Stir fry baby spinach with crispy whitebait (银鱼)

Posted on July 1, 2010 by Angeline

stir fry baby spinachMmmm…. tender bites of baby spinach with crispy whitebait!

The highlight of the dish… at least to my girl 🙂

Baby spinach is one of the favourite vegetables in my home so I do stir-fries with it as well as cook it in soup (see Spinach soup recipe).

It’s incredibly nutritious but it’s also quite tedious to make sure it’s really clean so I spend quite a bit of time making sure that the spinach is thoroughly washed.

White bait (银鱼) is also extremely nutritious and I don’t quite know any kid who would turn down crispy white bait when offered some so instead of hiding it in omelette (which my mum used to do – I could see it so I think that didn’t count as hiding), I decided to just make the white bait crispy. Not too much effort really and even adults would love the extra crunch with the tender spinach.

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Stir-fried baby spinach with crispy whitebait
Author: 
Cuisine: Chinese
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 3
 
Ingredients
  • 1-2 bunches of baby spinach from the wet market (1 packet from the supermarket)
  • 1 big handful of Japanese (dried) whitebait or more if you'd like
  • 100ml stock/water
  • 2 cloves garlic (minced)
  • shallot and garlic oil (made by frying shallot and garlic in oil till they brown) - optional. Use normal oil if you don't have this on hand
Instructions
  1. In a wok, heat some shallot and garlic oil then add the whitebait and pan-fry till they turn golden brown and crisp.
  2. Set aside the whitebait on a kitchen towel to remove any excess oil. You can fry the whitebait using the microwave as well. Place cleaned whitebait in a deep microwave safe bowl, and pour enough oil to cover half the amount of whitebait. Cover (leaving a small gap) with microwave safe plastic wrap and microwave for 3 minutes, stopping it every minute to check.
  3. With the remaining oil in the wok, fry the garlic till fragrant.
  4. Add the baby spinach and stir-fry for about half a minute.
  5. Add the stock/water and simmer till the spinach is cooked.
  6. Add fish sauce to taste.
  7. Dish and top with crispy whitebait.
Notes
Serve the spinach and whitebait separately if preferred.
 

 

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Posted in Food for kids, Recipes, Vegetables, Vegetables (suitable for tots) | Tagged | Leave a comment

Old cucumber soup with carrot (老黄瓜排骨汤)

Posted on July 1, 2010 by Angeline

old cucumber soup with carrot

I don’t know about you, but I love my old cucumber soup with carrot. I find that the sweetness of carrots complements the taste of the old cucumber very well. You can cook this via slow cooker or on the stove top. I usually cook it on the stove but the slow cooker is a great tool when I need to be out of the house and yet want some nourishing soup for dinner.

The goodness of old cucumber soup awaits me….

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Old cucumber soup with carrot (老黄瓜排骨汤)
Author: 
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 4
 
Ingredients
  • 1 small old cucumber (scrubbed clean, seeds scooped out, cut into chunks, leave skin on)
  • 2 small carrots or 1 large carrot (cut into chunks)
  • 250g pork ribs
  • 3 chicken carcasses
  • 8 red dates, pitted
  • 10g dried scallop
  • 1 teaspoon bitter and sweet almonds
  • 1 candied date (optional)
  • 1 dried cuttlefish (optional)
  • 3 cloves garlic (with skin on)
  • fish sauce and/or salt to taste
  • 1L water (if cooking via slow cooker)/ 2-3L (if cooking on stove top)
Instructions
Cooking via slow cooker:
  1. Blanch the pork ribs and chicken bones.
  2. Rinse the bitter and sweet almonds, red dates, cuttlefish and garlic and add these together with the candied date, pork ribs and chicken bones to a soup bag before putting the bag into the water in a slow cooker. Add the dried scallop in the slow cooker.
  3. Let the soup base slow cook for about 6hours on LOW.
  4. Add the old cucumber and carrots and cook for another 2 hours on HIGH.
  5. Add fish sauce/ salt to taste.
If cooking on stove top:
  1. Blanch the pork ribs and chicken bones.
  2. Rinse the red dates, cuttlefish and garlic and add these together with the pork ribs and chicken bones to a soup bag before putting the bag into the water in a slow cooker. Add the dried scallop in the slow cooker.
  3. Bring the soup to a boil then simmer for 2-3hours on low heat.
  4. Add the old cucumber and carrots in the last hour.
  5. Add fish sauce and/or salt to taste.

Click the link for the full list of soup recipes (with thumbnails).

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Posted in Chinese Food, Food for kids, Recipes, Soups, Soups (suitable for tots) | Leave a comment