盆菜 Pen Cai

盆菜 Pen Cai

It was said that Poon Choi was invented during the late Song Dynasty.When Mongol troops invaded Song China, the young Emperor fled to the area around Guangdong and Hong Kong. To serve the Emperor as well as his army, the locals collected all their best food available, cooked it, and put it in wooden washing basins. By doing so Poon Choi was invented.

Poon Choi includes ingredients such as pork, beef, lamb, chicken, duck, abalone, ginseng, shark fin, fish maw, prawn, crab, dried mushroom, fishballs, squid, dried eel, dried shrimp, pigskin, beancurd and chinese radish.

Poon Choi is special in that it is composed of many layers of different ingredients. It is also eaten layer by layer instead of "stirring everything up", but impatient diners may snatch up the juicy radish at the bottom first using shared chopsticks.

Traditional Village Poon Choi is served in large metal washing bowls with a perforated metal plate at the bottom to keep food from burning, as it is kept warm on a portable stove as it is being served.

Some restaurants or providers change the poon choi and add fresh shrimp and fresh oyster instead of dried ones. This increases the potential risk of contamination by bacterial that causes disease. It has to be cooked thoroughly.

It is often served during religious rituals, festivals, special occasions and wedding banquets in open area of villages. From the 1990s, Poon Choi became popular among urban dwellers and can also be enjoyed at many Cantonese restaurants in the autumn and winter or on special occasions throughout the year.

It is only in the recent two years that 盆菜 Pen Cai has become popular during the Chinese New Year period in Singapore.

There are really no strict and hard rules on the ingredients. Almost anything goes into the pot!

Every ingredient has to be layered and stacked up properly. Chicken and duck meat are usually placed on the top, implying that birds return to the nests. Though those who know would reach for the bottom where the gravy trickles over the ingredients.

Pen Cai is associated to an event that unites the entire community. It is a symbol of cohesion, such that everybody who eats from the common pot are equals, therefore making it a popular dish during the New Year.

A lot of Chinese restaurants serve reasonably good Pen Cai with a rough estimate of the price ranging from S$200 - $1000 depending on the ingredient and popularity of the restaurants.

Food for the day : 盆菜

Warm Chocolate Cake Pudding

Ingredient

A
150gm butter
150gm dark chocolate

B
3 egg yolks
2 whole eggs
60gm sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla essence

C
24gm flour

Garnishing
Vanilla or strawberry ice-cream

Method

1. Preheat oven at 180 c temperature.


2. Put butter and dark chocolate into a double-boiler and cook over low heat until melt. Stir well and set aside.


3. Beat ingredients B until fluffy and add melted chocolate, stir well and add ingredients C. Mix well and set aside.




4. Grease ramekins and sprinkle with flour. Turn it over to remove excess flour.


5. Scoop chocolate batter into ramekins and bake at 160 c temperature for about 8 mins and remove.

6. Transfer to a serving plate and serve together with ice cream.

Tips

Chocolate batter can be kept refrigerated for 3 days. Hence, you may prepare the batter earlier and only bake it right before serving. Select dark chocolate of 55% cocoa for better result. Over here I brought the dark chocolate from OG under the fondue section (Chocolate Line - 53% cocoa 150gm @ S$5.90/packet). Can make about 8 pieces of warm chocolate cake pudding. The inside texture will give you the chocolate melting effect once you slice through the cake.

Agar Agar

One of the recipe that I pick up from my mum. Simple and back to basic (60's).

Ingredient

1 packet of agar agar powder (clear col)

3 stalk of pandan leaf

8 tbsp of caster sugar

1 packet of cocount milk

Method

1. Cut 1 stalk of pandan leaf into length size and pound into paste.
2. Add in one tbsp of water and mix with the paste.
3. Squeeze the juice and ready for use.
4. Fill pot with water (about half level of the round tray).
5. Tie two stalk of pandan leaf and put into the water
6. Pour in the agar agar powder.
7. On the stove and cook at medium heat. Keep stirring the mixture while waiting for it to boil.
8. Lower the heat once mixture is going to boil.
9. Pour in sugar, coconut milk and then pandan juice.
10. Off the stove once it is boiled and sugar is dissolved.
11. Pour mixture into the round tray for setting
12. Once the agar agar is set, put into fridge
13. Cut into bite size and serve.