Tom Jabchai - vegetable stew

This is sometimes called "Chinese" vegetable stew in Thailand, because 
the chosen vegetables are usually of Chinese origin. You can make 
substitutions, and some recipes for this stew call for as many as 10 
different vegetables. You do need at least 4 to get the veriety of 
tastes and textures required, but if the produce market yields more on 
the day, then you can indeed use more (keep the overall quantity about 
the same.) 

Though called a vegetable stew, this is by no means a *vegetarian* dish. 
It contains a substantial amount of meat. The essential flavor of the 
dish comes from the belly pork. If you prefer you can use a pound of 
belly pork and omit the poultry, but you shouldn't omit the pork 
altogether. 

This is a "one plate" meal - a single dish forming the entire meal (as 
opposed to the more usual dining style in Thailand with several 
contrasting dishes). 

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Ingredients 

half a pound of belly pork cut into half inch cubes. 
half a chicken or duck, cut into bite sized pieces. 

4 cups of mooli (Chinese white raddish) cut into 1" slices, and 
quartered 

1 Chinese cabbage, cut into moderate sized chunks 

1 [Western] cabbage, quartered, cored, and cut into 1" cubes 

1 cup of leek, in 1" rings 

2 cups of [Chinese] celery, in 1" pieces 

4 cups of kale, stems crushed, and very roughly chopped 

10 medium Chinese mushrooms, soaked in water, and the stems discarded 

5 cakes of hard soybean curd, quartered, and the pieces cut in half 
diagonally 

3 cups of mung bean noodles, soaked, and cut into short lengths 

half a cup of bai phak chi (coriander/cilantro leaf), chopped 

6 tablespoons of soybean paste 
3 tablespoons of chopped garlic 
1 tablespoon of minced ginger 
3 tablespoons of fish sauce 
2 tablespoons of dark soy sauce 
1 tablespoon of Maggi sauce 
2 tablespoons of [palm] sugar 
8 cups of pork stock 

black pepper to taste 


Method 

Bring the stock to a boil and add the pork, poultry, fish sauce, soy 
sauce, and Maggi sauce, boil uncovered until the meats are just cooked. 

Add the vegetables, bean curd, and noodles 

In a wok, heat some oil, and fry the soybean paste until fragrant 

Saute the garlic and ginger 

Add the soybean paste, garlic and ginger to the soup. 

Taste, and adjust the fish sauce and pepper to suit the chef's 
preferences. 

Remove from the heat and serve when the vegetables are done.