Health is wealth: try making your own poon choi this Lunar New Year with this nutritionist-approved recipe

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These days, poon choi usually has expensive ingredients such as abalone, sea cucumber and fish maw.

But this communal dish had a humble start. It was invented out of necessity during the Song dynasty when Mongol troops invaded China.

The young emperor, Zhao Bing, fled to Guangdong province and later to a walled village in Hong Kong’s New Territories. The locals did not have enough containers to serve food for the emperor and his large army. So they resorted to putting the meals in large wooden washbasins – hence, the name poon choi, which translates to “basin vegetables”.

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The dish has come a long way since it was served to the last ruler of the Song dynasty.

Now, it takes centre stage during Lunar New Year reunion dinners. There are usually eight main ingredients in a poon choi to symbolise wishes for wealth and abundance in the new year.

This can be a combination of any of the following items: turnip, taro, fish ball, pigskin, bean curd sheet, shiitake mushroom, trotter, dried oyster, dried scallop, chicken, roast duck, prawn and abalone.

Hongkongers often heap their poon choi with roast meat and seafood because these are considered premium ingredients.

But Kathy Ng Yiu-fan, a senior nutritionist at Kat-Spirit Nutrition Centre in Hong Kong, recommended making this dish a more balanced meal and not neglecting the vegetables.

Though most people only have poon choi once a year, it is still a good idea to eat less of the deep-fried ingredients such as pigskin and bean curd sheet.

“These are high in saturated fat and can increase the risk of heart disease and stroke. The same goes for roast meat,” the nutritionist said.

Ng encouraged pairing the dish with rice to balance out the protein and help you feel full. But she stressed using less sauce, which is typically prepared with red fermented bean curd.

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According to Ng, 100 grams of red fermented bean curd has 2,873 milligrams of sodium. “This excess consumption of sodium results in high blood pressure as well as increases the risk of getting stomach cancer.”

Instead of relying on store-bought poon choi this year, show off your culinary skills by preparing the dish at home with this hearty, crowd-pleasing recipe!

Ingredients (serves four to five)

Seafood

• 1 can of baby abalone (save the broth)

• 10 large prawns with heads and shells intact

• 20 small scallops

Meat

• 200 grams of roasted lean pork without skin

• 200 grams of store-bought roast chicken or duck

Vegetables

• 200 grams of daikon cut into 2.5cm slices

• 2 small heads of broccoli, cut into florets

• 80 grams of firm tofu

• 6 fresh shiitake mushrooms, sliced

• 4 napa cabbage leaves cut into large chunks

Sauce

• 300ml of chicken stock

• 1 tablespoon of Chinese cooking wine

• 1 tablespoon of oyster sauce

• ½ teaspoon of sugar

• 1 tablespoon of cornflour mixed with 1 tablespoon of water

Directions

1. Bring a medium pot of water to a boil. Immerse the abalone and scallops in the boiling water for a few seconds. Next, add the prawns and cook for about a minute until they turn pink. Remove and set aside the seafood.

2. To keep the flavours from mixing, boil a new pot of water, and blanch the broccoli florets and shiitake mushrooms for two to three minutes. Then, remove the veggies and soak them in a bowl of ice-cold water.

3. Pour the chicken broth and canned abalone broth into a large clay pot. Add the napa cabbage and daikon and simmer for about 10 minutes until they are soft.

4. In the clay pot, layer the mushrooms, firm tofu and roast pork. Bring it to a simmer before covering the pot to let it cook for another 10 minutes. This allows the ingredients to soak up the broth.

5. Layer the remaining ingredients in the clay pot. Then, reduce the heat to the lowest setting to keep the food warm while preparing the sauce.

6. In a saucepan, combine the oyster sauce, wine and sugar. Let the mixture simmer for about three minutes over low heat. Stir the sauce while pouring in the cornflour mixture, and continue stirring until it thickens. Then, remove it from the heat.

7. To finish the dish, pour the thickened sauce over everything, and serve immediately.

Note: This dish is sometimes prepared hours in advance. If doing so, reheat it to at least 75 degrees Celsius before serving. A larger portion needs more time to reheat thoroughly.

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