Stewed Vegetable Core

Stewed Vegetable Core

　　"Stewed Vegetable Core" is a historic and famous dish from Nanjing, Jiangsu Province. In the renowned Wanzhu Garden in Nanjing, there is a type of leafy green vegetable called "Aijiao Huang" (named for its short stature, plump leaves, white stems, and yellow hearts). Wanzhu Garden is located near Fenghuangtai in the western part of Nanjing. Fenghuangtai was an ancient scenic overlook. The Tang Dynasty poet Li Bai once visited this place and left behind the verse: “On Fenghuangtai the phoenixes come to play; / When the phoenixes go, the terrace stands bare, with only the river flowing away.” Originally, the green vegetables from Wanzhu Garden had no such poetic name. It is said that Empress Ma, the wife of Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, once saw a phoenix flying from Laifeng Street, passing through Fengyou Temple, and landing in Wanzhu Garden near Fenghuangtai. This made Wanzhu Garden a feng shui treasure land, and thus the garden’s green vegetables gained great fame. "Aijiao Huang" became widely known throughout the city. At that time, government officials and chefs in restaurants used "Aijiao Huang" to create many delicious dishes, among which the most famous was "Stewed Vegetable Core." In the 1930s, the supplement "Happy Forest" of the Shanghai newspaper Shen Bao published an article titled "The Exquisite Delicacy of Stewed Vegetable Core," praising the dish as "fresh, elegant, and infinitely flavorful." For over a hundred years, Nanjing has preserved this traditional and classic dish.

　　　　Ingredients: 600g of Aijiao Huang vegetable cores, 60g of chicken breast, 25g of shrimp, 30g each of sliced winter bamboo shoots and cooked ham slices, 15g each of soaked winter mushrooms and cooked chicken oil, 1 egg, 10g of Shaoxing wine, 3g each of fine salt and dry starch, 1.5g of monosodium glutamate, 500g of chicken broth, 750g of cooked lard (about 100g consumed).

　　　　Method: 1. Wash the vegetables (without breaking them apart), trim the stems into an olive shape, make a crisscross cut on top, separate the leaves, and take 7cm-long sections of the vegetable core.

　　　　 2. Slice the chicken breast into strips about 5cm long and 1cm wide, place them in a bowl, add egg yolk and dry starch, and mix well.

　　　　3. Heat a wok, add the cooked lard, and heat until it reaches 40% heat. Add the vegetable cores, stir with an iron spoon until they turn emerald green, then remove and drain the oil. Next, add the chicken breast slices to the wok, fry them in the oil, then remove and drain.

　　　　4. Take a wok, first line the bottom with some of the vegetable cores, then arrange the remaining cores around the edge of the wok base with their heads facing outward, forming a circle (leaving the heads exposed). Place shrimp, chicken breast, bamboo shoot slices, ham slices, and mushroom slices in the center. Add fine salt, Shaoxing wine, monosodium glutamate, and chicken broth. Bring to a boil over high heat, then simmer over low heat for about 15 minutes. Drizzle with chicken oil before serving.

　　　　Features: The color is yellow-green, the shape of the vegetables remains intact, the cores are tender and soft, melt-in-your-mouth, with a fragrant, fresh, and savory taste.

　　　　Key Tips: When cooking, first blanch the washed vegetable cores in warm oil until they turn bright green, then remove and stew with the other ingredients. This helps preserve the tenderness of the cores while allowing the flavors to penetrate easily.