Hakka Lei Cha

Hakka Lei Cha is one of my favourite dish. It is packed with lots of healthy fibre from various vegetables and the yummy green tea soup.

Another best part of it is I get to use some home grown harvest like basil, parsley and mint from my garden.

Ingredients:
For the soup:

• about 3/4cups of dried anchovies, washed and drain
• 2l water
• one big handful of basil, roughly 1.5cups (not pushed down, but just put on the cup to measure) 
• a small bunch of mint, after chopped should be roughly 1/4 cup amount
• 3-4 sprigs of parsley
• 1/4 cup of peanut (roasted)
• a small handful of tang-o veggie if you like it to have a little bitter taste
• 2 tbsp of green tea powder (i used japanese green tea)
• 1/8 tsp salt

Other ingredients:

• 2cups of rice - cook like normal
• 3 big cloves of garlic (I'm using local Perth grown garlic that's currently in season and very fat)
• 3/4 Australia leek, sliced finely
• 5 snake/long beans, cut to small cubes
• 3/4 carrots, julienne
• 1/2cups of finely sliced cabbage
• 300g sweet potatoes shoot (mine is home grown too)
• 3tbsp pickled radish, washed
• 3pcs of hard tofu or known as tau kua
• 1/4 zucchini, julienne
• 3pcs of fresh button mushroom, cut to thin slices
• 3tbsp oil to saute

Steps:

1. Place 1/2 cups of the anchovies and water in a pot and boil for roughly 15-20mins. I used the pressure cooker to do this and kept pressure for 4mins. Removed the anchovies and place it in the air fryer along with the balance of the anchovies and AF at 180c for 7mins. If you don't have an AF, just use a non stick pan to fry it (without oil) till it is all crispy.
2. Place all the rest of the ingredients along with the fried anchovies in a blender and blend till it is as smooth as you can get. Add in some of the stock if required as the mixture can be too dry and a bit hard to blend.
3. Pour in the mixture into the stock and let it get into boil and set it aside. That should be about 2-3mins.
4. AF the tau kua at 200c for 3mins, or slightly pan fried it with a little oil. Set aside.
5. Heat a little oil and saute the garlic (divide the garlic to 8 portions for those veggies) and fry the veggies separately. Set them aside.
6. When you want to serve, just place the rice on the bowl, scoop the veggies around the rice and pour in the soup stock to serve.

Note:

• The veggies may vary depending on your preference or seasonal availability. Some also serve with toasted sesame seed and/or peanuts.
• For those who are allergic to peanuts may consider substituting with pine nuts (if you are not allergic to it).
• My first attempt of making this dish, I used pesto sauce instead coz I didn't have basil with me. If you are using pesto sauce, omit the basil and peanuts.