Stir-fried Broccoli with Garlic | 蒜蓉西蘭花

Stir-frying with a generous amount of smashed garlic and oil and finishing it with the oyster sauce, is the most common way to prepare broccoli in Hong Kong.

My mom doesn't like saucy dishes, so she always cook the broccoli without the sauce.  The tip she has on making crispy but slightly soft broccoli is that, you need to add a little water at a time into the pan while stir-frying.

My own family and myself prefer saucy broccoli, so the version I am going to introduce you here is the latter one.  Hope you enjoy it.

INGREDIENTS:

1 head Broccoli, but into chunks

7 Garlic Cloves, peeled and smashed

1 tablespoon Chinese Cooking Rice Wine

Cornstarch Slur (1/2 teaspoon Cornstarch + 3 tablespoons Water)

pinch of Salt

4 tablespoons Vegetable Oil

材料：

1 頭  西蘭花

7 瓣  蒜頭，去皮，拍碎

1 湯匙  米酒

粟米粉水 (1/2 粟米粉 ＋3 湯匙水)

小撮鹽

4 湯匙  菜油

METHOD:

1. In a wok, add vegetable oil and heat it over high heat.

2. Add broccoli; quickly stir fry for about 1 minute.  Add cooking wine; be carefully it may be smokey and splashy.

3. Stir fry the broccoli until the wine is absorbed. Then, add 1-2 spoons of water and continue the cooking.  When the broccoli started to soften, turn down the heat to medium.

4. Season the broccoli with salt.  Stir in the cornstarch slur and mix until it thickens.  Remove the broccoli from the it and quickly transfer it to the serving plate.

做法：

1. 在鑊中下油，以大火消熱。

2. 下西蘭花；快炒一分鐘。下米酒；煮至其蒸發。

3. 下1-2匙水，繼續快炒至西蘭花開始變軟。

4. 調火至中火。下鹽和粟粉水，煮至稠身，快迅離火。

Village Potato stir fry | 快炒農村土豆絲

INGREDIENTS:

2 Potatoes, large, skin on

1 tablespoon Chinese Cooking Rice Wine

1 tablespoon Soy Sauce

1 teaspoon Sugar

3 tablespoons Vegetable Oil

材料：

2 隻  薯仔，大，連皮

1 湯匙  米酒

1 湯匙  豉油

1 茶匙  糖

3 湯匙  菜油

METHODS:

1. Cut the potatoes into sticks; rinse them under running water to get rid of the starch.  Drain well.

2. Heat up the oil in a wok over a high heat.  Add potato sticks; stir fry them for one minute.  Add wine and let it to evaporate.

3. Continue to stir fry for another minute, and add the remaining ingredients.  Stir well.  Cook for another minute and then quickly transfer to the serving plate.

做法：

1. 薯仔切條；用水沖去薯仔內的澱粉質。

2. 鍋內下油，以大火燒熱。下薯仔；炒其一分鐘。下米酒，炒至完全蒸發。

3. 繼續炒一分鐘，然後倒入剩下材料；拌勻。再繼續炒一分鐘便可上碟。

Stir fried Egg with Preserved Radish | 菜脯炒蛋

Preserved radish is a common ingredient in Hong Kong.  We often use it in stir fry eggs or pork, or serve it as a side dish with plain congee.

Making preserved radish requires two main simple steps.  Rubbing salt on the radishes and laying them under the hot sun to dry during the day, and storing them away at night.  This process needs to repeat for at least two weeks before they are stored in a sealed container for another three months.  The preserved radishes we normally see in the market are golden colour to slight brown; they are fresh preserved radishes.  However, the preserved radishes that are stored up to ten years are black in colour, and the ones over twenty years will release black oil, which some people believe has a medical purpose and cherish it a whole lot.

My friend knows my husband and I like preserved radish.  So when she saw that there were such good quality ones for sale at the market, she bought me some.  They smelled so fragrant.  I wanted to use that to stir fry pork belly, but we are on a diet right now so I scrambled eggs with them instead.

INGREDIENTS:

8 Eggs, large, beaten

2 pieces Preserved radishes, rinse off the salt

3 tablespoons Vegetable Oil

材料：

8 隻  雞蛋，大，打勻

2 條  菜脯，沖淨鹽份

3 湯匙  菜油

DIRECTION 做法:

1. Cut the preserved radishes into fine pieces.  Add them in a pan with a tablespoon of vegetable oil.  Sauté them over high heat until fragrant; remove them from the pan.

