A Miscellaneous Vegetarian Menu

 Introduction

In ancient China, recipes were not written by chefs but by literary gourmets, such as Li Yu (1611–80), a playwright, and Ni Zhan (1301–74), a painter and poet, who both wrote well-known recipes that are yet to find their way into English translation. In addition, most men of letters wrote about vegetarian food, such as Chen Dasou, a poet in the Song Dynasty, who, legend has it, decorated his residence only with winter plum patterns, cooked tea only with the stone ding, and whiled away his time reading only The Book of Changes.

Yuan Mei (1716–97) was a well-known poet and essayist whose most famous collection of essays is Suiyuan Shihua (Poetry Talks in the Suiyuan Garden). I bought a collection of his miscellaneous writings in Melbourne in 2000, but soon forgot about the book till I came across it one day in July 2009 when I was looking for something else. Instead of beginning from the very beginning, I began from the very end and soon found myself hooked. For the first time, I realised that writing could be this tasty and mouth-watering while maintaining its literary qualities.

In what is titled shidan (food slip), which can roughly be translated as recipe or menu, Yuan Mei guides us on a delightful journey through ninety pages of detailed description of dishes involving fish, seafood, animals, birds, and vegetarian food. He leads the chapters with two sections, one on what one needs to know about a variety of things including ingredients and how to match them, and the other on what should be banned in food preparation and consumption, such as excessive drinking and er can (ear eating), the habit of preparing sumptuous food in order to win praise to please one’s ears, or mu shi (eye eating), the habit of preparing food in an excessive way to please the eyes of guests.

I have approached this somewhere near the end by translating the section on vegetarian food as my offering to Australian readers, many of whom I believe prefer this variety of food these days.

 

* * *

There are meat dishes as well as vegetarian dishes, just as clothes have outer layers as well as linings. The rich prefer vegetarian dishes to meat-based ones. Hence my sucai dan (A Vegetarian’s Slip).

Deputy Minister Jiang’s Tofu

 

Two liang^[1] of tofu, with skin peeled. Each tofu is cut into sixteen pieces. When they are dried, lard is boiled till a clear smoke rises before you put in the tofu slices, with a pinch of salt spread around. When the pieces of tofu are turned upside down, put in a teacup of good sweet rice wine with 120 dried big shrimps. If there are no dried big shrimps, use 300 dried small shrimps but first roll the dried shrimps and soak them for two hours. Add a small cup of qiuyou (autumn oil),^[2] give them a roll (in the wok) again, then add a pinch of sugar and roll them one more time. Cut spring onion into lengths of half a cun,^[3] for 120 pieces (and put them in) before you are ready with the dish out of the wok.

Grand Co-ordinator Yang’s Tofu

Boil tender tofu till you get rid of the smell of soybeans. In with chicken soup. Boil it with slices of abalone. Add wine-pickled juice and fragrant gill fungus, then out of the wok with the dish. The chicken soup must be thick while the abalone slices must be thin.

Zhang Kai Tofu

Pound the dried shrimps to smithereens and join them in the tofu. In with the oil, then stir-fry it dry with ingredients.

Qingyuan Tofu

Soak a teacup of fermented soya beans till they are soaked through. Stir-fry them along with tofu before it is ready.

Lotus Tofu

Soak rotten brains^[4] three times in water from a well till the smell of soybeans is gone before boiling them in the chicken soup. When ready, put in laver and shrimp meat.

Prefecture Chief Wang’s Eight-Treasure Tofu

Shred the tender pieces and then add scraps of fragrant gill fungus, of mushrooms, of pine nuts, of melon seeds, of chicken and of fire leg,^[5] before all go into the thick chicken soup, get stir-fried and boiled till they are ready to rise out of the wok. One could also use rotten brains. A spoon is preferred to a pair of chopsticks. Prefecture Chief at Meng Pavilion^[6] once said, “This is a recipe that Emperor Kangxi blessed Minister Xu Jian’an with. When he went to fetch it, he paid 1000 taels of silver to the Emperor’s Kitchen.” As Mr Cun, at the governor’s ancestral pavilion, was a disciple of the minister, he was able to obtain it.

