Belacan Asparagus Stirfry

Yet another creation from spur of the moment. Andy loves to eat asparagus, so I have to come up with fresh ideas constantly to cook his favourite food. As I was cooking this dish initially, the aroma reminded me of a stirfry dish back home in Malaysia cooked with ferns/fiddleheads (paku-pakis). I remembered that it was mildly spicy and I think there was belacan in it. So just before I dished this out, I sprinkled a couple tablespoons of vegetarian belacan powder (made with fermented tofu) in it and it came out perfect!

Of course, this dish can also be made without belacan…

Ingredients

• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 bundle of fresh asparagus, hardy parts removed and cut the rest into 2″ lengths
• 1 thumb of fresg ginger, peeled (use edge of spoon) and sliced
• 1 handful of vegetarian pork belly (or sliced tofu/chicken breast)
• 2 T belacan powder
• 1 T chili powder (if desired)
• Salt and pepper to taste

Method

1. Heat 2 T of oil in wok. Fry ginger and garlic until fragrant.
2. Add sliced pork belly/tofu/chicken.
3. Add asparagus and cook until semi-wilted.
4. Season with belacan powder, salt, pepper and chili powder if desired.
5. Serve with hot rice.

Sweetpea Mushrooms Stirfry

Another basic stirfry dish.

Ingredients

• Vegetarian ham, diced
• Sweetpeas, tear ends and “devein”
• Canned straw mushrooms, drained
• Enoki mushrooms, woody ends removed
• Mixed peas
• Vegetarian oyster sauce

Method

1. Heat a few tablespoons of oil in a wok. Fry the diced ham until they start to brown.
2. Add sweetpeas and straw mushrooms to the wok. Cook until the sweetpeas start to turn bright green.
3. Toss a handful of mixed peas into the wok.
4. Pour a few tablespoons of oyster sauce to the vegetable mixture and season with sugar, salt and pepper to taste.
5. Add enoki mushrooms to the wok and turn off the heat. Stir well and serve.

Preparation & cooking time: 15 minutes

Eggplant Kungpow Stirfry with Walnuts

This recipe is for 2 medium sized Asian eggplants.  

In a hot wok, heat 2 – 3 tbsps of oil. Fry walnuts (or cashews) and dried chili peppers until they start to turn brown. Add in eggplants (brinjals) that had been cut lengthwise about 2 – 3 inches. You can also cut them in “satay cucumber” style – angled corner pieces. Fry the eggplant until they start to soften and look transclucent. Add more oil if needed, but not too much because the eggplant will release the oil back into the wok when it is cooked.

For the sauce, pour 3 tbsps or more oyster sauce into the wok with the eggplants, nuts and dried chili still in it. Lower the heat to allow for time to adjust the sauce’s taste and consistency. Sprinkle a pinch of salt, about 1 tbsp of sugar and a dash of white pepper. Adjust the sauce by adding in more sugar or soy sauce. Once the sauce is done, remove from heat and plate.

Garnish with chopped cilantro and a sprinkle of toasted sesame seeds.

Stir Fry 101

A friend of mine from a bridal forum would like to know more about Chinese cooking. I’m not an expert, but here’s some basic tips that I had shared with her, that I thought would be useful for some readers out there:

• Chinese cooking is like Taoism… yin & yang. That’s how you balance the flavours, salt & sugar, sweet & sour.
• In most stirfries with sauces, you thicken with a tablespoon of cornstarch mixed with 2-3 tablespoons of cold water, and add to the stirfry just before turning off the heat.
• The sequence of making stir fry is normally in this order, some exceptions may apply:
  1.  Heat a few tablespoons of oil in a hot wok.
  2. Add the underlying flavour (garlic / ginger / onion) into the wok.
  3. Add protein (meat or tofu). You can pre-cook the protein in a wook with some hot oil and then set aside if you don’t want to overcook it. Add the protein back into the wok after adding in the last pieces of vege.
  4. Add in hard vege, e.g. carrots, celery.
  5. Add softer vege, e.g. mushrooms (with the exception of enoki mushroom becuase too much heat will make it tough and stringy).
  6. Add water to help cook down the ingredients.
  7. Add sauce, e.g. oyster, black bean, soy.
  8. Balance the flavours, i.e. add sugar / salt / pepper / flavouring essence
  9. Thicken the sauce with cornstarch + cold water mixture just before turning off the heat.
  10. Remove from heat.

I do not own any Chinese cookbooks, I pretty much just follow my intuition