Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Choy Geok (Mustard leaves left over soup) - featured in Group Recipes


According to my Mum, there is a story about this dish in Chinese legend. It seems that Emperor Qianlong disguised himself as a commoner and was on a mission to see how his citizens lived especially the poor farmers. Then, he came across this young chicken farmer who had a sick old mother. He was impressed with the young farmer for being hardworking and at the same time took good care of his sick mother. He became good friends with him and through him he got to know the hardships faced by his poor citizens. The young and innocent farmer, not knowing that his new friend was Emperor Qianlong had invited him to his home for dinner. When he could not find any decent ingredients to cook for his guest, he regretted the invitation, but it was too late to back out. What he had were just some left overs. So what he did was gather some mustard leaves from his neighbors mustard farm, and came home and threw everything inside the big clay pot with the left overs, along with some dried chilly, assam, and water. He cooked it all slowly. He served the dish to his new acquaintance worrying that he would not like the taste, but to his surprise, his new friend enjoyed the dish so much and wanted to know it's name. As he was too embarrassed to tell the truth, that the dish was made out of left overs, he invented a sophiscated name – “Yat Pun Woh” which literally means, the No.1 tasty dish! So when Emperor Qianlong returned to his kingdom and ordered his chefs to make the dish called “Yat Pun Woh”, none of them had a clue what the Emperor was talking about! I guess Emperor Qianlong had to return to the poor farmer’s home to have this dish, or he sent someone to ask about the recipe. Whether or not this legend is true, it is not important, but I have to say, this is one of my “DIE FOR” dishes! I can eat this dish continuously for a week and still want more!  Chinese cuisine,  just like everyday life, is full of legends like this.  



Ingredients:
4.5 kg of mustard leaves
water, enough to cover all ingredients
(A)
2 roast pork trotter
25 gm assam slices (adjust according to your own taste)
20 gm dried chilly (adjust according to your own taste)
2 cubes bullion chicken stock
3 tbs lard (optional)

Method:
Wash mustard leaves and cut them in big pieces. Separate the stalk from the leaves. Add mustard stalk and (A) in a big pot and enough water to cover all the ingredients. Bring to a boil. Let it boil for 30 mnst before you add the mustard leaves and let it boil for 15 mins and turn down heat to simmer for 1- 2 hours until vegetables are soft and you can smell the aroma of the dish. This dish tastes better the next day.

29 comments:

  1. You have a new follower: me.
    I love to read all your interesting stories and I ma learning so much!

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  2. Rita,
    Thanks for the following and I so happy to make a new friend:D

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  3. Swathi,
    It is, you must making this dish!

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  4. This soup looks simple and delicious - 2 of my favorite things in a recipe.

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  5. Wow this looks so yummy and it looks like something even a hard headed gal like myself can cook. I love your blog by the way especially the intro at the top of the homepage. I look forward your your future posts. I'm new so I'm going to snoop around to see what else I can find here :) THanks so much for stopping by, BTW!

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  6. Asian stories are always interesting treats. Your mustard leaves recipe sounds so delicious.

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  7. Hi The Man's belly,

    That's great the soup has 2 of your favorite things. Let me know the outcome if make it someday. I wonder if I am the only one who crave for this soup or others do too trying it:D

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  8. Hello Mrs. K,
    Welcome to my blog. Do snoop around and leave your comments. I love hearing from you.

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  9. Hi Lisa,

    Yes, my Mum reads a lot Chinese legends and when I was a little girl, she tells me all the stories and I am always very interested to hear more. By documenting her recipes and writing the stories she told is very meaningful to me.

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  10. Without any doubt, a winner! Yes, it always tastes better a day after .

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  11. Hi Keats,
    Thanks for your visit and taking time to comment. It means a lot to me:D

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  12. You have a lovely blog and fabulous pictures. This is also my favourite and I always have this whenever I patronise the 'economy rice' stalls. Enjoy reading your stories!

