Vegetables With Rice, Hong Kong Style

Veggies are beautiful. They are delicious. They mingle or go along with most anything or anyone. Best of all, they don’t accuse you of being a slacker. They don’t care if you give them the cold treatment. In fact they thrive on being shoved into a refrigerator.

Don’t veggies just make ideal candidates as girlfriends?

Hahahahahahaha.

Yeah, yeah. I know. Don’t worry. I’m not yet losing it. (Actually, the best judge of that would be Mr. Peterson, my boss… but that’s another story. Hehehe)

Anyway, sometime back, I promised a good vegetable recipe to anyone who reads this blog. Actually, I meant it for my son, Ira. But since his being able to read, to surf the net, or even learn about me is probably several existentialist lightyears away, it might as well be for you… or anyone who is reading this right now.

It’s an easy recipe. My friends and my boss like it very much. So do I.

Here’s Vegetables With Rice, Hong Kong Style.

Vegetables With Rice, Hong Kong Style

Ingredients:

Assorted vegetables (cauliflower, Baguio beans, carrots, shiitake mushrooms, baby corn, cabbage, sayote, Baguio pechay)

Steamed rice

Soup stock, 2 cups

Medium-size shrimps, shelled and deveined 1 cup

Soy sauce 3 tbsps.

Chili sauce 2 tsps.

Sesame Oil 1 tbps.

Red Bell Pepper/Capsicum 1 pc.

Cornflour 2 tbsps.

Rice Wine Vinegar 4 tsps.

Ginger, grated 2 tsps.

Garlic, sliced thinly 1 tsp.

Bacon, 3 strips, fried to a crisp (render the oil from the fat and reserve)

Sugar, a pinch

Salt and pepper to taste

Small bunch of Spring Onions/Scallions, around 6 stems

Instructions:

1.Dice all the vegetables. Wash under running water.

2.Heat the wok to high. While wok is heating up, chop the spring onions into little pieces. Discard the tip and roots.

3.Stir-fry the shrimp in the rendered bacon fat, until the shrimps turn pinkish.

4.Add the ginger, garlic and red chilies. Stir fry for 2 minutes.

5.Add the vegetables and red bell pepper, making sure to cook the harder vegetables first. Stir fry over high heat for another 2 minutes.

6.Add the soy sauce, vinegar, sesame oil chili sauce, salt and pepper. Mix the stock and cornflour, add to the mixture and cook for one minute. Add the sugar and stir well.

7.Crumble the crispy bacon strips and sprinkle liberally over the dish, together with the chopped-up spring onions.

8.Serve hot over steamed rice.

This goes well with a cup of green tea, before and after the meal. The shrimp, ginger, chillies, spring onion and shiitake’s contrasting flavors, when lightly coated with the rendered bacon fat add a special zing to the dish. The green tea settles the stomach for this delightful vegetable recipe.

Bon Apetit!

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I am David Garcia and right now I am: very hungry.