Stir-Fried Asparagus

Stir-Fried Asparagus

Alternative :Stir-Fried Asparagus with Chinese Black Beancurd ...

Asparagus with great source of folate, vitamin B, it benefits the kidneys and the liver as it promotes elimination through urine. It is also good for those who have rheumatism and arthritis. As for pregnant women, it can help to prevent birth defects like spina bifida. But it is not recommended for those suffering from gout due to high in purines.

Preparation: 15 mins,Cooking time: 10 mins

Ingredients (serves 2)
° 100g young asparagus, end trimmed and cut into 5cm lengths
° 25g fresh lily bulb, trimmed and peeled
° 50g red capsicum, seeded and cut into 5cm lengths
° 4 fresh shiitake mushrooms
° 5-6 baby corn, halved
° 1 tempeh, cut into small cubes
° 2 slices ginger or 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped or shredded
° 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
° salt and pepper to taste
° sugar (optional) to taste

Method
1. Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a wok or non-stick pan. Add the tempeh and pan-fry till crispy. Set aside.
2. Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a wok. Add the ginger or garlic and fry till fragrant.
3. Throw in the mushrooms and stir-fry briskly.
4. Add in the asparagus, red capsicum, corn and stir-fry for 2-3 minutes. Lastly add in the lily bulb, tempeh and season to taste with salt, pepper and sugar.
5. Transfer to a serving dish and serve immediately.

Stir-Fried Tofu and Mushroom with Basil

Using natural herb in cooking can help to spice up the flavour. Moreover, herb can benefit to our health. Basil is an excellent source of vitamin K and a good source of iron, calcium and vitamin A, manganese, magnesium, vitamin C and potassium.

Preparation: 15 mins, Cooking time: 5 mins

Ingredients (serves 2)
° 50g basil leaves
° 1 small firm tofu(beancurd), cut into cubes and deep-fried
° 10 fresh shiitake mushrooms
° 2 slices ginger or 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped or shredded
° 1 fresh red chilli, sliced
° 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
° 2 tablespoons cooking rice wine
° salt to taste
° few basil leaves, for garnish

Method
1. Heat oil in a wok. Add the ginger or garlic and fry till fragrant.
2. Throw in the mushrooms and fry for 2 minutes.
3. Add in the basil leaves, tofu and drizzle with cooking rice wine. Stir-fry briskly for a moment, throw in the red chilli and season to taste with salt.
4. Transfer to a serving dish, garnish with fresh basil leaves and serve immediately.

Stir-Fried Tofu with Tempeh

I have seen the vegetarian stall using tempeh to stir fry tofu. Here is my recreation of the dish. Feel free to adjust the amount of chilli sauce, tomatoes and water. Thai chilli sauce will be a good ingredient to use for this dish. I have omitted salt and sugar, as I find that both the chilli and tomatoes is more than enough to flavour this dish.

Preparation: 3 mins, Cooking time: 12 mins

Ingredients (makes 4)
° 2 pieces (100g) fresh tempeh, diced or sliced
° 1 small firm tofu(beancurd), cut into cubes
° oil, for deep-frying
° few sprigs fresh coriander or spring onion, for garnish

Sauce
° 1 tablespoon chilli sauce
° 1 tablespoon tomatoes sauce
° 1-1½ tablespoons water

Method
1. Mix all the ingredients for the sauce in a bowl and set aside.
2. Heat oil in a deep-fryer or wok. Place the tofu and tempeh in and then fry until golden brown. Drain well on kitchen paper and set aside.
3. Pour the sauce into the work. Throw in the tofu and tempeh and stir-fry briskly for a moment.
4. Dish up, garnish with spring onion or coriander and serve immediately.

Stir-Fried China Nai Bai

I love this unique vegetable as it is and usually I just stir-fry it with garlic or ginger. It is simple yet crisp and delicious. This vegetable can be used in soup (hotpot/steamboat).