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  13. Hey Cheah,
    Thanks for your visit. Looks like many people like this dish and I am like you, when ever I see this dish at the economy rice stall, I just can't resist putting lots on top of my rice. I am so glad to enjoy reading the story and hope you will always find something you enjoy here when you visit me.

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  14. That is why he became the Emperor, cos he is smart (to put mustard leaves in the soup!)

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  15. Tigerfish,
    The farmer put mustard leaves in the soup not the Emperor my dear:D

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  16. Me too great lover of this dish but we Hokkien name as "Chai Boey" :-P
    Thanks for your invitation for home cook meals, already log down in our home trip intinerary :-P

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  17. Oh wow, one of my favourite dishes too. Had learn to eat this when living in M'sia. But I find that in addition to the mustard vegetable, I can also add silverbeet from my garden as they cook very well and taste good too.
    Umm...thinking about it makes me hungry.

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  18. Linni,
    I think 9 our of 10 Malaysians like this dish. I am glad you do too.

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  19. I just googled the name of this dish(Yat Pun Woh) and was surprised that you have the recipe for it and the legend of this dish too. My mom cooked this dish when I was not married yet and now I'm a grandma. Can you imagine that was how long ago....40yrs. Thought of cooking it for my children and grandchildren but don't know where to start. Thank you so much for sharing your recipe. Will let you know if I'm successful.

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  20. Hi Lim
    Welcome to my blog and I am glad you found what you are looking for here. Hope to hear from you again soon.

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  21. Hi,

    I cooked 2 big pots of the Yat Pun Woh last Friday and my children loved it. I spent almost S$20 for the different types of veggies, assam and dried chillies. Didn't know that the veggies can be so costly. The taste was just nice, very appetizing especially eat it with porridge. We finished 1 and half pots of the dish in 1 day over lunch and dinner. Thank you once again.

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  22. Lim,
    It is so nice of you to come back and tell me that you and your family enjoyed the "Yat Pun Woh". It means a lot to me to know our recipes worked well and able to give people joy! Thanks so much. I wish you and your family a very Happy Holidays and a Wonderful New Year. Hope to see you again soon.

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  23. I love this too. Usually cook with roast duck. Like the shorter n leafy type of mustrard leaves. Kinda hard to find .

    Which shop in ss14? Me drooling :)

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    Replies
    1. I think 9 out of 10 Chinese love this dish. You are right, the mustard leaves you mentioned is hard to find. Will go get the address of the coffee shop and let you know on FB Page. Give Small Kucing a hug for me and ask him if he remembers this Quay Po Aunty.

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    2. not for me, no thank you... err... i do sound like someone eh... hahaha...

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  24. Quay Po, you missed out the most important ingredient , that is Assam keping ( assam slices ) !! It is the soul of this soup !! You can add in tomato, serai, any veggie in your fridge. If you can marinate your big mustard leaves with salt, rub will and cover for a few hrs to let it soften. If you have time, some them in the washed rice water for 1-2 days, home made salted veggie. This is clear your fridge soup, so any left over in your fridge can go into this soup not fish with bone, any stew, stir fried veggie or meat, left over soup and so on. If roasted pig is too expensive, marinate it with salt, soy sauce, then deep fry or bake it, as long as it has a good taste and aroma, it can goes in, even not fried or baked.
    I wonder is your story is true as this is a very local dish as Assam can't be found in China as Assam tree can be found in India, Indon and Malaysia. ( I cooked some dishes that my relatives from China loved it so much and asked for the recipe but they can't find assam there , so I sent them the assam when someone visited them.

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  25. Mrs. Lee, the assam slices is there, I missed out the word "slices". Thanks for pointing it out:). haha the story is just a legend, and no one says it is a true story. Like I have stated wheter it is true or not, it is not important. By the way, a reader of mine who stays in Beijing said it is easy for him to get all the ingredients to make this dish so I guess he could get tamarind slices there too.

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