59. Chinese bean sprouts salad (liang cai)

Bean Sprout Salad

Waved good-bye to the mediterranean sun and heat, we quickly dived into another kind of summer…
Grandpa called last night, asked, ‘it has been the hottest two days since you left, how about there?’ I told him it has been a bit cold for summer days in Oxford, he laughed, ‘how good! Here, I have to turn on the air conditioning, then stay indoors all the time. Ha… but you would still like it, don’t you?’ -- Yes, I like the heat, I guess it is to do with I was born in the hottest time of the summer, and my mum had to do the traditional confinement in the house, which helped me build up the heat tolerance from the very very early age.

Our friends in Spain all wished to spend summer here, to have cooler days, while we want to be in the hot waves. How interesting we want to cross over to each other’s side!

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When I was little, one day I walked through the narrow streets, then arrived at a busy road, my school was right on the other side. I was scared to cross the road, always just stood there, and kept on standing on this side watching people waiting for the traffic slow down so that they could cross to the other side, then carry on their journey of the day.

I did not understand why people needed to cross, why they couldn’t just stay on their own side - they could find their happiness there. Not until I grew up, gradually I understand this is life, we have to cross the roads to do things we need to do, and meet each other, and then probably will say good bye to each other, does not matter how many people have passed by, this is how people knit a big net on the surface of the earth. And that road becomes a wider road, then a land, then a continent, and an ocean...

See now, like me, I want to cross the sea to feel the heat…:)

Chinese bean sprouts salad

I hope summer is still here, it is just playing hide and seek at the moment, it will come back. Then my summer recipe continues as well - bean sprouts salad / liangcai.

I know I have said that I did not like bean sprouts for a long while, but time to time, I still want to give a try - to grab the memory when I was at home, maybe?

But this salad/liangcai recipe certainly refreshed the taste as well as my memory. It is simple and quick, oh, and healthy.:) It is not involved with actual stir frying, just boil the bean sprouts, and make the sauce with the ‘usual’ seasonings.

Here you go.

The recipe

Ingredients

Bean sprout 1 bag (Bean sprout made from mung beans is very good for this recipe, otherwise, yellow beans also do.)

Minced garlic, salt, sugar, vinegar, sesame oil, crushed chilli (optional), oil.

Cooking

1) Boil the bean sprouts first in the water - but not long time though, after bringing to the boiling point, last for anther two minutes, then remove it from the wok. (This is only just getting rid of the ‘rawness’ from the bean sprouts. Bean sprouts still need to be crunchy and juicy. )

2) Rinse the bean sprouts in the cold water, then place them into the plate.

3) Place the wok on the fire, pour in around 2 tablespoon of oil, then add in 1 teaspoon of minced garlic, 1/3 teaspoon of crushed chilli, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, 1 teaspoon of vinegar, a small pinch of sugar. Mix everything well.

4) When it is bubbling in the wok, turn off the fire.

5) Add in 1 tablespoon of sesame oil.

6) Pour the sauce on top of the bean sprouts, and mix well.

(You can also put all the seasoning directly on the bean sprouts without needing to heat the oil.)

--- Done! Easy and quick, no? And very fresh!

23. Chinese stir fried bean sprouts

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Chinese stir fried bean sprouts

炒豆芽菜

Honestly, I have never been a big fan of bean sprouts, well, but given my ‘picky’ past, you are not surprised.

Chinese spring pancakes

I did know, however, that I had to eat bean sprouts at least once per year on the 4th of February, which is ‘Spring Day’ in the Chinese calendar. Bean sprouts go with ‘Spring pancakes’, as part of the traditional celebration of  the arrival of spring in Northern China.

In Northeast, it was still cold in early February, my mum would give me money, and I wrapped up myself and went out to the market to get bean sprouts.

They weren't normally sold as pre-packed. Women would have a big big container in front of them, after putting the money away, they used a big spoon to put the bean sprouts into a brown paper bag -- back then it was way more environmental than now -- there were no plastic bags flying in the streets and sky like now, I had to be careful to hold the paper bag in my hands -- the weather was freezing…

Many years ago, when I just arrived in England, I was influenced by my Western classmates learning to be financially independent from my parents, so I started doing part-time jobs.  For a few weekends, I worked with a close friend in a food packing place for packing salad and fresh vegetables for supermarkets. It was a ‘fridge’ warehouse, very cold in order to keep the vegetables fresh. After my short experience there, all I could remember was the smell of bean sprouts.

For years I couldn’t eat any bean sprouts or even being close to. Only these recently years, I recovered slowly from having bean sprouts in my shopping bag, in my wok, and on my plate -- because I still want to celebrate ‘spring day’ in an traditional Chinese way.

Here in England, in Chinese restaurants or takeaways, bean sprouts is normally cooked in ‘Egg Fuyong’ (spell as Fooyong), which is a the Cantonese way. In the North of China, it is totally different. Commonly, bean sprouts is stir-fried on it own (or with some vegetables as supporting ingredients) or made into salad.

The recipe: Chinese stir-fried bean sprouts with carrots

In this simple recipe, I stir-fried bean sprouts with shredded carrots -- probably you have noticed that I like to have to more than one type of vegetable in one dish, whenever I can -- easy to make ‘five a day’, ha… :)))

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