南乳炆齋 Fermented Red Beancurd Vegetable Stew AKA Buddah's Delight

I have been listening to lots of health and longevity-related podcasts, and everything is leading to a plant-based diet. This leads me to think of my go-to Chinese Vegetarian dish 南乳炆齋, Fermented Beancurd Vegetarian Stew. This is also a dish Buddhist eat during the 1st and the 15th of each month and especially Chinese New Year. This Buddhist tradition pays respect to the Budha and generates good karma twice a month by not killing animals. Originated from Guangdong, I remember my Grandma would buy these long cabbage and hang them for a few days before CNY. Then on New Years Eve, they will make a big pot of this dish and we will be eatting this for 2-3 days. The longer it sits, the taste of the Namyu permeates into all the vegetables. This is probably the only vegetarian dish that I always go back for seconds. The Key ingredient, Nam Yu 南乳. Also known as Red Fermented BeanCurd is like the blue cheese for the Chinese. Specifically Red Beancurd is made with a special kind of Red fermented rice, along with rich Xiuhing Chinese wine and ferment for over 6 months to make this special flavour. You can put almost every veggies you like in this dish. But the main attraction is Bean curd related product such as Fried Tofu, Beancurd sheet. Then you have variety of fungus, like snow and wood fungus and mushrooms. These items are great because it soaks up all the flavour from the beancurd. You must also have 紹菜 which is a form of cabbage, some carrots for color and sweetness and I like bamboo for crunch. 南乳炆齋 Red Beancurd Vegetarian Stew Recipe (Vegan) Ingredients: 3 tablespoons of Red Beancurd with 1 table spoon of red sauce, mashed into paste 2 tablespoon of chopped ginger 1 large Snow fungas, soaked and cut into bite size pieces 1/2 cup of dried woodear, soaked and cut into bite size pieces 3 shitake mushrooms, fresh or dried, soaked and cut into slices 1 cup other mushrooms of your choice, cut into bite size 1 medium size carrot, cut into 1.5 by 1inch slices 1 cup of bamboo shoots 10 pieces of deep fried Tofu or Firm Tofu 10 pieces of Deep fried Tofu sheets 1/2 cup Edamame Half a Napa Cabbage about 4 cups cut into bite size 1 bag of Vemechilli, soak in water Seasoning for sauce: 1 tablespoon of Sugar 1 tablespoon of Oyster sauce (Vegetarian option) 1 tablespoon of good quality soy sauce 1 tablespoon of rice wine 1 tablespoon of cornstarch 1/2 cup water Procedure: In a large wok, prepare some boiling water and a dash of salt Start with all the Vegetables and mushrooms and blanch each vegetable for 2 minutes until water comes back to a boil Drain and reserve for later use Then add beancurd items and blanch and squeeze extra liquid out of the Tofu to remove excess water and oil. Reserve for later use Remove water from the wok and heat wok to low medium heat Add one tablespoon of oil and sautee diced ginger. Add Red Beancurd paste and sautee until fragrant and then add 2 tablespoon of water Add mushrooms and fungus and stir for 2 minutes Add Tofu items and cook for 2 minutes Add carrots and bamboo shoot and cook for 2 minutes Reduce heat and let it cook for 15 minutes until tofu sheet is tender Add Vemichilli to soak up all the sauce and give it a through stir Add Nappa cabbage Mix all the sauce ingredients together in a bowl and turn the heat up to medium high Pour in the sauce and cook until thickened. Taste and add extra red beancurd to your liking. This dish should not be soupy. A thick sauce is what you are looking for. Serve Hot or leave it overnight and serve hot the next day. Tips: Blanch all veggies to remove raw green taste and excess liquid. Keep overnight for better flavor. Red Beancurd has good source of Microbiome and give a punchy flavor. I would highly recommend this for chinese marinade with mushrooms or meatz and great vegetarian flavour options. With such a fragrant taste, your dish almost taste like there is meat inside. Quite addictive. I had the pleasure to visit Mee Chun Canning Company to see some of the traditional Chinese sauces be made the traditional way. Mr. Wong Kwok Chiu from the Company explained to me that most of their long fermentation items like Nam Yu is now made in their factory in China. But they still make their traditonal soy sauce in their Hong Kong Ping Shan Factory. He showed me how soy sauce is made the traditional way and why the company refuse to cut corner and continue to make their soy sauce the most authentic way. Their soy sauce are $100 per bottle in compare to the traditional once you find in the super markets. But their flavours outweighs the competition. Mr. Wong said their sauce are packed with favours and a dash goes a long way. I used their soy sauce to make this stew and it was delicious. Here is the full video of the story behind this dish In this episode, I also invited my doggie Brownie to watch me cook this dish. I made a special version of this dish without the salt and Nam yu for her and I was amazed at how she enjoyed her vegetarian dish as well.