Stir-fries have to be the healthiest, tastiest and quickest of all convenience foods. They can often be cooked in about the same time it would take to order and fetch a takeaway but you get to choose what to put in them and, more importantly, what to leave out, such as monosodium glutamate, a powder often used in Chinese takeaways to enhance the flavour. They are a great way of getting vegetables into children and probably take less time than preparing chips for Mum’s that are trying to juggles 10 jobs at a time.
This stir-fry has about 220 calories, so it is also great if you are watching your weight. You could serve it with noodles or rice but if you are watching your carbohydrate intake there is probably sufficient variety of ingredients to eat it on its own.
Do you ever get bewildered about Chinese vegetables? I love to see them in Oriental shops or, if I am lucky, on a market stall, but I never buy them as I have no idea what they are. I thought it was time to change all that so here is a little bit of information about some of the more common vegetables you are likely to see.
bamboo shoots – as the name suggests, come from the bamboo plant which is native to Asia. You can buy them fresh in Oriental shops but I think the easiest way to buy them is canned. That way there is less wastage.
Bok Choi or Pak Choi as it is often known, is perhaps one of China’s most popular vegetables. It is sweet and crisp and is used to enhance many Chinese dishes from soups to stir-fries. Like most green vegetables it is high in iron and is also a good source of Vitamins A and C.
Daikon is a Chinese white radish. It is much stronger than the little red radishes we are familiar with in the UK. The Japanese love this in salads but the Chinese tend to cook it in stir-fries. Either way, if you intend to use it please be careful not to add too much.
Bean sprouts, perhaps one of the most familiar of all Chinese vegetables in the UK. These are grown from mung beans. You can do this at home although they are readily available from most supermarkets so it is hardly worth the effort. They are great raw in a salad, mixed with tomatoes, cucumber, radishes, coriander and mint, or as an addition to stir-fries.
Chinese cabbage, or sometimes called chinese leaves. This is a really mild, sweet cabbage that can be steamed, stir-fried or sautéed. The secret is not to over cook or it goes to mush and loses most of its flavour.
There are many more varieties. I found these photographs on the About.com website. Here is a link if you want to see more:
http://chinesefood.about.com/od/vegetablesrecipes/ig/Chinese-Vegetables-Pictures/
This recipe is based on one from the August Delicious magazine. I made it almost to the letter although if I did it again I would slice the stems of the pak choi rather than put them in whole as they were hard to eat. The slideshow is at the end.
http://www.deliciousmagazine.co.uk/recipes/sticky-chicken-stir-fry
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
Tags: chilli, Chinese vegetables, ginger, stir-fry
