Pea-Sprouts are also known as “Tou Miau” in Mandarin. Rich in vitamins and minerals, it is considered one of the easiest vegetable to stir-fry. Popular in many Chinese restaurants, the prices of these pea-sprouts have risen over the years due to its high demand.

Fresh Pea-Sprouts

When cooking this dish, it is important to have the wok heated at high as you need to cook the pea-sprouts in minimum time to preserve its nutrients and to ensure that the juices are retained in the sprouts. Else you will have a flooded dish!

This is my recipe for Stir-Fried Pea Sprouts with Garlic

Ingredients

• 300 grammes pea-sprouts (rinse with water to remove dirt prior to cooking)
• 5 to 8 cloves garlic (chopped finely)
• 2 tablespoons cooking oil (preferably palm oil)

Seasoning

• 1 1/2 teaspoons oyster sauce
• Salt to taste
• A dash of white pepper powder

Method

Heat wok till wok starts to smoke.

Add oil followed by garlic. Give the garlic a few quick stir and add the pea-sprouts.

Continue to stir-fry briskly whilst adding seasoning. Cook until pea-sprouts begin to wilt to your desired softness or reduced by 1/2 in bulk. Add one or two tablespoons of warm water if you prefer some gravy.

Clockwise from top : Stewed Chicken in Dark Soya Sauce,
the gravy and Stewed Beancurd in Dark Soya Sauce

This recipe is EASY. You should try it, if you have not. It is different from Tau Yu Bak (Stewed Pork in dark soya sauce) in taste but can be similar to Stewed Duck in Dark Soya Sauce save for some difference in spices used.

I used to cook this dish quite often during my university days in England and my British housemates loved it when eaten with steaming hot rice! If you make an extra effort and fry the rice ala Egg Fried Rice, you will have a truly satisfying meal. The beancurd is a complimentary item which I add to the dish. You can also add hard boiled eggs (shell removed, of course) into the dish during the simmering stage.

This is my recipe for Stewed Chicken in Dark Soya Sauce

Ingredients

• 2 chicken legs (whole)
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 2 whole bulbs garlic (remove skin)
• Approximately 15 - 20 white peppercorns
• Warm water
• 1 piece star-anise (optional)
• 2 pieces hard-type beancurd (optional)
• 2 large hard-boiled eggs (optional)

Seasoning

• 2 to 3 tablespoons dark soya sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt

Method

Add sugar into a wok / saucepan which has been heated up. Let the sugar caramelise (turn liquid and brown).

Once sugar fully caramelised, add chicken legs and let it “sear” for 1 minute on each side. Add water to cover the chicken by 1 to 2 cm. Add the rest of the ingredients and seasoning. Once water begins to boil, reduce to medium low heat, cover lid and let it simmer for 30 minutes to an hour.

To serve, separate gravy from the rest of the ingredients. Chop the chicken to desired size, cut beancurd into quarters and half the eggs.

Stir-Fried Kai-Lan Stems with Pork and Mushrooms

“Oh no! Not another recipe with mushrooms!” Ha! Ha! Well, can’t help it when I have a lot of mushrooms at home. Chinese dried mushrooms to be precise. But anyway, the mushrooms here are the supporting act. The main actor is the Kai Lan stems.

According to the Wikipedia, Kai-lan, also known as Chinese broccoli or Chinese kale, is a slightly bitter leaf vegetable featuring thick, flat, glossy blue-green leaves with thick stems and a small number of tiny, almost vestigial flower heads similar to those of broccoli. As a group of Brassica oleracea kai-lan is of the same species of plant as broccoli and kale. Its flavor is very similar to that of broccoli, though not identical, being a bit sweeter.

In this recipe, I use the kai-lan stems. These are usually imported and sold in supermarkets. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of it prior to cooking. What you get is a stem roughly 15 to 20cm long and with very little or no leaf. It tastes much sweeter than the leaves in “normal” the normal kai-lan vegetable. I am told that this variety of kai-lan is grown specifically for its crunchy and sweet tasting stem.

The ideal way to cook this stem is to stir-fry it with medium or large sized prawns which have been deveined and cut “butterfly style”. If you are rich enough, you can consider adding scallops! As I don’t have any prawns at home when I decided to cook this dish and I am not rich enough to consider scallops, I used pork and mushrooms as the supporting cast.