Cheng Liwan’s Tofu

In the twenty-third year of Qianlong, I went with Jin Shoumen to Cheng Liwan’s place to eat fried tofu whose exquisiteness was unmatched. The tofu was golden-coloured on either side without a single trace of brine but with a fresh taste of che ao^[7] even when there were no che ao clams or other things on the plate. The next day, I told Zha Xuanmen of this and he said, “I can do this! I’ll invite you to dinner.” A couple of days later, I, with Hang Jinpu, went to the Zhas to eat it together but as soon as I picked up my chopsticks I burst out laughing. It was purely made of chicken brains and bird brains, not real tofu, too fatty to stand and ten times more expensive than Cheng’s with a taste that was far worse. I would have asked Cheng for the recipe had I not gone away in a hurry at the time to my sister’s funeral. Now that Cheng has died of old age, I live with the regret. For this reason, I still keep the name as I may go back and find out about the recipe.

Ice Tofu

Have tofu frozen overnight before you cut it into dices. Get rid of the soybean smell in boiling water before stewing it with chicken stock, fire leg juice and pork stock added in. When it is ready for the table, remove stuff like the chicken and the fire leg, keeping fragrant gill fungus and winter bamboo shoots only. Stewed a long time, the tofu becomes loosened up, with a honeycomb-like surface, looking like frozen tofu. For this reason, for frying purposes, the tofu needs to be tender, or old for stewing purposes. I wrote a letter to Fensi^[8] Hua that it would be quite good even if the tofu was cooked with mushroom in summer when following the way in which the frozen tofu was prepared. Never add in any meat soup as the tofu would lose its clean taste.

Shrimp Oil Tofu

Fry tofu with old shrimp oil instead of clean soy sauce.^[9] Must have both sides golden. The oil in the wok must be heated up. Put in lard, spring onion and chili.

Penghao^[10] Vegetable

Take the tips of penghao and flatten them with hot oil. Then boil them in the chicken soup. When ready, put in a hundred pine fungai.

Juecai^[11] Vegetable

When you use it, don’t cherish juecai. You must remove all its branches and leaves and only keep the root. Wash it clean and stew it till it breaks down. Then stew it in the chicken soup. You must buy the short and weak ones as they are the fat ones.

Gexianmi^[12] or Nostoc

Pick and wash the rice clean. Cook till it is half softened. Then stew it in fire leg soup. When ready, it is best if one only sees the rice without seeing the chicken and the fire leg. The best of this is home-made, available at Tao Fangbo’s.

Stone Hair^[13]

Same preparation as that for gexianmi. In summer, mix it with sesame oil, vinegar and autumn oil, which is also good.

Vegetarian Roast Goose

Cook mountain medicine^[14] till it is totally softened. Cut it into sections, wrapped up in rotten skin.^[15] Fry it in shallow oil, with autumn oil, rice wine, sugar, melon and ginger added in, till the colour turns red.

Chinese Chives

Chives are meat matters. Take the whites of them. Fry them with dried shrimps and it’ll be good. Or with xian, a small clam. Xian is fine, its meat also fine.

Celery

Celery is vegetarian matters, the fatter the better. Take the white roots and stir-fry them, with bamboo shoots added, till they are cooked. These days there are people who stir-fry them with pork. That’s mixing the murky with the clean. If not cooked, the crisp ones will be tasteless. Or one can mix the raw ones with wild chicken but that is a different story again.

Bean Buds^[16]

Bean buds are soft and crisp, which I really love. If stir-fried, they must be fully cooked so that the taste of the ingredients will sink in. They could be matched with yanwo,^[17] as that is matching the soft with the soft, and the white with the white. However, people often scoff at the idea of accompanying the extremely abject with the extremely noble without knowing that Chao and You^[18] can keep company with Yao and Shun.^[19]

Wild Rice Stems

Wild rice stems can be stir-fried with either pork or chicken. When cut into whole sections and broiled with soya sauce and vinegar, they are especially nice. They also do well when stewed with pork but must be sliced at a length of a cun each. The young ones that are too thin have no taste.

Green Vegetables

Select the tender ones and stir-fry them with bamboo shoots. In summer, mix them with mustard and a faint trace of vinegar, which can wake up your stomach. Soup can be made with them when added with fire leg slices. Only the ones freshly pulled from the soil are soft.

