Chap-chye

Ingredients

Quantity	Ingredient
30g	dried lily buds
25g	dried beancurd sheet, soaked in warm water for 15 minutes, (you can use instead 25 g dried beancurd twists but because they are much more solid, they must be soaked overnight, and take longer to cook)
1/2 cup	water
1/2 teaspoon	cornflour
1 teaspoon	chinese wine or sherry
	salt, to taste
pinch	pepper
4 tablespoons	vegetable oil
6 very thin slices	fresh ginger, chopped
2 tablespoons	brown or yellow soya bean paste
or 1 tablespoon	soya sauce
250g	sliced pork or beef or shelled prawns or pork liver, (optional)
250g	wedge cabbage, roughly cut
25g	chinese mushrooms, soaked in warm water and hard stems removed, sliced
15g	cloud-ear fungus
100g	bamboo shoots, sliced
50g	chinese vermicelli, soaked for 20 minutes in cold water and then cut into 4 cm lengths
3	spring onions with green tops, chopped
1 teaspoon	sesame oil

If you have the patience, tie a knot in the middle of each lily bud. This will stop the vegetable from breaking up as it cooks, and will keep the texture as it should be. Cut the soaked beancurd into 3 x 4 cm pieces. Mix the water, cornflour, sherry, soya sauce (if you are using it) and salt and pepper into a seasoning mixture and keep aside.
Heat the oil in a wok or a large frying pan. Add the ginger and fry until light brown then the bean paste and stir-fry a little. If you have used meat or twisted beancurd add it now and stir-fry until the meat changes colour. Throw in the cabbage, mushrooms and cloud-ear fungus, and stir-fry. Add the lily buds and bamboo shoots and stir until everything is lightly cooked (the cabbage should be cooked but still crisp). Add the beancurd sheet and the vermicelli last as these both tend to stick to the pan. Put in the seasoning mixture and stir until everything is done, adding more water if you need to, although the dish should not be too wet.
Just before lifting off the heat, sprinkle with the spring onions. After taking the pan off the stove, stir in the sesame oil, and serve.
For a vegetarian version, Chap-chye may be cooked without the meat. To make it more substantial, serve with a ‘coin-purse’ egg on top of each portion or, alternatively, some cubes of the spiced beancurd. To make ‘coin-purse’ eggs, break a whole egg into hot oil in a frying pan and fry until fluffy and cooked to the degree desired.