The approach of the lunar new year Jan. 31 brings back fond memories of my "goong goong" (grandfather) John Sau Lee and his food. The new year was a special time, with family celebrations, delicious gau (steamed sticky rice dessert), oranges or tangerines on every table, sounds of firecrackers and youngsters receiving "li see" (red envelopes) with money in it from the elders. But most important was eating delicious jai, or monk’s food.

Jai is a comfort food, a stew made with many dried vegetables simmered in a sauce made of fermented tofu.

In the tiniest kitchen in my grandparents’ Makiki apartment on Liholiho Street, Goong Goong would create wonderful cuisine: jook (rice gruel), beef or tripe stew, kau yuk (pork belly) with Chinese taro, winter melon soup, lotus root and dried squid soup, and always, for the new year, jai.

"Every inch of counter space in the kitchen would be covered with bowls of the soaking ingredients for jai," remembers granddaughter Edgy Lee. "Goong Goong would be smoking his Parliaments and stirring away."

His specialty included many more vegetables than the usual stew. His jai was a tad sweeter than others, and as he grew older he tended to make it sweeter and sweeter.

"Goong Goong. Bring a pot," was his abrupt telephone call to his four children living in Honolulu.

"He would always make it a day or two ahead of the new year so we could start the year off right by eating it first thing in the morning," said daughter Barbara Tongg.

Goong Goong was born in Honolulu in 1899 as Duck Sau Lee, the eighth child of 14, who attended school through fifth grade. Like many in his generation, he changed his name to an American one, "John," and he supported a wife and five children by working as a produce man at the Piggly Wiggly Grocery Store on Punchbowl Street. Later he was general manager at Chun-Hoon Market at the corner of Nuuanu Avenue and School Street.

Perhaps his cooking skills were taught to him by his father, Lee Kwong, who operated a restaurant near Dillingham’s Oahu Railway depot, just outside of Chinatown and near today’s Aala Park.

Goong Goong would eat jai with a dollop of fermented bean curd called "dow foo mui": Take a Manoa lettuce leaf, add a bit of dow foo mui, scoop on the jai and enjoy.

As children we couldn’t be bothered with the lettuce and would scoop the hot jai over rice and slurp away.

If you didn’t grow up with jai, it could be a bit off-putting. The dish’s main flavor is from dow foo mui, fermented tofu that comes in a glass jar, packed in a gooey liquid that is light yellow in hue. Other ingredients are dried vegetables with names like cloud ear, and seaweed that looks like black hair. Goong Goong would say that you had to include "oil tofu" (fried tofu; the Japanese call it "aburage"). Though some of those ingredients might sound awful, the combination of tastes and textures makes it satisfying. Who says the Buddhist monks don’t appreciate food?

Of course, every family says they make the best jai. It’s personal. Some like it soupy, others dry. Some like it with more long rice, other with more bamboo shoots. There is wide variation in jai.

Sometimes Goong Goong would add dried oysters and use oyster sauce, but that wasn’t traditional as it was thought auspicious to start off the year with a vegetarian meal.

He was pragmatic. As gingko nuts rose in price, he substituted garbanzo beans. And sometimes he wouldn’t include seaweed.

In fact, many of the ingredients symbolize good health and wealth. The most expensive vegetable is the hair seaweed. The name for it in Cantonese is "fat choy," which is part of the new year’s greeting "Gung Hee Fat Choy" (wishing you prosperity).

The dish takes two to three days to make. Shopping in Chinatown for the unusual ingredients takes a day, another is spent soaking and cleaning dry ingredients, and the third is the actual cooking. So, just as when making laulau or pasteles, you wouldn’t prepare just four servings. Make this for a crowd!

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Lynette Lo Tom is writing a cookbook about Chinese cooking in Hawaii, set for release next year. She hopes to discover more about her great-grandfather’s restaurant near Chinatown.

For this dish, gather the hungry

This jai recipe makes a huge pot that can be shared with as many as 30 people. Note that dry ingredients should be soaked a day before cooking.

John Sau Lee’s Jai

>> Dry ingredients (soak day before cooking):

Two (14-ounce) packages dried bean curd sticks (foo jook)

1/4 cup dried lotus seeds

6 large shiitake mushrooms, stems removed and quartered

4 ounces dried lily flower (also called tiger lily buds), hard tips removed

6 red dates or jujubes (hung jow)

Large fistful dried hair seaweed (fat choy)

1-1/2 (7.75-ounce packages) long rice (Nice brand preferred)

1 cup dried tree fungus or cloud ears (chin ngee)

Dried chestnuts (optional)

Dried peanuts (optional)

>> Other ingredients:

1/2 pound snow peas, tough ends pinched off

4 (3-ounce) packages fried tofu (aburage), cut into 1/2-inch strips

1 pound fresh lotus root, peeled and sliced into 1/4-inch rounds, then quartered

2 (15-ounce) cans bamboo shoot tips, rinsed, drained and cut into 1-inch slices

3 carrots, peeled and sliced diagonally

2 (8-ounce) cans canned button mushrooms, rinsed and drained

2 (15-ounce) cans baby corn, rinsed, drained and cut in half diagonally

2 (14-ounce) cans gingko nuts (can substitute garbanzo beans), rinsed and drained

1 (8-ounce) can sliced water chestnuts, rinsed and drained

1 large head won bok, sliced into 1-inch pieces

3 tablespoons sesame seeds

>> Sauce:

3 tablespoons vegetable or peanut oil

9 cubes red fermented bean curd (nam yue)

18 cubes white fermented bean curd (dow foo mui) and 1/2 cup liquid from bottle

4 inches fresh ginger, peeled, sliced and crushed

2 sticks Chinese cane sugar or 3/4 cup packed brown sugar

2 dried star anise

2 tablespoons rock salt

1/4 cup sherry or whiskey

3 tablespoons hoisin sauce

6 cups water

Cut bean curd sticks into 4-inch pieces. Boil in water about 10 minutes, until tender. Blanch snow peas. Blanch fried tofu in water to remove excess oil. Set aside.

In large pot (you may want to split this into two pots), combine sauce ingredients and boil 5 minutes. Add lotus seeds, lotus root, shiitake, lily flowers, bamboo shoots and red dates and simmer 20 minutes. Add in carrots, foo jook, seaweed, long rice, fried tofu, fungus, canned mushrooms, baby corn, gingko nuts, chestnuts, and peanuts and dried chestnuts if using. Simmer another 20 minutes. Add in won bok and cook 10 more minutes. Add more water if needed. Test for doneness. When tender, garnish with snow peas and sesame seeds. Serve hot or at room temperature. Serves up to 30.

Approximate nutritional information, per serving (not including optional ingredients): 370 calories, 15 g fat, 1.5 g saturated fat, no cholesterol,550 mg sodium, 40 g carbohydrate, 6 g fiber, 8 g sugar, 23 g protein

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Nutritional analysis by Joannie Dobbs, Ph.D., C.N.S.