This is my recipe for Stir-Fried Kai-Lan Stems with Pork and Mushrooms

Ingredients

• 3 to 5 kai-lan stems (lightly scrape the layer of skin from the stem and slice diagonally)
• 50 grammes of pork tenderloin (sliced thinly)
• 2 to 3 pre-soaked chinese mushrooms
• 4 cloves garlic (chopped finely)
• 1 tablespoon of palm oil
• 1/2 cup warm water
• 2 teaspoons cornflour mixed with 1/2 cup water to make corn starch

Marinade for pork tenderloin

• 2 teaspoon light soya sauce
• a pinch of white pepper powder
• 1 teaspoon corn flour

Seasoning

• 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
• Salt to taste
• 2 teaspoons chinese cooking wine (optional)
• A dash of white pepper powder

Method

Marinade pork tenderloin for 30 minutes.

Heat oil in wok and fry garlic till beginning to brown. Remove garlic from oil.

Add pork tenderloin and chinese mushrooms into remaining oil in wok and stir fry for 1 minute. Add kai-lan stems and pre-fried garlic and stir-fry briskly for 1 minute. Add one or two teaspoons of warm water to prevent burning.

Add seasoning (except chinese cooking wine) followed by remainder of water and cover lid. Allow to cook for 1 to 2 minutes whilst checking occasionally for drying out of gravy.

Once the stems have more or less turned to a darker colour, add chinese cooking wine and stir well. If the sauce is too thin to your liking, add a little bit of corn starch to thicken it.

Dish out and serve with white rice.

Linguine with Pan-Fried Chicken Breast and Siew Pak Choy

What do you do if you have linguine (a type of pasta), chicken and siew pak choy? Cook them into a dish, of course! It will be handy if you have a can of pasta sauce in your kitchen cabinet.

This dish takes me 1 hour to prepare and cook. I am still an amateur and take a longer time to prepare the ingredients and cook them. Briefly, what I have prepared is pan-fried chicken breast, blanched siew pak choy and pasta sauce. Each can be a dish by itself but this is sort of a fusion dish using western and eastern ingredients. In fact, this is the first time I cooked this dish and I was quite pleased! (I am usually quite fussy over the quality of food I cook. My wife will attest to that!)

Glorious Siew Pak Choy

I hope you will give this dish a try and having learnt it, experiment on your own with the ingredients.

This is my recipe for Linguine with Pan-Fried Chicken Breast and Siew Pak Choy.

Ingredients

• 250 grammes of linguine (you can use any type of pasta)
• 1 large chicken breast
• 200 grammes of siew pak choy (wash and clean)
• 1 can of button mushrooms (halved)
• 1 can of Campbells Pasta Sauce (tomato, garlic and basil sauce)
• 2 large onions (chopped)
• 5 tablespoons of olive oil
• 1 tablespoon of palm oil
• 1 pot of water

Marinade for chicken

• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon white pepper powder
• A dash of Lea & Perrins Worcestershire Sauce
• 1 tablespoon of HP BBQ Sauce
• A dash of black pepper powder
• 1 teaspoon of corn flour

Seasoning for tomato-based sauce

• Salt to taste
• Black pepper powder to taste

Method

Marinade chicken breast for at least 1 hour or more.

Bring water to boil in a large pot. Add 1 teaspoon of salt and 1 tablespoon of palm oil. Add in the siew pak choy and blanch till the leaves turn dark green / cooked. Remove the leaves and set aside.

Cook the linguine in the pot of water according to directions on packaging. Remove and drain. Set aside and drizzle 2 tablespoons of olive oil over it.

Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in frying pan and fry the chicken breast for at least 2 minutes on each side. Ensure chicken breast is thoroughly cooked by piercing the meat with a fork. Clear juice should flow when pierced. Remove from pan to cool. Slice the pan-fried chicken breast.

Heat up 1 tablespoon of olive oil on a sauce pan and saute the onions till translucent. Add button mushrooms and stir well for 2 minutes. Add the pasta sauce and seasoning and bring to boil. Add half-can of water. Cover with lid, reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes.

Arrange cooked linguine on plate. Place sliced pan-fried chicken breast and siew pak choy to your liking. Pour an appropriate amount of the mushroom tomato pasta sauce over them and serve hot.