Have you noticed the clay pots that pop up in Hong Kong’s homeware stores every winter? Pale in colour, with single roughly-cut handle — or no handle at all — they can be small enough for a single serving or big enough to feed an entire family.
In Cantonese, they are called saa1 wo1 (“sand pots,” written interchangeably as 砂鍋 or 沙鍋) and they are made out of porous clay fired and left unglazed, except for the interior and the top of the lid. They are used all over China, but they are mostly made in Guangdong province, in the city of Foshan, about 130 kilometres north of Hong Kong. They are both used to prepare Chinese medicine and for a variety of dishes, either with or without rice.
In Hong Kong, there are whole restaurants specialising in clay pot dishes, and while shops do sell fully glazed pots, the unglazed ones, with their porous clay, improve with time, as they absorb some of the salt and acidity of the food that is prepared inside them, and impart a subtle extra flavour that becomes tastier with usage. Due to their higher sensitivity to temperature changes, they require mostly a low flame, allowing the ingredients inside to simmer slowly, producing a layered palette of mellow but deep flavours.
Winter, with its short but sometimes biting cold spells, is when people in Hong Kong enjoy clay pot meals, partly because these vessels — which are brought to the table directly, without transferring their contents to a plate — maintain heat for an especially long time, bringing extra warmth to a meal.
Clay pot dishes fall into two main categories: with rice, or without. In the first case, rice is placed in the bottom of the pot, ingredients layered on top, then broth or water is added, with everything left to simmer under the lid. This produces particularly flavourful rice with a crispy bottom, and it is a method used most often with preserved meat dishes that slowly release their fat content into the rice underneath.
One of the most popular dishes prepared without rice is called red fermented beancurd and vegetables (naam4 jyu5 man1 zaai1 南乳炆齋) a vegetarian dish that is very often eaten on the first day of the new lunar year, when many people start the year anew by avoiding meat and fish. That’s what we’ll cook today – but first, you need to get a clay pot and season it.
How to treat your clay pot
Clay pots are rather inexpensive, ranging in price from HK$10 for the smallest to $100 to the largest. They can last for many years, but they require care and some unskippable preparatory steps.
First of all, you must wash your clay pot and its lid with running water, and then soak it in water overnight — easily done in the kitchen sink — or for 24 hours. At this point, you should scrub all the unglazed parts of the pot with a hard brush or a metal sponge, only rinsing with your hands the glazed parts. Do not be tempted to skip the soak, as the pot risks cracking as soon as you put it on the flame.
Let your pot dry on an open rack for a couple of hours. After these first all-important steps, you must seal your pot using rice. This is done by adding about a spoonful of unsalted cooked white rice to the pot, pouring warm water all the way to the ridge of the pot, and then letting it simmer slowly, on the lowest flame, with the lid on. When steam starts to come out of the lid’s hole, remove the lid and let the contents simmer on a low flame until the rice turns into a very liquid congee. Let it cool, and discard the contents.
The rice has now sealed the clay’s pores and any hairline cracks that may be in the pot. (Repeat the rice sealing method if you notice any such cracks after using the pot.) Let it cool, and rinse carefully with water, this time using a non-abrasive sponge, and allow your pot to dry once more. This whole process is a little laborious, but you only have to do it the first time, after which your pot will need little maintenance.
Now you are ready to start cooking. You can put your clay pot directly on the fire, but they are also safe for microwave use, and they can be put in the oven: remember only to put them inside the oven before turning on the heat so that the clay pot is not subject to a sudden temperature change, which would cause it to crack.
After the first use, remember to always soak the pot in water for about 10 minutes, then wipe it dry before using it again. Wash it by hand and use only water: as one of the characteristics of this type of clay is its ability to absorb flavours, you should not use soap or dishwashing liquid to clean it, and it is not suitable for a dishwasher.
If you ever need to clean your pot more deeply, you can use two different methods. The first is to fill the pot with water, put a teaspoon of green tea leaves inside, and let it simmer for about ten minutes. For a deeper clean, you can fill the kitchen sink with water and soak your clay pot, adding two to three tablespoons of baking soda to the water, then leave it for one hour or more. If you use baking soda, however, you need to season it again with the rice method.
