Buddha's Delight smothered over Crispy Noodles

By Chinese Cooking Demystified · 45 min

Ingredients

Instructions

1. Soak the dried shiitakes and kelp in cool water in the fridge overnight (the kelp needs only 30 minutes, but longer is fine).
2. Rinse the kelp thoroughly and the mushrooms briefly. Put the mushrooms, kelp, their soaking liquid and the 1 L water in a pot. Bring to a boil, lower to a simmer, skim quickly, then cover and cook at a heavy simmer for 30 minutes. Strain and keep the stock.
3. Soak the snow fungus, wood ear and dried shiitake in the fridge overnight.
4. Squeeze and rinse the shiitake, keeping the soaking liquid. Cut the shiitake into 1/2 cm slices. Trim the hard root off the snow fungus and cut it into about 8 pieces. Trim the wood ear's hard root and cut each ear into 2-3 pieces. Slice the button mushrooms 1/2 cm thick, the carrot 3 mm thick, the baby corn into about 1 cm biased pieces, and cut the bok choy into about 1.5 inch lengths.
5. Blanch separately: bok choy 30 seconds, carrot and corn 1 minute each, button mushrooms 1 minute, snow fungus and wood ear 2 minutes.
6. Heat about 2 tbsp peanut oil in a pot over medium-low heat and fry the minced ginger until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add the shiitake and button mushrooms, raise to high heat and stir-fry for about 1 minute, then swirl in the Shaoxing wine. Add the snow fungus and wood ear and fry about 30 seconds. Add the stock, oyster sauce and sugar, bring to a boil, then simmer covered for 15 minutes.
7. Add the carrot and corn and simmer covered for about 5 minutes.
8. Add the bok choy and the salt, MSG and white pepper and mix. Over medium-low heat, stir in the starch slurry bit by bit until the sauce is just short of coating a spoon. Finish with the sesame oil.
9. Boil the noodles until done, then drain and jostle them until they are no longer hot. Shape them into a cake on a plate.
10. Heat oil to about 180°C. Slide in the noodle cake and fry each side for about 2 minutes, until deep golden brown. Serve the Buddha's Delight spooned over the crispy noodles.

Summarized from Chinese Cooking Demystified's video. Watch it for the details.

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