My First Attempt at Making Poon Choy

Since I was home alone this year and had lots of time on my hands, I thought I'd finally attempt making Poon Choy or Prosperity Bowl (sometimes also called Wealth, Treasure or Celebration Pot).  Poon Choy is a well sought-after dish during Chinese New Year (CNY) for the layers of different auspicious ingredients and meaning that goes into it (rather obvious from the word "prosperity" already!).

I guess if you have to cook a feast of (say) 10 dishes, you might as well make poon choy which is much simpler since it's like a one-pot dish.  Some would just order them from restaurants as a takeaway and have it at home.   I've eaten poon choy at restaurants and had also watched a video (by Cooking Ah Pa) on how to make one and realised it's actually pretty doable.

And since I had most of the ingredients in my fridge and pantry anyway, I got down to doing it.  Making a poon choy is all about blanching and layering the ingredients.  I started with a stock for blanching the ingredients. I made a chicken stock (with choi yin kai bones) or you could use just water.  I couldn't since I was making a mini poon choy which would have too few ingredients to flavour the water.  Then again, even if you're making a 10-pax poon choy, how much flavour would the blanched ingredients bring anyway? ;)

Vegetables would be the first thing to be blanched since they form the bottom layer of the poon choy.  The usual vegetables used would be carrots, pak choy (Chinese cabbage) and radish.  I used carrots and cabbage (I improvised with what I had + I don't like Chinese cabbage anyway).  Radish would be a good choice too to line the bottom of the poon choy as softened radish would absorb the broth and take on flavour.  Some would also use broccoli for the vibrant green it brings to the top layer of the poon choy.

Next, I blanched the abalone (I still had two leftover which I kept aside after making a braised mushrooms and abalone dish for the reunion dinner) and parboiled two dried scallops.  The scallops started to break apart after just a few minutes in the broth (even from a dried and hardened state without soaking), so I had to take them out and steamed them instead to keep them from breaking.

I then parboiled two large prawns.  If you've noticed that the stock is slightly darker, that's because I decided (at this point) to add a bit of soy hoping that I could infuse the prawns with a bit more flavour.  The balance ingredients were steamed.

With that, I was ready to start assembling my poon choy starting with the first (or bottom) layer.  I filled it with a layer of softened carrot slices (cut into a floret-pattern...hehe).

Next was a layer of softened cabbage leaves.  If I had softened beancurd sheets (fu chuk), that would have been the next layer as the addition of fu chuk would also be a great vehicle to absorb the sauce at the bottom.

I then arranged the next layer with all the other auspicious goodies like prawns, dried shiitake mushrooms (I also kept a few from the previous day's braised mushroom dish), abalone, dried scallops, chicken, lap cheong (dried pork sausage) and yun cheong (liver sausage) which I steamed.

After that, all that was needed was to season the stock (you can use oyster sauce, light soy, Shaoxing wine, etc...just not dark soy so that the sauce will not be too dark in colour).  Let the sauce reduce (or you could use a little cornflour slurry) and pour it over the arranged ingredients.....and the poon choy for one is ready.

Did you notice my lame attempt at trying to carve out a bunny-shaped carrot (this is the Year of the Rabbit after all)?  That was how much time I had on my hands (lol)...and that's the beauty of cooking for one!  I don't even have a paring knife to do such a thing. ^_~

Not the prettiest, well arranged poon choy I've to say.  I didn't even have a claypot to present it in.  I used the nearest thing I had....I metallic look-alike version of a claypot.  Also, one is supposed to let the poon choy ingredients overflow to the brim of the claypot.  If I had done so, this would not be a poon choy for one...hah..hah.

So, make sure you choose the right-sized claypot to hold your poon choy (and don't underestimate the size). My 16cm (only) metallic claypot may look small but, as it turned out, it could hold a lot more than I thought (probably enough even for a 4-pax poon choy).  This mini one alone took me two meals to finish.

A poon choy is a very popular dish/meal eaten during CNY as it's convenient and can be prepared ahead of time.  All you have to do is blanch/parboil/steam the ingredients needed and assemble it when dinner time draws near.  You can reheat the claypot's ingredients and pour the hot broth/sauce over.  

A poon choy is favoured as it contains chosen auspicious ingredients like carrots for good luck, cabbage for growing fortune, prawns for laughter and happiness, mushrooms to symbolise longevity, abalone and dried scallops to bring wealth and prosperity, chicken celebrates togetherness and harmony and lap cheong is symbolic for wealth.

I may be home alone but that doesn't mean I shouldn't enjoy something special, so I thought this would be as good a time as any to make a mini poon choy for myself since my family wasn't around + they aren't quite into steamed and braised stuff that goes into one.  It was last year when I first noticed a few restaurants promoting their "a person, a bowl" poon choy that first gave me the idea of making one actually.

Now that I know how easy it is to put together a poon choy (even though this was just a mini one), this would certainly be a worthwhile consideration in future if I had to cook for a bigger group of guests (of say 10 - 12) during CNY as the work is much simpler (and lighter) than cooking like 6 - 8 individual dishes.  You may want to consider it too. ^.^