair bit when added up.

My mum also whispered in my ear that despite this being a vegetarian dish, you can make it even tastier by using chicken stock instead of water (for the gravy) and add little bite sized chunks of chicken into the stir fry. It all depends on how strictly you are following tradition!

Do let me know if you try it! There are many other versions of Luo Han Zhai and this is my family’s version. If you have other versions of it, please feel free to tell me about it, I’d love to try it out too!

Next up, more dishes for Chinese New Year! So stay tune!