Preparation: 5 mins, Cooking time: 5 mins

Ingredients (serves 2)
° 200g china nai bai, base trimmed and halved
° 2 cloves garlic or 2 slices ginger, finely chopped
° ¾ tablespoon olive oil
° 1 teaspoon cooking rice wine (optional)
° salt to taste

Method
1. Heat oil in a wok. Add the garlic or ginger and fry till fragrant.
2. Throw in the china nai bai, drizzle cooking rice wine over it and stir-fry briskly for 1-2 minutes. Season to taste with salt.
3. Transfer to a serving dish and serve immediately.

Stir-Fried Watercress with Preserved Chilli Beancurd

I saw a photo of the stir-fried watercress with preserved beancurd at The Urban Vegan’s blog. I had used preserved chilli beancurd to stir-fry romaine and why didn’t I think of using it to stir-fry watercress? Well I gave it a try and here is the recipe – simple and easy. Preserved chilli beancurd can be use to stir-fry sweet potato leaves, spinach too.

Preparation: 5 mins, Cooking time: 5 mins

Ingredients (serves 2)
° 200g watercress
° 1 slice ginger, finely chopped or shredded
° ¾ tablespoon vegetable oil
° 2 cubes preserved chilli beancurd or preserved beancurd, mashed
° 1 fresh red chilli padi, sliced
° dash sesame oil (optional)

Method
1. Heat oil in a wok. Add the ginger and fry till fragrant.
2. Stir in the mashed preserved bean curd and fry for less than half a minute.
3. Add the watercress and stir-fry briskly for a moment or 1-2 minutes. Throw in the red chilli and sprinkle some sesame oil.
4. Transfer to a serving dish and serve immediately.

Stir-Fried Shiitake Mushroom

Lately, we can find different variety of mushrooms at the supermarket and even the wet market they are stocking up a few different type of mushrooms. They would normally suggest that using few varieties of mushrooms and stir-fry with garlic and oyster sauce. This is a dish of shiitake mushrooms stir-fry with garlic or ginger and vegetarian oyster sauce. I add some veggie to this dish, which can be optional. It is rather similar to the recipe ‘China Chye Sim and Shiitake Mushroom”. The differences are there is a slight different in the sauce ingredients and the amount of veggie is lesser for this dish.

Preparation: 5 mins, Cooking time: 10 mins

Ingredients (serves 2)
° 150g fresh shiitake mushrooms
° 100g romaine (cos lettuce) (optional), blanched for 5-10 seconds
° 2 slices gingers or 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
° 2 tablespoons olive oil
° ¼ fresh red chilli (optional), sliced

Sauce
° 2 tablespoons vegetarian oyster sauce
° 5 tablespoons water
° 1 tablespoon cooking rice wine

Method
1. Mix all the ingredients for the sauce in a bowl and set aside.
2. Heat oil in a wok or frying pan. Add the ginger or garlic and fry until fragrant.
3. Add the mushroom and stir-fry for 1 minute. Stir in the sauce, continue to cook for another 1 minute.
4. Pour over the romaine, garnish with some red chilli and serve immediately.

China Chye Sim with Shiitake Mushroom

I love simple dish that does not need lots of culinary skill. For this recipe, the sauce is just enough to avoid any wastage. If you prefer more sauce, just increase the ingredients for the sauce to 1.5 times. Ginger or garlic can be sliced and discarded prior to adding the mushroom, if you prefer a neater presentation.

Preparation: 5 mins, Cooking time: 10 mins

Ingredients (serves 2)
° 200g china chye sim, trimmed
° 8 fresh shiitake mushrooms
° 2 slices gingers or 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
° 1 tablespoon olive oil
° 500ml water
° ¼ fresh red chilli (optional), finely chopped

Sauce
° 1 tablespoon vegetarian oyster sauce
° 1 tablespoon light soy sauce
° 5 tablespoons water
° 1 teaspoon cooking rice wine (optional)
° 1 teaspoon sesame oil (optional)

Method
1. Bring 500ml water to a boil. Blanch china chye sim in batches for 45 - 60 seconds or until crisp-tender. Drain well and arrange on a serving plate.
2. Mix all the ingredients for the sauce in a bowl and set aside.
3. Heat oil in a wok or frying pan. Add the ginger or garlic and fry until fragrant.
4. Add the mushroom and stir-fry for 1 minute. Stir in the sauce, continue to cook for 1 minute.
5. Pour over the china chye sim, garnish with some red chilli and serve immediately.