Taicai^[20] or Tai Vegetable

When taicai is stir-fried, its heart is the timidest. Strip off its outer skins and make a soup of it with mushroom and new bamboo shoots. It is also good to stir-fry it with shrimp meat.

White Vegetables^[21]

White vegetables can be stir-fried as a dish or they can be cooked over a slow fire with bamboo shoots. They can also be cooked thus with either fire leg pieces or in chicken soup; both are fine.

Yellow Bud Vegetable^[22]

This vegetable is best when it comes from the north. It can be embraced with vinegar or stewed with dried shrimps but as soon as it is cooked you must eat it. If you delay, both the colour and the taste will change.

Gourd-shaped Vegetable^[23]

When you stir-fry the heart of this vegetable, it is most precious to do it dry without any soup. It turns softer under the weight of snow. The best is home-made from Prefecture Chief Wang Mengting. Nothing else should be added. Meat-based oil is fine.

Wave Vegetable^[24]

Wave vegetable is fat and tender. Stew it with soy sauce and water tofu. This is what the Hangzhou people refer to as the “white jade board embedded with gold”. If such a vegetable is thin but fat, it is not necessary to add tips of bamboo shoots and fragrant gill fungus.

Mushroom

Mushroom can not only be made into soup but it can also be stir-fried. However, mouth mushroom^[25] easily contains sand and even more easily grows mouldy. It has to be properly stored and made. Chicken leg mushroom^[26] is easy to treat and easy to please.

Pine Mushroom

Pine mushroom is best if it goes with mouth mushroom. It is also great if soaked in autumn oil alone except that it is not a good idea to keep it too long. When placed in a variety of dishes, it enhances the taste. It can serve as the base in swallow’s nest as it is tender.

Three Approaches to Flour Tendon^[27] or Gluten

In one approach, put the flour tendon in oil and broil it till it dries up. Then cook it clean over a slow fire in chicken soup with mushroom. There is another approach in which the flour tendon can be soaked in water, sliced and stir-fried with rich chicken soup, with winter bamboo shoots and sky flower.^[28] The home-made flour tendon is best with Guancha^[29] Zhang Huaishu. When it goes to the plate, it is more appropriate to tear it up roughly than cut it clean. It is also good to stir-fry it with dried shrimps soaked in juice and sweet sauce.

Two Approaches to Eggplants

At Wu Xiaogu’s home, whole eggplants are peeled and soaked in boiling water till the bitter juice is removed before they are broiled in lard; wait till they turn dry before broiling them, though. It is quite good to stew them with water mixed with sweet sauce. At Eighth Grandfather Lu’s home, eggplants, unpeeled, are cut into small pieces and are burnt in the oil till they turn yellowish. Add autumn oil till they are soaked, then fry them, which is also good. These are the two approaches which I’ve learnt but have not fully employed. I only managed to steam them till they were completely softened when I slit them open and mixed them with sesame oil and rice vinegar, which was quite edible in summer, too. One could also stew them till dry before turning them into preserved eggplants and placing them onto a plate.

Three-Coloured Amaranth Soup

Pinch the tender tips of the three-coloured amaranth and dry stir-fry them. With dried, shelled shrimps or shelled fresh shrimps added, it is even better. You can’t see the soup.^[30]

Taro Soup

Taro is soft and soapy by nature, fit for both meat and vegetarian dishes. It can be shredded to go with duck soup, with stewed pork or with stewed tofu added with soy-sauce-based water. At Mingfu^[31] Xu Zhaohuang’s home, smaller taros were selected to stew with tender chicken in the soup. Quite wonderful! It’s a pity that this way of cooking has not been handed down. Roughly speaking, it is used as material. No water used.

Tofu Skin^[32]

Soak the tofu skin till it turns soft. Mix it with autumn oil, vinegar and dried shelled shrimps. Good for summer. At Shilang^[33] Jiang’s home, this is combined with sea slugs, making it quite nice. If laver and shrimp meat are used with this to make soup, it is also fitting. Or else one could stew mushroom and bamboo shoots with it in a clear soup, which is also good, as long as it is all melted. Monk Jingxiu at Wuhu Lake rolled up tofu skins and cut them into sections before slightly broiling them in the oil. He then added mushroom to it and stewed it till all melted. Absolutely great stuff. Can’t add chicken soup, though.

