CHOP SUEY

CHOP SUEY.
(yat bun war)

This is one favorite dish not to be missed. As usual that are many many ways of cooking dishes, we have been following what we have been taught so this is our secret recipe!

Grandma has a story behind this fabulous dish, in actual fact; this is a dish where anything goes.

The story goes,
Long long ago, an emperor in china wanted to see how his subjects lived, so he moved around the town as a commoner. One night walking through a lane with his aides, the smell of something very appetizing whiffed through the air. So he asked his aides to have a look.

Going into the kitchen of a house, they saw a family having their dinner. They were eating rice, and the only other thing was a big pot on a fire stove.
The emperor, not able to resist that appetizing smell, invited himself to dinner. The occupants, (the Chinese always very hospitable with uninvited guests) straight away set up places for them.

As the emperor was eating, ( he was fascinated by every spoonful, it was something different every time, the taste was unique, something familiar ,yet he couldn't really tell what it was !) he was asking them how to cook this fabulous pot and what was it called, so he could ask his chef to cook it for him.

The occupants were so stunned; they didn’t know what to say. ( they didn't want their guests to know that they were eating leftovers!) The wife then laughing said, ‘you won’t want to know what is in this pot!

But , since you enjoyed it so much,I’ll tell you, my husband works as a cook in the palace, and every day, there have a lot of food not eaten, not wanting to waste or throw them away, he brings it home. All this is put together to boil for 20 mins with garlic, dried chilies, and dried Assam slices.

And enough water to cover the contents. Then the mustard green (kai choy) grown in our back yard is added in. So we call it our “yat bun war” (one fabulous pot).

Every Chinese family would do this pot after a big dinner, a wedding feast, or after festival days. During this time, they are bound to be leftovers. Some call this, ‘chop suey’ meaning, a mixture or “choy keok” meaning balance of a dish!

The taste to this dish is hot, from the chilies, sour from the assam slices, or you can use lemon juice and the mixture of all the other dishes is just something you have to cook to really know what I’m talking about!

If you don’t have leftovers, collect and freeze, when you have enough, you can start the pot.
The best dishes to add are, roast duck with their sauce, roast pork, gravy from other dishes.

To a 5 lts. pot you need 3 kilos ‘kai choy’.
Sometimes if you yearn for this dish and have no leftovers, buy some roast pork bones, bacon bones or roasted pork legs, or ½ a roast duck. This is just as good.

The only dish never to add in is curry. This is too over powering; it will spoil the whole pot!

Happy mixing!

Copyright ©by gourmetchef2005.