Stir-Fried Potato

Another simple and easy to put together dish! This is quite a common Chinese home-style dish that is usually cooked with minced meat. Add in some vegetarian ham or vegetarian meat, if desired. If not, carrot can be added to lend its sweetness to this dish.

Preparation: 5 mins, Cooking time: 20 mins

Ingredients (serves 2)
° 350g potatoes, sliced
° 2 cloves garlic or 2 slices ginger, finely chopped
° 1 tablespoon olive oil
° 275ml water
° 1 tablespoon light soy sauce
° 1 tablespoon vegetarian oyster sauce
° freshly ground black pepper, to taste
° a small handful fresh coriander leaves or spring onion, for garnish

Method
1. Heat oil in a wok. Add the garlic or ginger and fry for 1 minute.
2. Add the potatoes and stir-fry briskly for a moment.
3. Pour in the water. Stir in the light soy sauce and vegetarian oyster sauce. Bring to a boil and simmer for 15-20 minutes or till the potatoes are soften. If the sauce dries up, add a little bit of water.
4. Transfer to a serving dish, garnish with coriander leaves or spring onion and serve immediately.

Stir-Fried Lo Han Chai with Chinese Cabbage

According to the ‘Have a 2-week Supply of Food at Home Now for Any Emergency’, it is recommended that we stock up some canned food which had longer shelf life. One of those canned food that I would buy is Vegetarian Lo Han Chai, besides the Baked Bean, Beans etc. Periodically, I need to check the expiry date and renew the supplies whenever necessary. This is the time, I will used the canned food to cook the below dish by adding some fresh vegetable. No need seasoning, as the canned food had it all.

Preparation: 8 mins, Cooking time: 5 mins

Ingredients (serves 2)
° 1 can Vegetarian Lo Han Chai
° 200g Chinese cabbabe (wok bak/bok choy), cut into broad strips
° 10 thin slices carrot
° 3 slices ginger
° ¾ tablespoon olive oil
° 1 red chilli, seeded and sliced, for garnish
° 2 stalks fresh coriander leaves (optional), for garnish

Method
1. Heat oil in a wok. Add the ginger and fry till fragrant.
2. Add in the Chinese cabbage, carrot and stir-fry briskly for 2 minutes.
3. Pour in the Lo Han Chai and stir-fry for another 1-2 minutes or until the vegetables are soften.
4. Add in the chilli and coriander leaves. Transfer to a serving dish and serve hot.

Stir-Fried Chinese Chive with Yellow Tofu

Chinese chive also known as Chinese Leek, Ku Chai or Oriental Garlic Chives combines the taste of garlic and chive. It is often used for stuffing in the Dim Sum and Dumping. It is also use to flavour noodle (Long Life Handmade Noodle). For this recipe, it is used to stir-fry with yellow tofu - Chinese heritage yellow taukwa is a kind of firmer tofu or beancurd which is orangey yellow in colour. This type of tofu is much firmer.

Preparation: 5 mins, Cooking time: 5 mins

Ingredients (serves 2)
° 150g chinese chive, cut into 5cm length
° 1 (110g) Chinese heritage yellow taukwa/yellow beancurd, cut into strips
° 2 slices ginger, finely chopped
° 1 tablespoon olive oil
° salt to taste

Method
1. Heat oil in a wok. Add the ginger and fry till fragrant.
2. Add in the tofu and stir-fry for 2 minutes.
3. Throw in the Chinese chive and stir-fry briskly for 1 minute. Season to taste with salt.
4. Transfer to a serving dish and serve immediately.

Stir-Fried Chinese Mustard with Red Chilli

Chinese mustard cabbage can be found in different varieties. It can stand up to stir-fry or braising in a sauce. To make this dish more interesting, add some shitake mushrooms or shimeji mushrooms, if desired. This vegetable can be used to make salted vegetable too, refer to Home-made Salted Mustard Green and Stir-Fried Home-made Salted Mustard Green for the recipe.

