Pen Cai - Basin of Food

The dish is a pot of various meats, braised dried seafood and stewed vegetables all stacked in layers. Pen cai, the hanyu pinyin name translates to "basin of food", is also called poon choy in Cantonese, and has been a popular dish in China for ages. But the dish supposedly came about in China when the Song emperor was fleeing from Mongol invaders and arrived at a village in the Guangdong area. To serve him and his army, the local folk collected the best food from each household. There wasn't a bowl big enough to hold the food, so they put everything into basins, and pen cai was created.

I had a French pot Braiser and was so lucky to be able to create this but you can use a clay pot, a shallow pot or anything with a cover.

Ingredients:

Portions are estimated to the size of your braiser.

Yam - or potatoes

Nappa Cabbage

Leeks ( I used Chinese leeks)

Chinese sausage

Chinese button mushrooms

Shitake mushrooms

Sea cucumber

Dried Oysters

Roast pork

Scallops

Roast Duck

Method:

Slide the yam/potatoes about 1 inch thick and lay flat on the basin. Then start layering all the vegetables and meat. The shitake, sea cucumber, dried oyster will need to be cooked before adding to the basin. Blanched the nappa and roll it up and add to the basin. Arrange the food so that they are tight in the basin. The scallops and abalone will be the last to go in so that they are not overcooked. Add a little bit of water, oyster sauce and simmer the pot over low heat for 1 hour or so until all are cooked well. Serve hot !