Bowl overturns my way: to celebrate the Chinese New Year and enter the year of the rooster with tenderness in the kitchen and Cata's blog
The inverted bowl is a speciality of Chinese cuisine from Mauritius and Reunion Island.
You can find several recipe suggestions on various international and regional sites.
To continue my participation in the Cooking for Peace blog of Sophie la Tendreesse en Cuisine and the Catalina cooking challenge of Cata's blog and to honour Chinese culinary culture, today I propose a version in my own way of this simple, tasty, easy and fun to make dish. This dish that I love and cook quite often.
In my cookbook I wrote several versions of this recipe, ranging from the classic white rice traditionally used to prepare it, to other choices such as brown rice, wild or red rice, quinoa which gives a nice effect to the service, maize or other cereals.
The spilt bowl usually consists of vegetables, including Chinese bredes (Chinese cabbage), mushrooms and mixtures of meat, fish and shellfish cooked in the form of a stir-fry, to which a fried egg is added to the dish (we call it fried egg here in Reunion Island). The whole is embellished with sweetened sweet or savoury sour sauces, then superimposed underneath the rice that covers it, in a bowl that is spilt on a plate before serving.
Thus prepared the spilled bowl is quite consistent. It's a unique dish.
However, you can opt for vegetarian spilled bowls with only vegetables and egg. Or if you're just plain vegan, with vegetables and tofu for example. But it will be in the latter case, quite something else. Because what makes the nature of the spilled bowl is its two basic products: rice or possibly other cereals and the egg; especially the egg, which makes its originality.
Reunionese cooks of Chinese origin or those who are largely inspired by this cuisine generally use oyster sauce and cassava powder for seasoning. This results in a rather creamy sauce that coats the spilled preparation on the plate, but it is also heavier.
Here I opted for a lighter version, in my own way.
For a spilled bowl recipe my way
Ingredients: for 5 people
400 grams of mixed white and wild basmati rice mixed
5 eggs
5 Chinese sausages that can be easily found in Reunion Island's shops, especially in supermarkets.
Attention: For Europe, look at the Asian districts. I lived in the Chinatown area of Paris for a long time and had everything on hand. Above all, do not try to replace them with other types of sausages, because they are salty-sweet and are prepared specifically before they are marketed. This makes the charm of their Asian aroma. If you can't have them on hand, or if you don't like them, replace them with strips of chicken or pork that you'll marinate in a sweet salty sauce that you can make with soya, sesame oil, ginger, pepper, sugar or honey, lemon juice, garlic and possibly small pieces of crushed lemongrass...).
Average Chinese cabbage
A medium mushroom box: volvaries are indicated
2 to 3 onions
2 to 3 garlic cloves
A small piece of ginger
Chives: what we call here,"Chinese garlic" in Creole.
Soy sauce
Sweet and sour sauce (choose the one that's right for you on the market). Here I have chosen a ginger sauce.
Very little salt, just as a complement.
Pepper mill.
All commodities gathered for preparation
Preparation time: one hour of joy, pleasure and creativity before tasting.
The spilled bowl is fun: one more in the kitchen!!!
And if you do it with children they will be delighted.
Then let's go:
First step:
Start by cooking your rice. Here in Reunion Island we use rice-cooker ("rice pot") is more convenient. You can find them in Asian shops in Europe.
It should not be too sticky or too dry. In this sense the rice-cooker makes it possible to measure the amount of water for cooking well.
At the same time, wash the sausages and place them in the sieve of a casserole dish that you will steam for a few minutes. As the sausages are already pre-cooked, all you have to do is scald them.
Meanwhile, slice the onions, pee the garlic and ginger.
Chop the owl into medium pieces.
Clean the Chinese cabbage and cut it into slices of medium size.
Drain the mushrooms and cut them into pieces.
Second step:
In a wok, fry the onions with the garlic and ginger crushed.
Then add the cut mushrooms.
Add in turn the brèdes and sausages cut into thin slices
Finally, sprinkle chives and mix well.
Season with a little soy sauce and a little salt if needed.
Season with pepper.
Step 3: Mounting the bowls
Prepare your bowls and plates.
