New Year vegetarian pot

Ingredientsserves 8

Equipment

• A big lidded wok, or a clay pot that goes straight to the table
• No clay pot: a cast-iron or enamel casserole does the same job

How the time splits

1. 8 hrThe mushrooms soak overnight in the fridgehands off
2. 30 minWood ear, glass noodles, beancurd sticks and lily bulb soak separatelyhands off
3. 30 minBlanch, slice, take the germ out of the ginkgo, start the wokhands on
4. 20 minLid on to braisehands off
5. 5 minThe second half of the wombok and the snow peas go inhands on

Method

1. The night before, put the mushrooms to soak in cold water in the fridge. Next day, soak the wood ear, glass noodles, beancurd sticks and lily bulb separately for half an hour. Use the wood ear as soon as it is soft, and never leave it soaking at room temperature overnight.
2. Trim the mushrooms and slice them thickly, keeping the strained soaking water. Cut the beancurd sticks into lengths. Shell and skin the ginkgo, split each one and pick out the green germ in the middle; leave it in and the whole pot tastes bitter.
3. Cut the wombok into big pieces. Bring a big pot of salted water to the boil, blanch the wombok for a minute, drain it and divide it into two lots. Blanch the snow peas for ten seconds and put them straight into cold water. Blanch the ginkgo and lily bulb for two minutes.
4. Heat the oil and fry the ginger, add half the wombok and stir-fry a minute, then add the mushrooms, wood ear, beancurd sticks, ginkgo, lily bulb, vegetarian oyster sauce, sugar and half a bowl of the mushroom water, and toss everything through.
5. Cover and braise over medium heat for fifteen to twenty minutes, until the liquid is down by half. Wombok gives off water, which is why it is blanched first and goes in in two lots; put it all in at once and the pot turns to soup.
6. Add the glass noodles and the rest of the wombok and toss for two minutes until the noodles have drunk the sauce. Add the snow peas only as the heat goes off, toss, finish with a few drops of sesame oil and serve at once. Snow peas that go in early turn yellow and limp.

Take care

• Soy, wheat (the vegetarian oyster sauce and the beancurd sticks), sesame. Real oyster sauce adds mollusc (oyster) and the dish is no longer vegetarian. Ginkgo must be cooked, and a few each is plenty — fewer for children, and none for toddlers. Never leave wood ear soaking at room temperature overnight: spoiled soaked fungus can produce a toxin that cooking does not destroy. Soak it twenty minutes to an hour and use it, or soak it in the fridge.

The story

The first morning of the year. In a Buddhist or half-Buddhist family nobody eats meat that morning: a pot of 齋 goes to the altar first and then to the table, with 冬菇 in it for 東成西就, success east and west. It used to carry 髮菜 for 發財, fortune; this site leaves it out, because wild harvesting is banned at source and most of what is sold is imitation, and the pot loses that one thing and nothing else. The ingredients could not be plainer — wombok, mushrooms, glass noodles — and the work is all the night before: what to soak and for how long, which hardly anyone under fifty now knows.

Same kind

Pork hock braised with dried oysters and peanutsTaro and pork belly, steamed and turned outPoon choi, the walled-village basin

Lo Fo Tong is cultural food-heritage reference, not medical advice. If you are pregnant, unwell or on medication, talk to your doctor or registered practitioner before changing what is in the pot.