Bo Ji Fan

[mudbug]

Hi all,

My mother had major surgery last week. She got out of intensive care Friday and they are ready to send her home today. She mentioned this weekend a dish I am not familiar with and I am hoping someone can help me track down a recipe or two.

"Bo Ji Fan" pronounced [bō jī' fŏn] is the best I can describe it phonetically.

Can be made with different meats but apparently the sauce creates the magic. Usually cooked in a clay pot. Sounds meat served on top of rice with sauce on top cooked in a clay pot. She could never find out the name of the sauce and she did not know what was in it. One of those not to salty, not too sweet but more sweet than not sauces. Just amazingly tasty - thus memorable - sauces.

Any help, insight, discussion, and sources on this would be greatly appreciated as my time is limited because she needs a lot of help.

Thanks in advance.

Edited September 18, 2006 by mudbug (log)

[Ben Hong]

This is a generic homestyle dish where anything at all can be put on top of rice and cooked.: beef and ginger, haum yu and meat patty, chicken and mushrooms, etc. Let your imagination run.....

[Dejah]

For someone who is convalescing, I would suggest beef, chicken, pork, ham yu on top or stirred into the rice.

I usually marinade the sliced ( or diced)meats with seasoning, oil and cornstarch. Mix in some slivers of ginger and lay this on top of the rice just after it comes to a boil. The remaining moisture will blend with the meat juices to provide a wonderful flavour. It's not a sauce as one would see surrounding a dish, but a sauce that permeates every grain of rice. The rice will be softer than normal which is easier to digest for someone who is not as active as usual.

Ham yu, and with the above meats, can be diced (make sure there are no bones), mixed with slivers of ginger and stirred into the rice after first boil is also wonderful. I sometimes add diced sweet potatoes as well. The sweet potato can be mashed into the crispy rice at the bottom of the pot, add hot water, and mmmmm

The Chinese believe that shrimp is to be avoided for someone who's just had surgery. This shellfish is thought to prevent proper healing of incisions.

Ginger will help purify the blood, and beef, chicken is said to build up strength.

[Tepee]

Err....beef is taboo...duk (toxic) as is lamb.

Edited September 19, 2006 by Tepee (log)

[Dejah]

Err....beef is taboo...duk (toxic) as is lamb.

←

I suppose it all depends on what the patient is convalescing from? I remember when my Yeh-yeh was in the hospital (can't remember why), my mom made gnow yuk/ginger jup for him. This was done in a ceramic jar inside a big pot of boiling water (dun). He would drink the broth ...supposed to build up his strength.

[mudbug]

Thanks for the replies, but you're talking to someone who needs specific (measurements, ingredients, and all) recipes.

She had four vetebrae taken out of her neck. This type of surgery is the most painful of all types of surgeries due to the location. Recovery is long.

Any suggestions even if not what I asked for in regards to tradition would also be appreciated but please point me to directions.

Thank you in advance.

[hzrt8w]

"Bo Ji Fan" pronounced [bō jī' fŏn] is the best I can describe it phonetically.

Can be made with different meats but apparently the sauce creates the magic. Usually cooked in a clay pot. Sounds meat served on top of rice with sauce on top cooked in a clay pot. She could never find out the name of the sauce and she did not know what was in it. One of those not to salty, not too sweet but more sweet than not sauces.  Just amazingly tasty - thus memorable - sauces.

←

Best wishes for your Mom for a quick recovery, mudbug!

Does this look like something you can use?

Minced Beef Over Rice in Clay Pot (窩蛋免冶牛肉煲仔飯)

The "sauce" that you described seemed to be dark soy sauce diluted with water and with sugar added.

[hzrt8w]

Also, in Hong Kong it is customary to bring soup (e.g. chicken soup) and jook for hospital in-patients (more so than rice in clay pot).

