The end of the year is always a feast, Christmas and New Year buffet galore and then straight into the new year we go into more feasting aka Chinese New Year festivities, where the cakes, kuehs and delicacies are a plenty!

So to help myself and keep healthy during this crazy feasting season, I’m currently on a white carb free fast that involves eating every 3 hours, a ton of fibre and non-sweet fruits with the occasional protein thrown in – I’m a week into it (the last time I did any kind of dieting was 3 years ago ha ha – so all the sensations of feeling dopey, hungry and grumpy are kinda new again – I do love a wide variety of food, so I do miss eating my potatoes and quinoa pasta:)

And then this morning feeling a little tired and out of it, as I went by Chinatown market (that’s the local market I shop at), I suddenly felt completely inspired to try some CNY cooking upon seeing a huge stall of waxed ducks, waxed sausages and dried Jin Hua ham! This stall according to the seller parades their waxed, dried wares once a year so I bought some Jin Hua Ham with the intention to make a pared down, easy Buddha Jump Over the Wall recipe!

Did Buddha Jump Over the Wall? – It’s a dish with a really weird name and legend has it that a scholar who was visiting the Fujian province, one day cooked this dish out in the open and the smells spread to the nearby monastery where monks were meditating, and although monks aren’t supposed to eat meat, one jumped over the wall coz he was so tempted. A poet amongst the scholar and fellow travellers then said that even Buddha would jump over the wall to eat this delicious dish!

This recipe isn’t going to be an absolute walk in the park, however compared to many other original Buddha Jump Over the Wall recipes, this one is much easier to make, it can be done in half an afternoon.

The original recipe calls for 30 over types of ingredients which can include (quail eggs, bamboo shoots, scallops, sea cucumber, abalone, sharks fins, fish maw, chicken, Jin Hua ham, pork tendons, ginseng, mushrooms and taro).

I’m using scallops, mushrooms, abalone, chicken, Jin Hua ham and long cabbage for more fiber, other condiments also include pre-made chicken stock (I always have some homemade ones in the freezer) and maybe a bottle or two of Brand’s Essence of chicken and to thicken and sweeten the broth further I will add in some Kombu seaweed and goji berries too. I’m trying to keep the ingredient list to less than 10 items – you can of course add whatever else you like.

How much can a bowl of Buddha Jump Over the Wall cost? – Well in 2005, Kai Mayfair in London called it “the most expensive soup in the world” as a bowl of it cost pounds 108.
In Singapore, you can eat this same soup in 2017 at Putien Chinese Restaurant for SG$128 per person.

The at home version won’t be as fancy for sure, but it will definitely be stunning enough to entertain relatives and friends over CNY!

To double boil or not? – If you have a large enough size double boiler, by all means do use it, it does keep the integrity of the food being cooked – conceptually it’s a pot within another pot, steaming all the goodness and keeping the ingredients cooked, but not over cooked. You will get a clear consomme looking soup if you use a double boiler. If you don’t have a double boiler just use a claypot and keep your fire really low.

What’s Jin Hua Ham? It’s a type of dried cured ham named after the city of Jinhua, where it is produced in the Zhejiang province of eastern China. It’s used in many Chinese cuisines to flavour stewed and braised food as well as for making the stocks and broths of many Chinese soups.

How to prepare your Jin Hua Ham (this step can be skipped if you are short on time, however this gives the Jin Hua Ham a better taste)

That’s the block of Jin Hua Ham – it’s pretty similar to Parma ham, and for the best effect prepare this the way the restaurants do-
1) by slicing and then rinsing the ham in boiling hot water to get rid of the oil
2) and then sit the rinsed slices a bowl, add hot boiling water, top with a few slices of ginger and steam for 40mins

Once it’s steamed, pat dry your Jin Hua ham and they can be kept in the freezer for 3 months or more, pack it in small bags that can be used to add flavour to soups, stews or vegetable dishes. It adds an umami punch without any msg.

Fry your ginger and garlic slices

Add the prepared Jin Hua ham fry for a few seconds

Add in the chicken pieces to the Jin Hua Ham to add flavour and fry till slightly caramalised

Remove chicken pieces only, (leave the Jin Hua ham in the wok) and add to a claypot or large double boiler you will use to make the soup – cover with water, turn up the heat to high

The purpose of boiling the chicken is to get rid of the scum and marrow from the chicken for a much clearer soup – boil for 5 mins and turn off the heat and wash chicken pieces throughly

Washed chicken pieces try to remove as much leftover bone or red coloured marrow

 

The other ingredients

Sliced long cabbages and Japanese Kombu

Dried scallops and dried mushrooms that have been soaked, water kept aside for the stock later and a can of abalone, to be sliced and abalone water will be kept too

Wash your claypot one more time after using it to boil the chicken pieces, get it as clean as possible. Add in the cabbages, kombu and fried Jin Hua ham pieces with the garlic and ginger

Layer in chicken and then add in your pre-bought or homemade stock and the remaining water required for the recipe, plus the reserved waters from the scallop, abalone and mushrooms

Add scallops, mushrooms and abalone slices on the top most layer

Finish with Hua Tiao Chinese Wine (no Chinese wine, you may use whiskey or cognac), black plum vinegar and when everything just comes to a boil, lower fire to the smallest flame possible and then add in 1 bottle of Brand’s Essence of chicken. (If you don’t have any brand’s Essence of chicken you can either add in a few ginseng pieces or a teaspoon of 5 spice powder to improve the flavour of the stock.)

Cook on the lowest fire possible for 1 to 1.5 hours. After which, you should remove the chicken so as not to overcook it and then taste the broth or add more water if it’s become too salty.

In a separate bowl, soak some goji berries in hot water for 10 mins and then drain, add these along with your cut coriander for garnishing the the Buddha Jump over the wall when you serve!
If you make this leave a comment or post it on instagram at #taystesg, I will love to see the version you made! I hope you end up blessing many others with this recipe over CNY!