Preparation: 5 mins, Cooking time: 5 mins

Ingredients (serves 2-3)
° 300g Chinese mustard, cut into small pieces
° 8 thin slices ginger
° 2 cloves garlic (optional), finely chopped
° 1 red chilli, seeded and sliced
° 1 teaspoons corn starch, mixed with 30ml water

Sauce
° 30ml water
° ½ teaspoon sesame oil
° ½-1 teaspoon sugar, or to taste
° ½ teaspoon salt, or to taste
° pepper, to taste
° 1 teaspoon cooking rice wine (optional)

Method
1. Mix all the ingredients for the sauce in a bowl and set aside.
2. Heat oil in a wok or frying pan. Add the ginger, garlic and stir-fry for 1 minute.
3. Add the Chinese mustard and stir-fry for 2 minutes. Stir in the sauce and bring to a boil for 1-1½ minutes.
4. Stir in the corn starch mixture and throw in the chilli. Bring to a boil.
5. Transfer to a serving dish and serve immediately.

Stir-Fried Sweet Potato Leaves

Sweet Potato leaves? Sweet potato leaves and shoots are a good source of vitamins A, C, and B2 (Riboflavin). You can easily get sweet potato leaves from the wet market or the supermarket, it is sold as a bundle with leaves still on the vine. Keep the vine of the sweet potato leaves, it can be eaten. Just that it required some work to remove the ‘silk thread’ on it, by tearing from the tip of the vine. You can spot the ‘silk thread’ peeled half way and still hanging on the vine in the picture. It can be stir-fry with vegetarian sambal belacan too, if prefer. Just get those fresh and young leaves, it tastes better.

Preparation: 8 mins, Cooking time: 5 mins

Ingredients (serves 2)
° 250g sweet potato leaves, trimmed and cut into 5cm length
° 2 cloves garlic or 2 slices ginger, finely chopped
° ¾ tablespoon olive oil
° salt, to taste
° 1 fresh red chilli, sliced, for garnish

Method
1. Heat oil in a wok. Add the garlic or ginger and fry till fragrant.
2. Add the sweet potato leaves and stir-fry briskly for 1-2 minutes. Sprinkle some water if it is too dry. Season to taste with salt.
3. Transfer to a serving dish, garnish with red chilli and serve immediately.

Stir-Fried Baby Spinach (Amaranth)

Simple yet delicious and it is incredibly easy to cook. I added some wolfberries to spice up this dish.

Preparation: 5 mins, Cooking time: 5 mins

Ingredients (serves 2)
° 200g-250g baby spinach/amaranth, trimmed
° 2 cloves garlic or 2 slices ginger, finely chopped
° ¾ tablespoon olive oil
° 1 teaspoon wolfberries, soaked
° 1 teaspoon cooking rice wine (optional)
° salt to taste

Method
1. Heat oil in a wok. Add the garlic or ginger and fry till golden brown.
2. Throw in the baby spinach and wolfberries. Drizzle cooking rice wine over it and stir-fry briskly for 1-2 minutes. Season to taste with salt.
3. Transfer to a serving dish and serve immediately.

Stir-Fried French Bean with Yellow Tofu

Photographer: Little JF

This is a super simple dish to put together and tasted terrific. Delicious, healthy and inexpensive! Chinese heritage yellow taukwa is a kind of firmer tofu or beancurd which is orangey yellow in colour. It is available at the supermarket. Normal firm tofu can be used instead, it might look plainer but just add some shredded carrot to dazzle up this dish. If you prefer the French bean to be softer, you might need to cook it slightly longer.

Preparation: 8 mins, Cooking time: 5 mins

Ingredients (serves 2)
° 250g French beans, trimmed and cut into 5cm length
° 1 (110g) Chinese heritage yellow taukwa/yellow beancurd, cut into small cubes
° 2 cloves garlic or 2 slices ginger, finely chopped
° 1 tablespoon olive oil
° salt to taste
° ½ red chilli (optional), for garnish

Method
1. Heat oil in a non-stick wok. Add the garlic or ginger, yellow taukwa and fry for 2 minutes or till fragrant.
2. Add the French beans and stir-fry briskly for 2-3 minutes or until how crunchy you like the French beans to be. Sprinkle some water if it is too dry. Season to taste with salt.
3. Transfer to a serving dish, garnish with red chilli and serve immediately.

