Food, travel, recipe & sights

• Home
• About
• Archive
• Disclosure
• Eating places
• Money$
• Contact
• Privacy

Visit my Best Recipe food blog for great recipes. Penang Foods is a new food blog from me too.







Subscribe in a reader

Recent Comments

• Jen on A nameless pink beans for soups
• Jen on A nameless pink beans for soups
• Leo on Bak Hu – Pork floss and mini springrolls
• Chef Nick on Crispy Chinese roasted pork – Video
• Jas on Recipe : Secret recipe of khau yoke (yam with belly pork)

Categories

• Biscuits (5)
• Cameron Highlands (7)
• Confinement food (6)
• Dessert (17)
• Download free recipe (1)
• Eating places (70)
• Festivals & Religious (49)
• Food (193)
• Fruits (16)
• General (126)
• Hawker foods (29)
• Information (26)
• Ingredients (19)
• Ipoh foods (3)
• Out of Penang (6)
• plants and nature (7)
• Pork (65)
• Recipe (103)
• Sights (34)
• Travel (14)

Archives

Select Month December 2009 August 2009 April 2009 March 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 January 2006 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005

Chinese New Year must have dish – Joo hoo char

If you are a Penangite and are a Hokkien or at least some relations to Hokkien folks, this is one of the must have dish for Chinese New Year. Almost every home has it. But, the difference is in the flavour of the dish. Some of my relatives cook this but they taste just flat and normal.

I have made joo hoo char (ju hoo char) for several Chinese New Years already but somehow, I never make a blog post of it because usually, I fried them in big batches and was too stressed out to bother. This time, I took the trouble to make a smaller portion and show readers the step-by-step way to prepare this.

I will break this into two posts due to the number of photos and tips.

Joo hoo char got its evil good taste from the three-layer pork that we use. You cannot get really good halal joo hoo char. Chicken meat is just too dry. In order to cut these pork into really tiny pieces, you need to parboil it. Dunk the strip of pork into boiling water and leave it to turn colour. Do not cook it, just let it be a little firmer so that it is easier to cut.

This is the dried squid strips or we call it joo hoo si. Before buying, smell that it doesn’t smell pungent. It has to have a pleasant smell of the sea and not some rotten fish. Two taels (tahils) will be sufficient.

The main vege is of course the turnip or sengkuang or Hokkien call bangkuang. Large or older ones yield better quality. This turnip weighs 800 grams. Avoid getting tiny ones because they are full of sap and will make your dish very soggy due to the high water content.

The other vegetables are the carrots and Chinese celery. Some people use spring onions but my mother told me to avoid spring onions because they can cause the dish to turn bad faster. The Chinese celery will balance off the strong smell of the squid.

Carrots are easily grated with the grater. It takes just minutes to get them into thin, long strips.

However, avoid doing the same with the turnip because when you grate them, the turnip will turn dry and fibrous. So, what I normally do is to use the slicer to slice them into thin slices. I only use a cheap Mini Wonder which costs me RM7.90. You can find them from most supermarkets. Cutting the slices of turnip is not hard at all and I actually love this process.

Forget about the strict rule of wanting your joo hoo char to be as finely sliced as possible. When people eat, they don’t see if the thickness are uniform. Just take a big cleaver and slice with no worries.

This other tip is what my mom taught me. Turnip has some sap and you need to wash them after cutting. The sap will make your palm feel sticky. Put the sliced turnip, carrot and Chinese celery into a pot of running water. Mix them well.

Then, drain these vegetables in a colander till they are dry.

Cut the pork and Chinese dried shitake mushroom into thin slices. Seen above is a tablespoon of fermented bean paste. (taucheo)

The full recipe is available on Best Recipe food blog.

Posted by lilian on January 7th, 2008 under Festivals & Religious, Recipe

Recent Posts

• Having the right cookware helps
• My very short but very filling trip
• A porky second chance at the Bulgarian restaurant
• Barbee Burger – Minced pork burger
• New mom’s first meal – steamed pork with sesame oil and ginger