In a frying pan, fry the eggs one after the other in a frying pan, as each bowl is made up.
Barely salt them, because all the other ingredients are already salted.
Pepper to taste.
Your rice must be cooked now.
Proceed bowl by bowl.
At the bottom of each of them, add a little soy sauce (amount to be measured according to the amount you used for the previous seasoning of the stir-fry), a little sweet or salty sweet or sour sauce of your choice.
For those who like chilli peppers, you can add a touch of chilli sauce, such as chili pepper paste or chilli paste.
Then place the fried egg, which must cover the bottom of the bowl. Depending on the tastes of the guests, your egg should be cooked more or less well. Some like very cooked, others more flowing. Juggle with desires. It will also be a pleasure.
Bowl overturned in my own way: to celebrate Chinese New Year and enter the year of the rooster with the Tenderness in the kitchen and the blog of Cata
Top with a few spoonfuls of sautéed sausages and brèdes (Chinese cabbage). Do according to your appetite and that of your guests.
Finally, stack at least 3 to 4 tablespoons of rice. But always according to the appetites.
Squeeze well with the back of the spoon, to prevent the composition from loosening when you spill the bowl.
Cover each bowl with a plate.
Fourth stage: crucial moment, but the most enjoyable and magical.
Everybody's at the table. Everyone has a bowl.
Return the.....................................................
Suspense..........
Isn't it beautiful?
Cheer and enjoy!
Enjoy your appetite!
Here: my symphony in overturned bowls: beautiful? Say yes and try!
On Reunion Island, the spilled bowl is eaten with a rougail. The purpose of this is to provide extra hot pepper for those who love or are addicted to it.
Here I served it without rougail, my guests chose to eat green chilli pepper picked in my garden.
And to conclude:
On the origin of the spilled bowl:
I think that the inverted bowl was originally a speciality invented by the Chinese of Mauritius, who later on with the development of travel and interregional relations introduced it to Reunion Island.
I discovered this dish very young when I went on holiday to Mauritius. It was my joy to go to the Mauritian restaurants to eat them. I loved to see the waiter spill the bowl of rice and stir-fry with an extreme dexterity that never failed: Miracle! Magic!
Later on I noticed that he also used it in my island.
I did not notice, however, when I lived in Paris in the Chinatown area, that this dish was on the menu card of the restaurants. Is this a regional invention of the Mascareignes (Mauritius Rodrigues Meeting)? I didn't do any research in this sense, but the Chinese influence strongly permeates the preparation.
I suggest you surf on a few links that I indicate at the end of the article to check for yourself. Because I like the bowl spilled: it is simply, easy to make, pretty and good. Beautiful!
From China to Reunion Island:
The Chinese of Reunion Island migrated to the island at the end of the 19th century and settled there as traders. Their cuisine as much as that of India has strongly influenced Creole culinary culture.
Among the most integrated compositions we can note some of them: the famous Cantonese rice, which has undergone numerous Creole re-compositions, the sautéed mines (sautéed pasta with vegetables and meat and shellfish), the ginger fish, which is also one of my dadas (I will propose you another time the recipe I learned from my father), the stoppers (small puffs of pork meat or chicken covered in rice paste cooked with steam), the shop suey, this for the most famous dishes in the island.
Although French like all Reunion Islanders and having adopted the Creole language as well as local customs, the Chinese of Reunion keep regular contact with their country of origin and remain faithful to it. The different festivals of their cultural and religious tradition are respected. In the morning of New Year's Day, we hear the sound of multiple firecrackers in all the neighbourhoods where they live. This has the effect of scaring away the "demons" and negativity in order to get the year off to a good start.
And here it is....
This morning at dawn
Right after the rooster crow
Reasonable firecrackers from the back of my village got me out of bed.
I had been awake for a while, the sun was barely rising.
I thought: Happy New Year to the Rooster!
So I finished writing this upside-down bowl recipe that I made yesterday in anticipation of the party.
For cousins visiting my garden
For you, for us
For my brothers who came from China or stayed there
For a wonderful year of the Rooster for all.
Thanks again