China · Cantonese
Baby Cabbage in Supreme Broth
Baby cabbage gently simmered in a rich savoury broth with century egg and luncheon meat. The cabbage turns sweet and soft while the broth turns golden and velvety.
The name points at the broth, which turns cloudy and gold from bones and stock rather than from cream or starch. Court kitchens served something like it to make one plain cabbage look generous, and it still shows up on family tables through the cold months. The part that catches people out is the brief blanch: hold the cabbage in the boiling water too long and the squeak that makes the dish worth cooking disappears.
Ingredients
- baby cabbage700 g
- enoki mushrooms10 g
Directions
- 1
Wash the baby cabbage and cut it lengthways into sections.
- 2
Cut 3 g spring onion into short lengths, slice 10 g garlic and cut 10 g ginger into thin slices.
- 3
Dice the century egg, and dice the ham sausage or luncheon meat into cubes of about 1 cm.
- 4
Wash the enoki mushrooms and pull them apart.
- 5
Heat water, drop the baby cabbage in for ten seconds to blanch, then lift out.
- 6
Heat the wok, add cold oil, heat it, pour the oil through and discard it, then add a fresh splash of oil.
- 7
Turn the heat down, add the spring onion, ginger and garlic, and fry until fragrant.
- 8
Add about 300 g water, enough to cover the cabbage, then add the baby cabbage, enoki mushrooms and luncheon meat.
- 9
Add oyster sauce, sugar, salt and MSG, and bring to the boil.
- 10
Cook for 3 minutes. Once it boils, start plating: lift out the cabbage, top it with the century egg cubes and pour the broth over.
- 11
Photo of the finished baby cabbage.
Source: HowToCook · WorldBite adaptation · Unlicense source text; bilingual recipe adapted by WorldBite.