Vietnamese Spring Rolls with Tofu

Today the weather forecast said there is chance of thunderstorm.  

Braised Fish Maw with Peanuts 鱼鳔焖花生

Is another year, I wake up to be in another continent doing my usual routine with a tighter schedule. How time flies! My last blog post was nearly 6 months ago! Another big moved and now I'm back to Down Under. Missing all my friends in Qatar...a lot. I do enjoy the life here, now it is very convenient for me to get any Asian ingredients which I want. 

Not sure if this year I'll have time to bake any Chinese New Year cookies but for sure will try to cook a few Chinese New Year dishes as requested by my hubby. :) Nowadays is not easy to get permission to cook any fatty food from someone who is trying hard to keep his diet on healthy side. 

When I flip through the "Homey New Year" cookbook by Amy Wong, the Braised Fish Maw with Peanuts catches my attention. I will love to have a dish filled with collagen fish maw for New Year! I added a few more ingredients to this dish to make it a more complete one pot meal. And it goes well with brown rice and millet. The verdict is, my little picky eater finished up his meal...super fast! And cooking a traditional Chinese New Year dishes should not be a pain too. Happy cooking!

Recipe adapted from Homey New Year Cookbook by Amy Wong with changes

Ingredients:
150g deep fried fish maw
150g skinned peanuts, soaked overnight
20 pieces Chinese dried mushroom, soaked
500g pork belly, cut into bite size
100g black beans
100g dried chestnuts 
6 pieces of five spices hard tofu, cut into small
6 cloves of garlic, flatten
a few hard boiled eggs, peel the hard shell
water enough to cover all ingredients

Seasoning:
3 tbsp oyster sauce
2 tbsp light soy sauce (to taste)
a dash of black peppers
1.5 tbsp of raw sugar
3 tbsp of dark soy sauce 

Method:

1. Preparing the fish maw: Soak the fish maw overnight, place a weight to press down the floating fish maw in water. Squeeze out the water and cut into small pieces, blanch in boiling water for a few mins, rinse and squeeze out the water, set a side for later use.

2. Preparing the dish: Heat up 2 tbsp of cooking oil in a wok, stir-fry the garlic and Chinese dried mushroom until fragrant. Add in pork belly, peanuts, black beans, dried chestnuts and seasonings, stir-fry evenly for another 5 mins. 

Add in the water which enough to cover all ingredients, bring it to boil. Transfer all the ingredients to a slow cooker, add the fish maw,  shelled hard boiled egg and five spices hard tofu. Cover the lid and let it cook for another 2.5 to 3 hours, until the sauce thicken. Taste the dish, add more seasoning to your desire. Add more dark soy sauce if the colour of the dish is not dark enough.

Serve hot with rice.