2. Add the rest of the oil in the same pan.  Add beaten egg and scramble it until half set.  Add the preserved radish back to the pan and continue to cook until they mix evenly.  Serve immediately.

1. 菜脯切成幼粒。在一只鑊中加入一湯匙油和茶脯，大火炒至其香氣四溢；盛起備用。

2. 在同一鑊中下剩餘的油。倒入雞蛋，快炒至半凝固。菜脯回鑊，與蛋炒至均勻；上桌。

Stir-fried Sweet Lime Chicken Wings | 青檸雞翼

Stir-fried Sweet Lime Chicken Wings

青檸雞翼

Ingredients:

2 pounds Chicken Wings

15 gram Ginger slices ( x 2 portions)

1/4 cup Freshly squeezed Lime Juice and Zest

3.5 tablespoons Sugar

1/2 tablespoon Salt

2.5 tablespoons Vegetable Oil

材料：

2 磅   雞翼

15 克   薑片 ( x 2 份)

1/4 杯   鮮榨青檸汁和皮

3.5 湯匙   糖

1/2 湯匙   鹽

2.5 湯匙   菜油

DIRECTION:

Horsetail - the wild edible ｜ 馬尾草

Different stages of horsetails.

The medicinal plant that dates back millions of years when dinosaurs still existed.

Horsetail is a perennial plant and an invasive species that originated from temperate regions.  This plant produces two types of young shoots: fertile and vegetative shoots.  Every year, starting in early spring, this wild edible will appear in many watery areas.

Fertile shoots of the field horsetails.

The fertile shoots have brownish colour and appear asparagus like. They can be eaten raw or cooked.  Each node of the shoots contains water; it is juicy and with almost no taste when eaten raw.

However, after giving them a quick fry with some oil and garlic, these young shoots resemble the taste of the Asian dried daylily, which have a crunchy, slightly sweet and savoury aftertaste (recipe is below).  I personally prefer cooked young shoots.

A big patch of vegetative shoots (on the left). The confiler-like foliages started to grow from the stem (on the right).

Vegetative shoots emerge after fertile shoots, and usually are good from spring to early summer.  They have bright green conifer-like foliage growing around the stems. People consider vegetative shoots as a tonic rather than food due to the rich content of silica, diuretic, and minerals in them.  It is said to improve hair, nails, bones, bladder, and kidneys.  They can be dried and stored as tea leaves.

When gathering vegetative shoots, try to look for the green tops that are bright green with upward foliages.  These green tops can be dried to make beneficial tea.  It tastes somewhat similar to Japanese green tea (recipe below).  However, the green stalk and rihizom should be avoid for consumption since the enzymes inside can destroy Vitamin B1 and thiamine. Also, long-term alcohol users, people who are Vitamin B deficient, pregnant or nursing women should avoid using horsetail.  Personally, I drink horsetail tea only one or two times a week as a treat (it is really delicious) while trying to get the medical benefit from it, but I will not recommend to drink it more than that.

A colony of scouring rush besides a stream. It belongs to horsetail family.

Scouring rush belongs to the horsetail family.  It also has no leaves and no flowers.  In early spring, this plant will produce young shoots that bear lots of spores to reproduce.  Because of the roughness of this plant, people in the old time used it to polish their pots.  I haven’t yet tried this method myself, but I am planning to do it this summer when I go camping.

Stir fry Field Horsetail Shoots

Ingredients:

A handful of Field Horsetail fertile shoots

2 cloves Garlic, sliced

1 tablespoon Vegetable Oil

Salt to taste

How to make:

1. Peel off and discard the black papery rings around the stems. Rinse the shoots a few times to remove the sand and dirt.

2. Heat up the oil over medium high heat. Add garlic.  Fry it until slightly brown.  Add the shoots.  Continuously fry them until they are fragrant; about two minutes.

I tried them as a warm side dish or cold appetizer.  Both were tasty.

Field Horsetail Tea｜馬尾草茶

Ingredients:

Horsetail Green Tops

Hot Water

How to make:

1. Carefully rinse the horsetail in water to remove the sand and dirt (they are quite dirty).

2. To dry the leaves, roughly cut them into 1–2 cm long.  Place them on parchment paper evenly.  Roast them in the oven at 220F until they are totally dried and be crumbled into pieces easily.  Store the leaves in a air-tight container.

3. To make the tea, bring a cup of water to a boil.  Add a tablespoon of tea leaves in a cup, then pour the hot water over it.  Let it steep for about 5–8 minutes.  Enjoy.