Pea Shoots and Leaves
Home Alooooone. The boys headed out to Minneapolis to visit Jamie and take in the Sharks-Wild game so it was me and Sammy hanging out at home. I decided to pamper myself and make a nice dinner for one. A nice piece of salmon, some brown rice, pickled veggies, and pea sprouts I bought at the Farmer’s Market. Love, love, pea sprouts, especially when prepared Chinese-style, stir-fried with ginger and garlic over high heat. Quick, easy, and delicious.
Eat Your Greens
Pea sprouts can be found in Asian markets, and often at farmer’s markets. Two varieties are available, one looks like small tendrils and the other looks a bit larger and resembles spinach. In fact, you could substitute baby spinach for this dish and it wouldn’t miss a beat.
The key is don’t overcook the pea sprouts. Have all the ingredients ready to go before you start cooking. It will only take a couple of minutes to stir-fry. It’s all about the prep. If you get the larger pea sprouts or use spinach, increase the cooking time by 1-2 minutes or just until the greens wilt and are tender.
The aromatics include garlic and ginger. Like more punch? Increase the ginger or garlic or add a dash of chili flakes to spice it up. I like finely chopping garlic and ginger as opposed to mincing. You get a hit of toasty garlic or ginger which I love. Paradoxically, The flavors seem brighter when you chop the aromatics as oppose to putting either through a garlic press, Don’t ask me why.
Salt can be used in place of soy sauce and oyster sauce. Start with 1/2 tsp salt and season to taste.
Kid factor, by the way, my kids LOVE this dish. Yep, kid-tested, kid-approved.
STIR-FRIED PEA SHOOTS-CHOW DAU MIU 炒豆苗
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoon vegetable or peanut oil
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
- 1 tablespoon fresh ginger finely chopped (2 julienned slices of ginger)
- 3-4 garlic cloves finely chopped
- 1/4 teaspoon sugar
- 1 lbs young pea shoots loosely packed, can substitute baby spinach
- 2-3 teaspoon soy sauce Light or regular soy
- 1 tablespoons oyster sauce
- 2-3 T chicken stock
Instructions
- Rinse the pea shoots thoroughly in cold water twice, drain.
- Combine sugar, soy sauce, oyster sauce, chicken stock in small bowl. Set aside.
- In a large wok or skillet over high heat, heat oils add ginger, garlic. Stir fry about 1 minute until fragrant.
- Toss in shoots. It will fill the pan and be difficult to toss initially, not to worry it will shrink down ALOT. Using tongs rotate pea shoots in pan.
- Add soy-oyster sauce mixture. Stir-fry for 1-2 minutes, or until the leaves soften and are tender.
- Pour into a bowl and serve immediately nom-nom.