Well, this is a strange-looking vegetable and I only know the name of it in mandarin because I asked the vegetable stall uncle, and I’m not even sure if he’s right 😀
It looks like a cross between kai lan and broccoli because the flower bit on top resembles broccoli but the stem is that of a kai lan. The uncle told me it’s broccoli with a long stem (but the texture and taste of the stem is that of a kailan’s). Hmmm. Never mind what it is. What’s more important is that it tastes nice right?
You could replace this strange vegetable with asparagus/broccoli/ kailan and it’d still work fine. 🙂 Vegetables just taste so good with prawns! 🙂
Vegetable stir fry with prawns (芥蘭花炒蝦仁)
- a small bunch of broccoli-kailan (for a lack of better description of the veg) 芥蘭花 - you could technically replace this with any seasonal vegetable
- 3-4 medium sized prawns
- 2 teaspoons minced garlic
- stock (or water)
- oyster sauce to taste
- cornflour slurry (if desired)
- 1 teaspoon salt (for parboiling)
- water (for parboiling)
- 2 teaspoons oil
- ½ teaspoon hua diao jiu
- 1 teaspoon light soy sauce
- a dash of ground white pepper
- Prepare the broccoli-kailan/ vegetable of your choice
- Rinse, shell and devein the prawns, leaving the tails intact. Marinate the prawns with the seasoning and set aside in the fridge for at least 15 minutes.
- Bring a pot of water to boil. Add a teaspoon of salt and parboil the vegetable. Check for done-ness by checking out the crispness of the stem. Sieve out the vegetable when done and discard the water. Set the vegetable aside.
- Heat 1 teaspoon oil and saute 1 teaspoon of minced garlic till fragrant.
- Add the prawns and fry till they are 80% cooked. Remove and set aside.
- Heat the other teaspoon of oil in the wok and add in the remaining garlic.
- Once garlic is fragrant, add in the vegetable and stir-fry quickly (the vegetable is already cooked), then return the prawns to the wok.
- Add oyster sauce to taste and a bit of stock (or water) and bring to a boil.
- Add cornflour water to thicken the gravy if desired.
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