Ken Hom

The secret of this delicious, easy to prepare and inexpensive dish lies in the use of preserved vegetables, which are typical of northern Chinese cuisine. In the north, people must preserve vegetables by salting or pickling, since the winters are long and cold. If you like your dish a bit spicier, like me, use Sichuan preserved vegetables.

This dish is great for a dinner party. Each guest puts a helping of each ingredient into a hollow lettuce leaf and eats it with their fingers. Serve with a bowl of hoisin sauce.

Ken Hom, author of the Complete Chinese Cookbook, recently took a 5,000-mile trek across China for a BBC special. He describes the country's regional cuisine.

Ingredients