Flat Beans^[34]

Take beans that have just been picked. Stir-fry them with pork and soup. Keep the shelled beans only. If stir-fried without adding anything else, the oil has to be heavy. The best will be the fat and soft ones. Rough and thin ones, grown in poor soil, are uneatable.

Edible Gourd and King Melon

Cut a grass carp into pieces and stir-fry them. Add some edible gourd. Stew them in soy sauce juice. Same with king melon.

Stewing Wood Ear^[35] and Fragrant Gill Fungus

A monk in Dinghui Buddhist Convent in Yangzhou was able to stew wood ear till it was two-fen^[36] thick or fragrant gill fungus till it was three-fen thick. However, he first took the juice from the stewed mushroom as gravy.

Winter Melon

Winter melon has multiple uses, good for mixing with swallow’s nest, fish meat, eels, rice field eels and fire legs. The best is made at Dinghui Buddhist Convent in Yangzhou. As red as blood amber. No meat soup used.

Stewed Fresh Water Caltrops

Stew fresh caltrops and put them through boiling chicken soup. When it is ready for the table, remove half the soup. The fresh ones come right out of the pond and the ones that float on the water are tender. When stewed with new chestnuts and white fruit^[37] till completely melted, it is particularly good. Sugar can also be put in it. It can also serve as snacks.

Cowpeas

Cowpeas can be stir-fried with pork. When ready, keep the peas without the shells by selecting the tenderest ones and removing the fibres.

Stewing Three Bamboo Shoots

Stew Sky Eye bamboo shoot,^[38] winter bamboo shoot and Asking Governance bamboo shoot^[39] in chicken soup, normally known as San Sun Geng or Three Bamboo Shoot Thick Soup.

White Vegetables Stewed with Taros

When totally melted, taros enter the heart of white vegetables before they are brewed together, with a mixture of soy sauce-based water. This is the best of jiachang cai, Ordinary Home Dishes. The only thing is, the white vegetables have to be fat and tender, freshly picked. If the colour is green it is old. If picked for a long time, it withers.

Fragrant Pearl Beans

Hairy beans^[40] that are broad and tender, harvested late between August and September on the Chinese lunar calendar,^[41] are known as xiangzhu dou, Fragrant Pearl Beans. When cooked, they can be soaked in autumn oil and rice wine. Shelled or unshelled, they are both fine as they are fragrant and soft, quite lovely. Ordinary beans are uneatable.

Horse Orchid

Pick the tender part of horse orchid head^[42] vegetable and mix it with vinegar and bamboo shoots for food. If you have oily food and then have this, it will wake up your spleen.^[43]

Poplar Blossom Vegetable^[44]

There were poplar blossom vegetables in March in Nanjing, similar to wave vegetables in their soft crispness. A quite elegant name.

Shredded Asking Governance Bamboo Shoots

Asking Governance bamboo shoots are Hangzhou bamboo shoots. Most of what people in Huizhou gave away as a gift was flat dried bamboo shoot, which you had to soak till softened and shred before you stewed it in chicken soup. Sima^[45] Gong cooked the shoot with autumn oil. After drying it by the fire, he produced it on the table. When Huizhou people ate it they were surprised as they thought it was something unique. I laughed at them for the way in which they seemed to have just woken up from a dream.

Mushroom Stir-Fried with Chicken Legs

A monk at Wuhu Da’an Temple cooked a wonderful dish by washing the chicken legs clean and removing the sands from the mushroom, stir-frying them with autumn oil and rice wine till cooked before he produced the dish on a plate for his guests.

Turnips Cooked in Lard

Stir-fry a turnip with cooked lard, then stew it with dried shrimps till it is thoroughly cooked. When ready, add shredded spring onion. The colour resembles amber.

Ouyang Yu lives in Melbourne. His most recent book is a novel, The English Class (Transit Lounge). He is continuing his translation of the writings of Yuan Mei.