玉枕

The cruel war is raging, razing the entire city to a mound. People start to live beneath the ground in bunkers. A morsel of food is a diminutive consolation, the quagmire of war. In after years, new buildings will rise en masse on the once mass graves of obliteration, the sphinx of life. There were poignant scenes when chubby toddlers wrapped up in duvets exposed their precocious faces in the rubble, the ruble-driven rubble. The legality of the war is put into question, be it international law or self-imposed justification, the juxtaposition of information and disinformation. Information is we choose what we believe, otherwise disinformation. Democracy and totalitarian alike, whetting the bayonet to decide your plight, piercing into innocent hearts and etching into souls, for non-existent weapons of mass destruction or kingdom of re-formation. Enmity engulfed empathy. This is our era, no time for respite. The dead are other's lives. 

When the pandemic turns endemic, life as usual, needs no panic. A surge, a spike, the loss of lives, the horoscope of fate.

A friend asked me if I ever savoured the "Jade Pillow", a renowned Chiu Chow dish. I candidly admitted this dish was unknown to me or forgotten by the senility of age. Thus, I create one from imagination, to spread misinformation to the satisfaction of the bulging belly of the gastronome. Life is fugacious, eat another way, live another day. It gives me the strength to contemplate a recipe for a pillow made from jade.

玉枕食譜:

1. 黃芽白, 也叫大白菜
2. 上湯
3. 豬頸肉或鵪鶉胸或鴨胸
4. 蝦
5. 冬菰
6. 金華火腿/proscuitto

做這道菜的份量要視乎你要做多少件, 所以上面沒有列出份量來。一瓣黃芽白做一件, 黃芽白是用作包裹其他材料的, 所以完整一瓣不用切, 而且不用外面幾瓣, 因為太厚太大也有骨, 而且也太青綠, 也不用中心的, 因為面積太小。

這道雋永清優菜, 不是乳豬全體那種大鑼大鼓登場, 所以在調味方面也要配合得清雅, 不要調得像打破幾個醬埕那種。既然叫玉, 當然要柔和有光澤、略透明, 調味要循這方向做。

先把黃芽白煮稔, 然後擠掉水份備用, 擠水要輕力平壓, 盡量保持菜瓣完整, 否則難以包裹。上湯主要用雞和豬骨餚出來。至於肉方面首選鵪鶉胸, 因為鮮甜肉嫩, 包在黃芽白裏一口咬下去可咬得斷, 咬不斷的肉就會拉拉扯扯的, 把玉枕弄得糟糕, 每一口咬下去都要包含各種材料才行。鵪鶉胸調味然後用平底鑊煎兩面, 不用全熟, 煎好切片備用。把浸稔的冬菰平刀片最頂的一片備用, 然後就可以開始包裹了。我這裏金華火腿難求, 只好用proscuitto, 不論金華火腿或proscuitto, 都不是主力, 不能太多, 以免過份凸出。包的層次是最底是proscuitto, 然後是冬菰片, 冬菰上面是鵪鶉胸, 最頂是蝦。包好之後用個高度可以完全淹蓋玉枕的器皿放入上湯浸玉枕半小時, 吸油吸味。之後把玉枕放在碟中加一點上湯進去蒸十分鐘, 用broccolini伴碟, 蒸好把蒸出的水倒入平底鑊, 加點生粉水調味來煮, 再淋上面。晶熒玉枕, 舉箸喫菜, 欲罷不能。

玉枕上飛魚子游戈

吃就不要怕功夫多, 把用剩的冬菰放進上湯裏, 一餸一湯, 有蝦有菜有菰有肉, 芳香優雅, 若飲醇醪, 悠悠自醉。

竹笙冬菰湯

老伴學起佛來, 不至於完全不佔油葷, 但大部份時間茹素, 所以我也做了素玉枕, 主要材料是蕈菌類: 雲耳、靈芝菰、茶樹菰、冬菰及雞腿菰, 另外加刴碎大豆芽的豆, 芋頭粒等。不能用上湯, 調味的難度頗大。

我每次寫吃的, 總有朋友投訴有得看沒得吃, 這一次我可以理直氣壯了, 藍田日暖, 良玉生煙, 可望而不可即啊。在疫情中, 看戰火蹂躪, 滄海月明珠有淚, 玉枕夢魘噬心脾。此時此際, 弄佳餚美食像有點涼薄, 惟慶僥倖無恙, 已無語凝噎。人性光輝暗淡, 獸性散發光芒, 《人啊, 人!》《野獸, 野獸, 野獸》。