[aprilmei]

Here in Hong Kong, the bo jai fan makers will start to set up counters outside established restaurants just after mid-Autumn (October 6). The smell draws customers to the restaurants - the best bo jai fan is cooked over coals or charcoal (not really feasible at home and it's becoming less common in Hong Kong too). I love the stuff and eat it quite often - at restaurants and home. The restaurant version is better but mine isn't bad. The cooks soak the rice for a long time so they don't need to add much water to the bo jai (sand pot/clay pot) - you know the way we usually measure water by putting our finger on the top of the rice and adding enough water so it comes up to the first joint of our forefinger? Which, if you add the ingredients on top of the rice (as with bo jai fan), means the ingredients are partially submerged in boiling water. Well, these cooks don't add that much water but the rice and ingredients get cooked through anyway.

For home versions, wash the rice and add the water the usual way. Marinate your ingredients (can be chicken marinated with soy, rice wine, a touch of sugar, salt, white pepper and cornstarch, with or without salted fish or soaked dried mushrooms and some sliced ginger; fish fillets with a bit of salt, rice wine, cornstarch, sliced ginger and spring onions; minced or sliced beef with the same seasonings as the chicken, and maybe a raw egg added at the very end and then mixed in). Start cooking the rice in the pot and add the other ingredients when you think they need to be added: chicken and beef will take longer than fish. Cover the pot and let it cook over fairly high heat - you're trying to get a good slightly burnt crust on the bottom of the rice (that's the best part).

Now the sauce: that's the part I haven't perfected. It looks like plain soy sauce but it's not because the sauce isn't really salty. It might be dark soy (not "regular" soy, but thick, dark soy - which isn't as salty as regular and light soys) diluted with water and with sugar, as hzrt8w says - that sounds right; I'll have to try it next time. You pour in the sauce at the very end and mix it all up.

Anyway, it's not that difficult, if you can make rice and make steamed chicken (or pork or beef or fish) you can cook bo jai fan. The only difference is you cook them together.

Oh, and I should add that if you're cooking for several people, the bo jai fan cooks most succesfully when made in several smaller pots that serve one or two - rather than one large pot that serves more. And don't make the "topping" too thick or the rice will be soggy.

[mudbug]

hzrt8w,

The dish looks like something we can try.

aprilmei,

Maybe you can ask some vendors what's in the sauce...

Thank you for the continued contributions to this thread and the well wishes. Won't be cooking for a lot of people.

Tradition is not the concern here. I can handle jook. This specific dish came up when she was asked in recovery what her favorite dish was when she visited Toronto's Chinatown a couple of years ago. She said the sauce was sooooooo gooooood. It had been at least 15 years since she was last in Toronto.

I can handle the pot, the slow cooking, gathering of the ingredients... but I have never tasted this sauce so I have nothing to go by. And you know Cantonese taste buds... some of the most refined and specific palettes in regards to taste, texture, etc. in the world and all.

I knew it was a long shot, but I thought it couldn't hurt to ask. But I am completely relying on all your feedback... please keep up the discussion. Soy sauce and sugar sound like what little she could figure out.

Now we just need to get that nausea medication prescription confirmed so she can keep everything down....

[annachan]

I'm not sure if she'll be up to it, but one of my favorite (and easiest) is Chinese sausage, cured fatty pork and cured duck (I would skip this for now as duck is supposed to be toxic) bo ji fan. Another favorite is spareribs. Sorry I can't offer any recipe as I usually get takeout.

Speedy recovery, Mudbug's mom!

[Dejah]

I think with spareribs, you may want to steam them separately then add to the rice after most of the liquid in the rice has boiled off. Otherwise, mudbug's mom might not be able to chew the meat.

For cured fatty pork, try salting thick slices of side pork or pork butt in coarse salt for about 3 days ( in a cool dry place, not the fridge). Then rinse off the salt, dice and add to the rice. The flavour is pure comfort food.

Best wishes for a speedy recovery, mudbug's mom.

[mudbug]

Dejah,

Yes. We made a very good batch of jook and between vomiting bouts, it's the only thing going down smoothly. Pork butt is melt in your mouth tender. Some dried bean curd sticks (yuba) and white nuts (ginko nuts) are how mom used to make it and our matched exactly. Even dad was surprised at how on target it was. They're asking for more!

But last night and today she has a fever so.... one day at a time.

We will try the Minced Beef Over Rice in Clay Pot next.

But any other suggestions for anything mild like the jook would be great. The good thing about the jook is that she get's some liquid in her system as well.