Recipe: Braised mushrooms with fatt choy and lettuce

Hello everyone! How's your Chinese New Year celebrations going so far? Ours has been filled with lots of good food and catching up with relatives. We had our reunion dinner at my grandparent's place and on Day 2 of CNY we were invited to my aunt's place for another feast.

On Day 1 of CNY, we had a delicious homecooked vegetarian meal at home. We had Jai 素, stir fried leeks with sliced mushrooms (flavoured with mushroom sauce), stir fried cabbage with sliced carrots, longevity noodles as well as this braised mushrooms with fatt choy and lettuce. 

During Chinese New Year, fatt choy 髮菜, also known as black moss is a popular ingredient as its homonym sounds like "struck it rich". It looks like "black hair" and is alike fine vermicelli in texture but has no taste. Other ingredients in this dish also has auspicious meanings, such as lettuce 生菜 which symbolises prosperity, mushroom for longevity, enoki mushrooms for wealth and carrots for good luck.

One of the things I appreciate about this dish is that the braising liquid tastes great with the longevity noodles - very flavorful and delicious. This is such an easy dish to cook and prepare, and the bright colours are a welcome sight during CNY :)

Reunion dinner

Day 2 feast

Braised Chinese mushrooms with fatt choy and lettuce
Recipe by Baby Sumo
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 20-25 minutes
Serves 4


Ingredients
15 Chinese or shitake mushrooms, soaked for at least 2 hours
1 pack (200g) enoki mushroom, ends trimmed and washed
A handful fatt choy (black moss), soaked for 2 mins
250ml water
2 tbsp oil
3-4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 tbsp mushroom sauce
1 tsp soy sauce
1/2 carrot, sliced thinly
5-6 lettuce leaves, washed and pat dry

1. In a saucepan/wok, heat the oil over medium high heat. Add the garlic and cook for 2 minutes, until lightly browned. Add the mushrooms and stir fry for 1 minute, then add the water and bring to the boil. Season with mushroom sauce, and soy sauce. Once boiling, lower to medium low heat and braise for 15 minutes.

2. Increase heat to medium. Add carrots and cook for another 2 minutes. Then, add the enoki mushroom and cook for another 2 minutes. Finally, add the fatt choy and cook for about 30-40 seconds (until the sauce is bubbling). Taste and season with more soy sauce/mushroom sauce as necessary.

3. Place lettuce leaves on plate. Serve immediately.

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