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© Copyright 1995-2023, Clay Irving <clay@panix.com>, Manhattan Beach, CA USA
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This is sometimes called "Chinese" vegetable stew in Thailand, because the chosen vegetables are usually of Chinese origin. You can make substitutions, and some recipes for this stew call for as many as 10 different vegetables. You do need at least 4 to get the veriety of tastes and textures required, but if the produce market yields more on the day, then you can indeed use more (keep the overall quantity about the same.)
Though called a vegetable stew, this is by no means a vegetarian dish (For a vegetarian dish, see Kaeng Liang). It contains a substantial amount of meat. The essential flavor of the dish comes from the belly pork. If you prefer you can use a pound of belly pork and omit the poultry, but you shouldn't omit the pork altogether.
This is a one plate meal - a single dish forming the entire meal (as opposed to the more usual dining style in Thailand with several contrasting dishes).
½ pound of belly pork cut into half inch cubes.
½ chicken or duck, cut into bite sized pieces.
4 cups of mooli (Chinese white raddish) cut into 1 inch slices, and quartered
1 Chinese cabbage, cut into moderate sized chunks
1 [Western] cabbage, quartered, cored, and cut into 1 inch cubes
1 cup of leek, in 1 inch rings
2 cups of [Chinese] celery, in 1 inch pieces
4 cups of kale, stems crushed, and very roughly chopped
10 medium Chinese mushrooms, soaked in water, and the stems discarded
5 cakes of hard soybean curd, quartered, and the pieces cut in half diagonally
3 cups of mung bean noodles, soaked, and cut into short lengths
½ cup of bai phak chi (coriander/cilantro leaf), chopped
6 tablespoons of soybean paste
3 tablespoons of chopped garlic
1 tablespoon of minced ginger
3 tablespoons of fish sauce
2 tablespoons of dark soy sauce
1 tablespoon of Maggi sauce
2 tablespoons of [palm] sugar
8 cups of pork stock
black pepper to taste
Bring the stock to a boil and add the pork, poultry, fish sauce, soy sauce, and Maggi sauce, boil uncovered until the meats are just cooked. Add the vegetables, bean curd, and noodles In a wok, heat some oil, and fry the soybean paste until fragrant Sauté the garlic and ginger Add the soybean paste, garlic and ginger to the soup. Taste, and adjust the fish sauce and pepper to suit the chef's preferences. Remove from the heat and serve when the vegetables are done.