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Sunday, January 25, 2009

好事发财

Its Chinese New Year eve today.
The tradition of having reunion dinner as usual.
As usual, Im tasked to prepare dinner for this BIG day.

One of the MUST have dish as requested by my family will be this dish.. which we named it "好事发财"

The name came about as I used dried oyster which the cantonese call it 'ho si' as well as black moss which is known as 'fa cai'
Putting them together means good luck with prosperity.
of cos dried mushroom is 1 of the key ingredient for this dish



We went down to Chinatown, jostling with the crowd.. and I saw this stalls ellign pretty nice looking shitake mushroom. The lady claimed its japanese shitake which is gorwn in Japan.. not china.
With 2 sizes to choose from.. I choose the smaller ones despite she claim the bigger ones taste better.
Reason being, the past years I used the large mushroom and the kids at home find it a chore to chew n bite... yes they r a bunch of lazy kids LOL
so so.. here I go using the smaller mushroom.. and they r sure tender.

Due to my old and aging memory.. probably my brain is shrinking too(good idea huh? so I have lesser to tink n remember) I kind of forget how I actualy braised this dish for the past years..

So today heres how I did it.

Ingredients
Dry mushroom (washed n soaked over night)
Dry oyster (washed n soak in hot water for 20 mins)
Dry scallop (washed n soaked in hot water for 20 mins)
Some ginger juice
Oyster sauce to taste(this is saltish)
Abalone sauce to taste(this is sweet)
Black soy sauce for colour
Black Moss

Method
1. Heat up a teaspoon of oil.. stir fry the mushroom briefly then add in the ginger juice. The juice get rid of the smell from the mushroom
2. Add in some of the water used to soak the oyster and scallop. If u are braising ti over the stove u probably need more of the water.. I am using pressure cooker and so i dun need so much.
3. Bring to boil, and let pressure build up and let it depressurised.
4. Add in oyster n scallop as well as oyster sauce and abalone sauce. If water dries up, add in more of the water fr the mushroom.
5. Add some dark sauce to make the dark colour u prefer.
6. Bring to boil and up the pressure again before u off the fire. Do not boil for too long as it makes the oyster too soft as u need to boil it again later.
7. After depressurise.. add in more water if needed.
8. Put in the black moss and bring to boil..

And thats what you get

好事发财


May everyone have a Happy and Prosperous New Year !
Gong Xi Fa Cai!