cooking my mom's Cantonese zai

this CNY 2022, i decided to cook my mom's Canto vege zai. mom's getting old, so better to learn this one. 

here are all the ingredients:

the secret sauce is this Shao Xing Red Bean Curd 350gm which you can find selling at the wet market:

here are photos of all the ingredients:

fresh long tau pok, cut these up into half:

the halves look like this:

gluten balls

tau pok squares:

yet another kind of tau pok:

black chinese mushrooms (personally i think these don't go well inside the zai, but mom insists on these:

two other types of mushrooms (i like these better):

another two other types of mushrooms (these straw & button mushrooms are nice):

2 packets of bean curd skin - wipe these with wet cloth and cut into rectangles of 2cm by 4cm:

looks like these after cutting them:

hairy moss:

1 big napa cabbage and 1 big bok choy:

my mom said "360ml of chicken stock" and i got a shock cuz i thought this was vegetarian dish, then she said can use water if truly wanna be vegetarian.

some vegetable oil:

now for the directions, from start to finish, is about 50 minutes of cooking:

use 1/2 bottle of shao xing red bean curd skin if you are planning to eat the zai on its own without rice, else use 3/4 bottle if you are planning to have the zai with rice.

mash it up:

use a frying pan, add a bit of oil and lightly pan fry the bean curd skin:

find a medium pot at least 25cm diameter, start a medium heat fire, and throw in the fried bean curd skin and chicken stock:

eventually fry up all the bean curd skin and throw them into the medium sized pot:

next: fry the napa cabbage:

put in all the black mushrooms first into the medium sized pot:

next: add the straw and button mushrooms into the pot, start stirring the pot every 2-3 minutes:

then add the two types of white mushrooms, keep stirring:

inside the pan, continue to fry the napa cabbage:

empty the pan containing the fried napa into a basket:

meanwhile: keep on stirring the medium sized pot:

next: add some oil and fry the bok choy in the pan: 

put in the gluten balls and keep frying:

then add in the types of tau pok and keep frying:

add more tau pok...

now need to use one more new big pot, at least 32cm diameter:

transfer all the contents of the medium sized pot into the big pot:

add in all the contents from the frying pan into the big pot. now the big pot is almost full:

add in the napa cabbages and tau pok from the basket:

distribute the mashed up shao xing red bean curd around the middle of the 1st pot:

start stirring again:

cover it up and let it slow boil for 15 minutes:

after 15 minutes, pour some of the broth from the 1st pot into the hairy moss:

the hairy moss starts to cook in the heat of the broth:

set a slow fire for 5 minutes:

keep stirring:

try some of the broth, and see if it is suitable to your preference:

if not enough, mash a bit more of the Shao Xing bean curd and add into the pot and mix it in:

put in the hairy moss and here is the final product after 50 minutes or so:

after peer reviews, the following comments were incorporated:

"grandma (i.e. mom's mother in law) also added a little light soya sauce to bring out the umami taste"

"grandma added some vermicelli noodles"

"grandma added some ginko nuts"

"for the shiitake mushrooms - the water used to soak the mushrooms should be filtered with paper towel and kept, to be poured into the mix at the stage where you add water; so use less water"

"grandma added rock sugar"