One last piece of advice: to avoid temperature shocks, once your dish is ready and your pot still hot, you must avoid putting it on a wet or cold surface, so place a towel or a wood or cloth pot holder underneath it. If you follow all of these basic steps, your clay pot will last for a long time.
A vegetarian winter favourite
Today’s recipe is a classic winter dish as it uses mostly dried ingredients instead of relying on the bounty of fresh vegetables available in the warmer months. The star ingredient is the red fermented beancurd, which is, again, a southern specialty – as is implied by the Chinese name (naam4 jyu5, literally “southern milk”). It is a close relative of the white fermented tofu called fu6 jyu5 (腐乳) marinated in rice wine that comes in little jars, which is also used as a very tasty condiment.
The red version is made by letting the tofu ferment in a brine made with rice wine, rice vinegar, spices such as cinnamon and star anise — although the exact mix varies by manufacturer — and red yeast rice, which is what gives the brine and tofu a deep red, nearly maroon, colour. Taste wise, it is less salty and tangy than its white cousin, which has a more cheesy flavour: the red fermented tofu’s dominant note comes from the rice yeast and the other rice-derived ingredients, and it is like a concentrated rice umami bomb. Words can only describe it so much – it comes in little cubes, which, mashed into a paste and added to meat or vegetables, sauteed or stewed, gives a delectable aroma.
Recipe: Red fermented beancurd and vegetables
Ingredients for one small clay pot (enough for one or two people)
- 2 cubes of red fermented beancurd, mashed into a paste
- 3 dried shiitake mushrooms
- 2 pieces of dried tofu sticks
- 3 pieces of fried tofu puffs, cut in halves
- 3 dried wood ears mushrooms, and 3 dried cloud ears mushrooms
- One bundle of cellophane, or glass, noodles
- Half a carrot, sliced
- A small cup of chopped Chinese cabbage
- 2 slices of ginger
- 1 tablespoon of light soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon of dark soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons of vegetarian oyster sauce
- 2 teaspoons of cornstarch
- 3 tablespoons of neutral cooking oil (canola or peanut oil are recommended)
- 1 tablespoon of sesame oil
- White pepper and salt to taste
Optional ingredients
- 2 fried gluten puffs
- Other vegetables such as snow peas, or boiled ginkgo nuts, or small fresh mushrooms can be added to the stew, but the above list contains the most common ingredients
Procedure
- Start by soaking all the dry ingredients in different bowls: the mushrooms and the dried tofu sticks will need about 30 minutes, the dried fungus are ready in 20, and the glass noodles about 15.
- Cut the mushrooms in half, or in quarters if they are quite large, trim off the stem, and keep their soaking water aside. Cut the tofu sticks into small pieces, about 4cm in length.
- Cut off the stem from the two types of fungus, and cut them roughly the same size as the carrots, then blanch them together with the fried tofu puffs in boiling water for about four to five minutes, and set aside.
- Put the clay pot on the flame, keeping it very low, and add the neutral oil. When it is hot, add the ginger slices, and stir for one minute. Add the mashed red fermented tofu, and stir until it has completed melted in the oil.
- Add the cabbage, carrot slices, mushrooms, fungus, tofu puffs and tofu sticks, and fill the pot with the reserved mushroom’s soaking water – add it in small batches, very, very slowly to avoid lowering the temperature too quickly and shocking the clay pot. Cover with the lid, and let simmer for about 20 minutes. Keep an eye on the water level: if it gets too dry, add some more mushroom’s soaking water, or filtered water, but always as slowly as you can. Add the glass noodles, and stir, and add more water if necessary – glass noodles soak up quite a lot. Cover again, and let it cook for five more minutes.
- Make a slurry by mixing together in a small bowl the two soy sauces, the vegetarian oyster sauce, the sesame oil and the cornstarch. Add it to the clay pot, and stir again, for a couple more minutes. Add the white pepper, and taste for saltiness. Add a pinch of salt if necessary.
- Serve directly in the clay pot.All photos are by Ilaria Maria Sala
Where to eat it
If all this has made you hungry, but you want someone else to prepare a clay pot delight for you, we suggest you visit two of the most famous clay pot restaurants in Hong Kong.
Kwan Kee Clay Pot Rice
Shop 1, G/F, Wo Yick Mansion, 263 Queen’s Road West, Sai Ying Pun
Sheung Hei Claypot Rice
25 North Street, Kennedy Town