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.

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