Buddha's Delight (賀年齋菜)

Start with soaking the dried ingredients, so that they'll be hydrated enough to chop later.

Mix hot and cold water to get the ideal water for soaking, about 40-50°C (104-122°F).

Soak the bamboo fungus (1 oz), vermicelli noodles (1.5 oz), and cloud ear fungus (0.50 oz) in separate bowls.

Soak the dried shiitake mushrooms (1 oz) in warm water as well, and remember that we'll be using this soaking liquid later on.

It should take about 10 minutes for everything to rehydrate and soften up enough for chopping.

Trim the ends off of the seafood mushrooms (2 oz), and soak them quickly or run them through some water to clean any debris off.

Cut the king oyster mushrooms (4 oz) in half, and then into slices.

Cut the celery (3 oz) into sections of more manageable lengths, about 2 inches long, and then thinly cut lengthwise to create thin strips.

Cut napa cabbage (10 oz) into bite-sized pieces, separating the stem parts, which take longer to cook, and the leafy parts, which cook more quickly. Alternatively, the leafy parts can be torn by hand instead of cut by knife for a different texture.

Cut the carrot (2 oz) into slices, either in a nice flower pattern by notching the sides before slicing, or in simple circles.

Remove the stems from the rehydrated shiitake mushrooms. If the mushrooms are rather big and too unwieldy to eat as is, cut them in half at an angle.

Peel, smash, and mince the garlic (3 clove).

Slice the ginger (1 tbsp) into larger pieces. They'll be easier to fish out, or eat around, at the end.

Squeeze the excess water out of the bamboo fungus and trim off the ends. Dunk and wash the bamboo fungus in cold water until it's clean and the water runs clear. Then, cut it into bite-sized pieces, about 1-2 inches.

Cut the dried beancurd sheet (1 oz) into smaller pieces, about 1-2 square inch pieces, so it'll be easier to fry later.

The baby corn and snow peas don't need any particular preparation as long as they're clean and ready to cook.

In a small bowl, smash the red fermented bean curd (1.5 oz) down into a rough paste, so it'll be easier to incorporate with everything else later, and you won't bite into a big salty piece of it when you're eating.

In another bowl, mix together the stir-fry sauce, which is vegetarian oyster sauce (1 tbsp), light soy sauce (1 tbsp), dark soy sauce (1 tsp), cooking wine (1 tbsp), sugar (2 tsp), salt (0.50 tsp), and white pepper powder (0.25 tsp).

The salt is a rather small amount so that you can add more to your taste later.

To fry the dried beancurd sheets, heat up a wok or a pan with oil (4 oz) on high heat. When the oil reaches 160°C (320°F), it's hot enough to start frying the beancurd sheets.

In small batches so they don't crowd together, fry the cut-up beancurd sheets until they float to the surface, which should take about 8 seconds. When they're done, you can set aside the frying oil to use in your other cooking. We'll need some for the next stir-frying step.

If you'd rather not fry them, then you can soak them in warm water for 10 minutes.

Next, we'll heat up a pot of water on high heat. When it's at a rolling boil, add the cloud ear fungus and the baby corn (3 oz).

After 20-30 seconds, add the bamboo fungus. After another 30-40 seconds, scoop them all out with a spider or slotted spoon.

Then, blanch the celery and carrot pieces for about 90 seconds. Take them out of the water when they're done, too.

Heat your wok on high heat for about a minute. When the wok has heated up, add the oil (2 tbsp) that you set aside from frying the dried beancurd sheets.

The oil will heat up immediately, so turn the heat down to medium.

Add the garlic, ginger, and red fermented bean curd, and fry them to release their aroma, for about 20-30 seconds.

Add the shiitake mushrooms, the napa cabbage stems, and the king oyster mushrooms. Continue stir-frying for about 30-40 seconds.

Then, add the cooking wine (1 tbsp) to the wok, and let it simmer and soak in.

Add water (8 oz), which includes the water that the shiitake mushrooms were soaking in, so we can take advantage of their fragrant mushroom flavor and make the dish even tastier.

Next, toss in all of the ingredients that we blanched earlier: cloud ear fungus, baby corn, bamboo fungus, carrot, and celery. Add the napa cabbage leaves and the fried beancurd sheets.

Cover with a lid, and let it continue to cook for 4-5 minutes, until you see steam coming out, which will signal that the beancurd sheets have softened up. Then, add the seafood mushrooms.

Add all of the sauce that we mixed earlier. To get every bit of flavor out, use some of the liquid from the wok to rinse any last bits of sauce or red fermented bean curd out of their bowls.

Give it a taste to check for salt, and add a little bit at a time if you need to adjust.

Next, add your hydrated vermicelli noodles straight into the center of the wok, so that it can soak up all the sauce pooling at the bottom. Position the other ingredients to cover the noodles, weighing them down and pushing them down towards the sauce.

Put the lid on the wok to help it cook through, for about a minute and a half.

Prepare a thickening cornstarch slurry by mixing cornstarch (1 tbsp) and water (1 tbsp) in a small bowl. To save a dish, use the now-empty sauce bowl!

Add the sugar snap peas (2 oz) to the wok.

Add the slurry a little bit at a time, checking to see if it's thick enough to your preference before adding more. You may not need to use all of it, but if you feel like the dish is still too wet, you can keep adding more.

Finally, add sesame oil (1 tbsp) and turn the heat off.