116. Chinese stir fried bok choy with (vegetarian) sausage (V)

Chinese stir fried bok choy

Sorry, this recipe should have been posted yesterday, but yesterday I … :)) Yesterday, the weather was surprisingly good in Oxford. In the afternoon, the sun was shining. I could feel the mild wind blowing in my face, and when I passed by a building with a nice beautiful front garden, the smell of jasmine melted my heart. At that moment, I really wanted to get rid of my thick jacket, scarf and heavy boots, just run around the garden. --- But I had to carry on walking not to miss my appointment; when I finally arrived, I was almost soaked in sweat -- spring is here now!!!

This recipe might seem surprising. As you know, sausages are not a Chinese ‘thing’. Well, I need to explain this a little further. I don’t remember eating sausages when I was little, but probably in the past twenty years, the use of sausages gradually became popular in Chinese cooking. I guess it is because of the influence of Western food, although the sausages I am talking about are totally different to those in the West.

Chinese ‘sausage’ is called ‘Chang’ (2) in Mandarin. It has a pinkish colour with very smooth texture. In a way, it is more like a ‘hot dog’, but it tastes a bit similar to salami. (-- saying that, I am not an expert on salami, as most of them are made with pork meat.)

Chinese sausages do not need to be grilled or boiled like most  ‘hot dogs’. They are ready to eat. In Chinese cuisine, they can be eaten alone, or mixed in salad, or cooked in soup, or even stir-fried. (Again, since I don’t eat pork, I never really tried sausages other than vegetarian ones.)

But probably you never heard of stir-fried sausage -- it can probably be seen as a unique adaptation of western food to Chinese cuisine? :) In fact, the famous ‘Yang zhou fried rice’, which I tried both in northeast China and in Beijing, was made with this kind of Chinese sausage.


Unlike western sausages, which are mainly made with meat, Chinese sausages can be made from meat (beef or chicken), or fish, and now even with tofu. They are normally quite tasty, but my dad suspects that they contain many ‘thickening ingredients’, like corn flour, so he is not usually happy with us eating them.

Here, I use vegetarian sausages as substitute; they are great for stir-frying, but for salad --- I tried beef salami once, which we bought from an Asian store, it is more suitable. However, I wouldn’t recommend using salami in hot dishes, as it gets too greasy when it is heated (at least the one I bought was like that).

… :)) Too much talking, now let’s talk about this dish. It is quite simply cooked. The original recipe is with ‘You cai’, which is very similar to this southern style bok choy. Since I could not find the exact vegetables here in England, I used southern style bok choy instead. And only because of the presentation of the dish, I cooked bok choy and sausage separately, otherwise, they can be stir-fired together. I mixed a little carrot in for the colour, which it is not a ‘must’, especially if you can find those Chinese sausages, as the ‘pinkish’ colour is already good enough. :))

Here you go.

Ingredients:

Bok choy (1 pack) , (vegetarian) sausage (2), carrot (a small one)

oil, ginger, garlic, spring onion, cooking wine, salt, light soy sauce (optional), MSG/vegetable/mushroom/chicken essence (optional), corn flour

Preparation:

1) Wash and separate the leaves of bok choy.

2) Chop the sausage and carrot diagonally into thin slices.

3) Chop the around 3 gloves of garlic, 1 spring onion, a small piece of ginger in two small pieces.

4) Prepare corn flour and water mix for thickening.

Cooking:

1) Briefly boil the bok choy in the water. Then place the leaves into a plate.

2) In a heated wok, add in around 2-3 tablespoons of oil.

3) When oil is 80% hot, add in chopped ginger, spring onion and garlic.

4) When the fresh smell of the ginger, spring onion and garlic rising up from the wok, ‘push’ the bok choy into the wok from the plate.

5) Add in 1 tablespoon of cooking wine, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, 1 tablespoon of light soy sauce (optional), and 1/2 teaspoon of MSG/vegetable/mushroom/chicken essence (optional). Gently move the leaves if necessary, let the leaves have full contact with the seasoning. (Around 2-3 minutes.) Keep the fire strong.

6) Add in corn flour thickening, when the sauce in the wok is bubbling and thickening, remove the leaves from the wok, and neatly place them into a plate. There should be still some sauce left in the wok.

7) Add in chopped sausage and carrot into the wok, mix with remaining sauce, and quickly stir-fry them.

8) It takes around 2 minutes with strong fire to get it done. Then place them over the green leaves part of bok choy in the plate. ---

--- Phew… done!!


I know it sounds like 8 steps, but when you actually do it, it is really not that bad. :)) I like to have it with plain boiled rice.