Stir-Fried Tomatoes

This is a simple dish. The cooking style is simple, quick, and easy. Another way to eat those lovely tomatoes!

Preparation: 5 mins, Cooking time: 5 mins

Ingredients (serves 2-3)
° 4 (250g) tomatoes, cut into wedges
° 50g onion, diced
° 2 slices ginger, shredded
° 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
° a small handful fresh coriander leaves or spring onion, for garnish

Sauce
° 2 tablespoons tomatoes sauce
° ½ tablespoon chilli sauce
° 1 teaspoon cooking rice wine (optional)

° pepper, to taste
° 30ml water

Method
1. Mix all the ingredients for the sauce in a bowl and set aside.
2. Heat oil in a wok or frying pan. Add the ginger and fry for 1 minute.
3. Add the tomatoes, onion and stir-fry for 1½ minutes. Stir in the sauce and bring to a boil.
4. Garnish with coriander leaves or spring onion, transfer to a serving dish and serve immediately.

Stir-Fried Broccoli with King Oyster Mushroom

Photograhper: Little JF

Broccoli is a hardy vegetable of the cabbage family that is high in vitamins A and D. Traditionally ginger is always cooked with broccoli - its warmth balances the coolness of yin vegetables such as broccoli. So for this recipe, instead of using small amount of ginger juice, I used few slices of ginger and chopped finely to intensify the flavor of the vegetables. Other ways of stir-fry broccoli is with carrot, beancurd, and other types of mushrooms. It is a bit difficult to avoid overcooking the broccoli during the stir-frying process, therefore I like to blanched it first. In fact, blanched broccoli florets tasted good with or without any dipping sauces.

Preparation: 8 mins, Cooking time: 5 mins

Ingredients (serves 2)
° 200g broccoli florets, blanched
° 75g-100g king oyster mushroom, 5cm length and 1cm thick strip
° 2-3 slices ginger, finely chopped
° ¾ -1 tablespoon olive oil

° 1 teaspoon wolfberries (optional), soaked

Sauce
° 2 tablespoons light soy sauce
° ½ teaspoon sugar
° 1 teaspoon tapioca starch
° pepper, to dash
° 1 teaspoon cooking rice wine (optional)
° 90ml water

Method
1. Arrange the blanched broccoli in a serving plate and set aside.
2. Combine the ingredients for sauce and wolfberries in a bowl and set aside.
3. Heat oil in a wok. Add the ginger and fry till fragrant. Add the mushroom and stir-fry briskly for 1-2 minutes or until soften.
4. Stir in the sauce mixture and bring to a boil. Drizzle over the broccoli serve immediately.

Stir-Fried Silk Squash with ‘Egg’

Silk squash is also known as luffa, dishwater gourd, Chinese okra, dishrag or dishcloth gourd, lloofah, ridged loofah, ridged gourd, silk gourd etc, It is dark green in colour and looks like a thin zucchini and has a sweet, but very mild taste, similar to cucumber. Always buy young silk squash and I like to remove the core where there are some seeds hidden. My mother used to stir-fry silk squash with beaten egg. For the vegan version, I used scrambled tofu to replace the egg. One other way of cooking silk squash is to stir-fry with carrot and cloud ear fungus.

Preparation: 10 mins, Cooking time: 5 mins

Ingredients (serves 2)
° 200g Silk Squash (weight after peeling and sliced), sliced
° 1 small firm beancurd/tofu, pat dry and scrambled ¼ teaspoon turmeric powder
° 1½ tablespoon olive oil
° 1 slice ginger or 1 clove garlic, finely chopped
° salt to taste

Method
1. Marinate the scrambled tofu with turmeric powder, salt, pepper and sesame oil. Set aside for 10 minutes.
2. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a non-stick pan over medium heat and fry scrambled tofu for 2 minutes or until dry. Set aside.
3. Heat ½ tablespoon oil in a non-stick pan. Add the ginger or garlic and fry till fragrant. Throw in the silk squash and stir fry for 1½-2 minutes. Season to taste and salt.
4. Add in the pan-fried scrambled tofu and mix well. Transfer to a serving dish and serve immediately.

