Poon Choi 盆菜

Overview

Chinese Name: 盆菜
English Name: Poon Choi; Potted Vegetables
Category: Cantonese Cuisine粤菜
Main Ingredients: Abalone; Sea cucumber; Meatballs

Poon Choi盆菜 is a dietary custom in Shenzhen, Guangdong, and the new territories of Hong Kong. It is said that they originated in the late Southern Song Dynasty南宋. Potted vegetable has a history of hundreds of years. It is a kind of chowder.

Traditional potted vegetables are contained in wooden or antimony pots. During festive festivals, such as staying in a new home, opening the ancestral hall, or lighting the lights in the new year, potted vegetable banquets will be held in villages in the new territories.

Pot dish is a traditional dish from Yuen Long Wai village元朗围村. There are hundreds of dishes and flavors in a pot of vegetables. The basic principle is “harmony”.

Once upon a time, when there were festive events in the countryside, wooden platforms and benches were placed in open places. Everyone gathered around the hot potted vegetables, tasting and celebrating. People like to eat potted vegetables during the Spring Festival春节, which has the meaning of a festive reunion.

Wai village围村, Yuen Long元朗, Hong Kong also recommends potted vegetables to the world as a local signature dish (Wai village cuisine). About the origin of Wai village cuisine, according to gourmet Tao Ge韬哥, Yuen Long plain is a land of fish and rice with rich raw materials. But there are also some little-known reasons. For example, the clan with a little history has a rich family, self-sufficient farming, and sufficient food.

Parents are afraid that their offspring will go out and cause trouble, so they try to marry their aunts and allow them to smoke a lot so that they can stay at home all day. When the young masters stay at home, they will eat breakfast and think about lunch, and eat lunch and think about dinner, forcing the cooks to make delicious food with all their thoughts and tricks to meet their appetite. Local, delicious and varied Wai village cuisine was born.

Potted vegetables are more local than “first-class pot一品锅”. In fact, the seemingly simple cooking methods of potted vegetables are very exquisite. They are made by frying, burning, boiling, stewing, and brine, and then loaded into pots layer by layer. It is mainly composed of more than ten kinds of raw materials, such as chicken, duck, fish, oyster, beancurd, radish, mushroom, pork, etc.

The eating method of potted vegetables is also in line with the traditional habits of Chinese people. Diners at one table only eat one pot of vegetables, implying the atmosphere of reunion and auspiciousness. Traditional potted vegetables are loaded in wooden pots. Now most of them use stainless steel pots. Some restaurants also use casseroles, which can be heated at any time, with the characteristics of a hot pot.

It is intriguing that although the custom of eating potted vegetables exists in the coastal areas of Guangdong, Hong Kong, the new territories, and even Southeast Asia, there are probably two versions dating back to the origin of potted vegetables.

At the end of the Song Dynasty宋朝, general Wen Tianxiang文天祥 led his troops to be chased and killed by Yuan soldiers元军. When crossing Lingdingyang伶仃洋, he fled to the wharf in Shenzhen深圳 (then Dongguan东莞). At that time, it was late when Wen Tianxiang landed at the wharf. The army had only rice cakes with him and lacked dishes. The boatman sympathized with the loyal officials, so they stewed the pork and radish they had stored together with the fish and shrimp they had caught, and then took out a wooden basin.

Another version is: at the end of the Southern Song Dynasty南宋, in order to escape the pursuit of Jin soldiers金军, the emperor of the Song was trapped in today’s Yuen Long, Hong Kong. While the entourage was looking for food, the villagers at that time knew that the emperor was coming. As a token of their heart, they contributed the most precious food in their home. In a hurry, wooden pots were used as utensils to hold delicacies, which also contributed to the way that potted vegetables always put the most valuable ingredients on the top.

How to make Poon Choi?

Ingredients：

6 meatballs
Six tiger shrimps
Eight pieces of roast meat
3 keels
1 winter bamboo shoot
Six egg dumplings
Eight pieces of corn
Six radishes
9 louver knots
Five live abalone
Six pieces of chicken
A proper amount of water

Instruction:

Step 1, After blanching the keel, put it into the soup pot, add an appropriate amount of water, add winter bamboo shoots, boil over high heat and turn to low heat for 2 hours.
Step 2, Clean the live abalone bought back, and then scald it in boiling water for about 10 seconds. Remember not to scald it for too long. Because I have to cook it in a casserole later, otherwise the meat will get old if it is scalded for too long.
Step 3, Scald the chicken in the pot and remove it for standby.
Step 4, Lay a layer of corn on the bottom of the casserole. After the corn is paved, put the turnip pieces, and put the shutter knot around the turnip.
Step 5, Then put egg dumplings around the side. Put homemade fried meatballs on the lower left side of egg dumplings; Put shrimp in the middle of egg dumplings; Put the roast meat on the right side of the casserole. Finally, add chicken and abalone.
Step 6, At this time, the soup is also cooked. There is no need to put salt because the potted vegetables will be very fresh after cooking.
Step 7, Add the soup to the potted vegetables. It can be eight minutes full. If the soup is too full, it will overflow when boiling.
Step 8, Then boil over high heat and turn to low heat to cook slowly until the meat is cooked.