Baby kailan with garlic and prawns

Posted on June 29, 2010 by Angeline

baby kailan with garlic and prawns

I remember it was a rainy morning when I went to the market and naturally, I was greeted with an abundance of vegetables at the stalls since their business is always adversely affected by bad weather.

Sometimes I just feel so bored… you know… staring at the same range of veggies and all… I don’t repeat my dishes for at least a week so sometimes it kinda bothers me that I may have to cook the same veggie again. haha…

Anyway, it’s been a long time since I cooked baby kailan and the auntie told me that that day’s baby kailan was in top-form and I was sold on the idea immediately. πŸ˜›

Well, you can stir-fry or just parboil baby kailan… this time, I chose to parboil them! πŸ™‚

Baby kailan with prawns

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Baby kailan with garlic and prawns
Author: 
Cuisine: Chinese
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
 
Ingredients
  • $1 worth of baby kailan (yes! only a dollar for a full plate of veggies! Sometimes I really can't bear to order veggies when we eat out coz it's like daylight robbery....)
  • 6 prawns
  • 3 teaspoons minced garlic
  • a few shallots (sliced thinly, amount up to you)
  • water
  • 5 teaspoons oil (1 teaspoon for parboiling, 1 teaspoon for frying prawns, divide the rest for frying the garlic and shallots)
  • salt/sugar (for parboiling)
  • fish sauce/ oyster sauce to taste
Marinate prawns with:
  • 1 teaspoon hua diao jiu
  • dash of ground white pepper
  • dash of sesame oil
Instructions
  1. Pluck the kailan into appropriate size/length, separating the leaves from the stalks. Rinse leafy veggies thoroughly as leafy veggies usually have lots of particles.
  2. Shell and devein the prawns, leaving the tail intact. Marinate the prawns.
  3. Heat some water in the wok (add a little salt/sugar and oil to the water). When the water comes to a boil, add the stalks of the kailan first for 1 minute, followed by the leaves as the stalks will take longer to cook.
  4. While waiting for the veggie to cook, heat a pan with oil and fry some of the garlic till golden brown. Drain and set aside.
  5. Using the same oil and pan, add in the shallots and fry till golden brown. Drain and set aside. Reserve the super aromatic shallot and garlic oil for the last step.
  6. Once the veggie's cooked, drain and set aside.
  7. Heat a little oil in the wok and fry the remaining garlic.
  8. Add the prawns. and fry till prawns are cooked before adding in the veggie to mix. Don't fry for too long since it's really just to mix the ingredients together before adding the seasoning.
  9. Add fish sauce/ oyster sauce to taste.
  10. Dish and top with golden brown shallots, garlic and the OIL used to fry the shallots and garlic! πŸ™‚

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Lovely and constructive comments are welcomed. Do hop over to my Facebook page where I connect with my readers and I would love to have you following me on Pinterest, Twitter and Instagram too πŸ™‚

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

Wa wa cai (ε¨ƒε¨ƒθœ) with canned stewed pork (ηΊ’ηƒ§ζŽ’ιͺ¨)

Posted on June 29, 2010 by Angeline
wa wa cai recipe

I usually cook this dish using wongbok (η™½θœ) but since wa wa cai looks like – and probably is the mini version of wongbok – and shares the same natural sweetness, I find it a suitable candidate for this dish.

I’m not sure whether we inherited the recipe from my grandma but this was definitely a dish I remember my mum cooking – and I remember I loved it every time she did because the vegetables were so sweet (and that means a lot to a kid!) and I liked the simplicity of the dish.

Fast forward many years. With everyone getting more health conscious, we don’t consume much canned food these days so we don’t eat this on a regular basis. In fact this is one of the rare canned food that I’d buy.

Here’s the canned stewed pork I use (available at supermarkets like NTUC)

The canned stewed pork is oily. Hence, I always remove the oil from the gravy using oil filter paper (which I get from Daiso) and I get tasty gravy without the floating layer of oil, which I personally find gross.

If you can’t find wa wa cai, remember you can always replace this wtih wong bok. It’d be just as good.

Wa wa cai recipe (ε¨ƒε¨ƒθœ) with canned stewed pork (ηΊ’ηƒ§ζŽ’ιͺ¨)

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Wa wa cai (ε¨ƒε¨ƒθœ) with canned stewed pork (ηΊ’ηƒ§ζŽ’ιͺ¨)
Author: 
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 3
 
Ingredients
  • 1 can of stewed pork
  • 1 packet of wa wa cai (they come in a pack of 3 small bunches)
  • 2 teaspoons minced garlic
  • 1 teaspoon oil
Instructions
  1. Open the can of stewed pork and separate the pork from the gravy. Discard the bones and shred the meat using your fingertips.
  2. Filter out the oil from the gravy using oil filter paper. Set aside.
  3. Chop off the base of the vegetable then chop/tear the leaves of the veggie into bite size and cut the stems diagonally into about 2" segments. Separate the stems from the leaves.
  4. Heat oil in wok and stir fry the garlic till fragrant.
  5. Add the wa wa cai stems first to the wok as they take longer to cook. Stir fry for 1-2 minutes. Add some water if it gets too dry (start with 1 tablespoon)
  6. Add in the leaves.
  7. When the leaves have softened, add the gravy and let the veggie simmer on low heat in the gravy for about 1min before adding the stewed pork.
  8. Let the dish come to a boil before turning off the heat.
  9. Dish and serve.

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Lovely and constructive comments are welcomed. Do hop over to my Facebook page where I connect with my readers and I would love to have you following me on Pinterest, Twitter and Instagram too πŸ™‚

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