Luffa picture: http://www.wku.edu/~darlene.applegate/oldworld/china/images/luffa.jpg

Stir-Fried Cucumber

Basically I am a lazy cook, so I prefer things to be simple and fast. Here is another stir-fried recipe if you are tiring of eating raw cucumber. Just don’t overcook the cucumber, to enjoy the soft exterior and crunchy interior. As do how long this stir-fried should be, depend on the thickness of the cucumber slices and personal preference. Carrot can be replaced with red pepper chilli, if desired.

Preparation: 5 mins, Cooking time: 5 mins

Ingredients (serves 2)
° 300g cucumber, pit removed and sliced diagonally (3-5mm)
° 25g carrot, peeled and sliced or shredded
° 4 button mushrooms (can mushrooms), sliced
° 2 thin slices ginger or 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
° 1 tablespoon olive oil
° 1 teaspoon light soy sauce
° 1 teaspoon sesame oil
° salt, to taste

Method
1. Heat oil in a wok. Add the ginger or garlic and fry till fragrant.
2. Throw in the cucumber, carrot and mushrooms and stir fry for 1-1½ minutes. Season to taste with light soy sauce, sesame oil and salt.
3. Transfer to a serving dish and serve immediately.

Stir-Fried Tom Yum Vegetarian Fish

This is real simple to cook. The vegetarian fish slices can be deep fried or pan fried, if desired. Sugar and light soy sauce are omitted unless you want to add these. Squeeze some lime juice if you prefer it to be a little tangier. Few pineapple cubes or slices of star fruit can be added.

Preparation: 5 mins, Cooking time: 5 mins

Ingredients (serves 2)
° 2 (100g) vegetarian fish slices
° 1 tomato, cut into 6-8 wedges
° 1 stalk lemongrass, peel off outer layers leaving tender whitish centre, cut out 5cm or sliced, bruised
° 3-4 kaffir lime leaves
° 1 tablespoon olive oil
° 1 thin slice ginger, finely chopped
° 1 tablespoon vegetarian tom yum paste
° 50ml water
° ½ fresh red chilli (optional) , finely shredded
° a small handful fresh coriander leaves (optional), for garnish
° 1 kalamansi lime (optional)

Method
1. Heat the oil in a wok. Add the ginger, lemongrass and lime leaves fry till fragrant.
2. Throw in the tomato and stir fry for 1-2 minutes. Stir in the tom yum paste and water. Add in the vegetarian fish slices and stir fry till the gravy is slightly thickened.
3. Discard lemongrass and lime leaves, if desired. Garnish with coriander leaves, chilli, kalamansi lime and serve hot.

Stir-Fried Mixed Vegetables

This dish has a combination of few different vegetables and makes it rather interesting and colourful. Blanching the vegetables instead of stir-fried them one after another is to have a better control on the crunchy texture of each vegetable and to avoid overcooking them. The sauce can be just light soy sauce plus sugar with a bit of cornflour solution as an alternative of using vegetarian oyster sauce.

Preparation: 15 mins, Cooking time: 5 mins

Ingredients (serves 2)
° 75g cauliflower florets, blanched
° 6 snow peas, trimmed and blanched
° 3 baby corns, cut into thick slices and blanched
° 8 slices carrots
° 4 shiitake mushrooms
° 50g-75g fresh bamboo shoot
° ½ red chilli (optional), seeded and sliced
° 1 slice ginger, chopped
° 1 tablespoon olive oil

Sauce
° 1 tablespoon vegetarian oyster sauce
° ½ tablespoon cooking rice wine (optional)
° 30ml water

Method
1. Prepare the fresh bamboo shoot according to packet instructions and thinly sliced.
2. Combine all the ingredients for the sauce and mix well. Set aside.
3. Heat oil in a wok. Add the ginger and fry till fragrant.
4. Add the mushrooms and carrot stir-fry briskly for 1 minute. Throw in the cauliflowers, sweet peas, baby corn, bamboo shoot and red chilli. Stir in the sauce mixture and stir-fry briskly for less than a minute.
5. Transfer to a serving dish and serve immediately.