Fo Tiao Qiang: Buddha Jumps Over the Wall (佛跳墙)

Ingredients

• For the stock
• 1 old hen, whole, blanched in boiling water and rinsed
• 1 kg pork bones, blanched in boiling water and rinsed until water runs clear
• 300 g Jinhua ham bones, rinsed
• 50 g fresh ginger, sliced
• 250 ml aged Shaoxing wine, generous pour; this is the primary fragrance register
• For the primary components
• 200 g shark fin or fish tendon, blanched in Shaoxing wine before assembly
• 4 abalone, lightly poached and set aside
• 300 g sea cucumber, dried; soaked 3–4 days in cold water changed twice daily until fully reconstituted and pliable
• 200 g fish maw (dried swim bladder), soaked until softened, cleaned thoroughly
• 8 scallops, seared separately until a golden crust forms on each side
• 12 quail eggs, hard-boiled and peeled
• 400 g pork belly, braised separately until tender before assembly
• 1 chicken, whole or portioned; braised separately before assembly
• 150 g Jinhua ham, thinly sliced
• For sealing
• 200 g plain flour, mixed with water to form a stiff dough collar; or substitute heavy-duty foil

Method

1. 1
   Build the stock. Place the blanched old hen, pork bones, and Jinhua ham bones in a tall pot with the ginger. Cover with cold water and bring to a bare simmer. Skim continuously for the first 20 minutes, removing all grey foam. Add the aged Shaoxing wine and continue at a low simmer — never a boil — until the stock is deeply savoury, faintly golden, and perfectly clear. The stock must pass this test before any ingredient enters the pot: hold a ladle to the light and look through it. Cloudiness at this stage cannot be corrected later.
2. 2
   Prepare each component independently. Soak the sea cucumber in cold water for a minimum of 3 days, changing the water twice daily, until it is fully softened and yields without resistance when pressed. Soak the fish maw until pliable and clean. Blanch the shark fin or fish tendon in Shaoxing wine. Poach the abalone lightly. Braise the pork belly and chicken separately until tender. Sear the scallops until a firm, golden crust is set on each flat face. Hard-boil and peel the quail eggs. Slice the Jinhua ham thinly. Each component is complete and correct before assembly begins. No component may carry over imprecision into the pot.
3. 3
   Layer the clay pot in strict sequence from most resilient to most delicate: braised pork belly and chicken first, followed by Jinhua ham slices, sea cucumber, fish maw, fish tendon or shark fin, quail eggs, seared scallops, and abalone as the uppermost layer. Ladle the finished stock over the assembled layers until all components are just submerged. This is where the dish lives or dies: the layering sequence determines which ingredients withstand the full cooking time and which are protected by those below; the stock must be rich, clear, and deeply savoury before it enters — a flat or cloudy stock produces a flat or cloudy result that no sealed steaming can redeem, and insufficient Shaoxing wine at the stock stage produces a fragrance the sealed pot cannot recover.
4. 4
   Seal the pot airtight. Press a collar of stiff dough firmly around the joint of lid and pot, or wrap tightly in heavy-duty foil with no gaps. Place the sealed pot in a steamer or over a rack in a large vessel with sufficient water. Steam at sustained pressure for 2 to 3 hours without interruption. Do not lift the lid. A broken seal is a broken dish — the pressure that drives the stock into every ingredient is lost, and the result becomes a stew rather than a unified preparation.
5. 5
   Bring the sealed pot to the table intact. Break the seal at the table. The fragrance must precede the opening — a single, unified aroma that gives no indication of 18 distinct ingredients. If individual components are separately identifiable by smell before the pot is opened, the seal was compromised. Serve immediately, with plain steamed white rice and steamed vegetables alongside.