A traditional dish that is usually served at Chinese New Year family reunion meals, Buddha's Delight is a delicious vegetarian dish full of flavor and textures. It is typically served as one of many dishes at a Chinese New Year meal, but it is hearty enough to eat with some rice or completely on its own!
Soak Chinese mushrooms in about 1 ½ cups hot water for at least 3 hours, overnight is best.
Soak dried bean curd sticks, wood ears, and lily buds in warm water for at least 3 hours.
Preparing Ingredients:
Soak bean thread noodles and black moss for 10-15 minutes in warm water, making sure the noodles are completely submerged.
Remove rehydrated Chinese mushrooms from water, reserving the mushroom liquid for cooking.
Trim tough stems off mushrooms and cut caps in half or thick slices.
Drain wood ears and cut into bite-sized pieces.
Drain bean curd and cut into 1 ½" lengths (roughly).
Drain lily buds. Snip off tough tips with scissors or cut off with a knife and tie each lily bud into a knot.
Cut napa cabbage into 1 ½" pieces (roughly).
Cut 2 stalks green onions into 2" lengths.
Sauce:
Combine Chinese cooking wine, soy sauce, vegetarian oyster sauce, dark soy sauce, sugar, and reserved mushroom soaking liquid in a bowl or measuring cup.
Cooking:
Heat a large pan, wok, or pot over medium-high heat.
Add neutral-flavored oil to the pan.
Add sliced ginger and green onions and quickly saute for about 30 seconds.
Add Chinese mushrooms, bean curd, and wood ears. Mix.
Add tofu puffs and lily buds. Mix.
Add the sauce to the pan. Mix.
Add napa cabbage and mix. Cover the pan with a lid and cook for 4-5 minutes.
Uncover and add drained bean thread noodles and black moss. Use two utensils to help mix the noodles thoroughly into the ingredients.
Continue tossing and mixing until noodles are well coated in sauce and the sauce has mostly been absorbed.
Notes
All the ingredients should be ready to go before you start cooking as everything happens very quickly.
The dried ingredients are best found in an Asian supermarket or local market specializing in Asian foods.
All quantities of the ingredients can be adjusted or omitted to your preference and taste.
Regular oyster sauce can be substituted for vegetarian oyster sauce if you are not strictly vegetarian. It can also be omitted, if desired.
Dark soy sauce is very strong in flavor and also darkens the overall color of the jai, so it is best to use it sparingly.
Adjust the sauce ingredients according to your personal taste.
The mushroom soaking liquid can be replaced with vegetable broth or water.
Do not worry about all the liquid in the pan before adding the noodles; the noodles will end up soaking it up very quickly once they are added.
Buddha's Delight is traditionally one of several dishes served for Chinese New Year, but you can enjoy it on its own or with some steamed rice.
Store leftovers in the fridge and reheat either by steaming or in the microwave.
Leftovers can also be frozen in zippered freezer bags with most of the air squeezed out.