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| Shanghai-style Sauteed Rice Cakes |
I fully expect everyone to be gorging themselves on Chinese food until they're a heaping, lifeless mass on the sofa sipping cautiously on whiskey rocks while the sound of clacking mahjong tiles and the cacophony of elderly Chinese grandmothers gossiping in the background ebb and flow.
If the above doesn't sound very realistic in your household this lunar holiday season, you can at the very least sample one of the delicious dishes that is integral to the feast of any self-respecting Chinese household.
Ingredients
500 grams rice cakes (frozen or dried, soak for 2-3 hours in tap water in a large bowl)
5 whole leaves napa cabbage (aka Chinese cabbage or celery cabbage), sliced into slivers
100 grams pork tenderloin with a little bit of fat, sliced into slivers
6 dried shitake mushrooms (reconstituted in hot water, save the water!), slivers
50 grams pickled cabbage (canned, Ma Ling brand), finely chopped
1 inch fresh ginger, very thin slivers
50 grams bamboo shoots, very thin slivers
1 tsp finely ground white pepper
1 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tsp sugar
2 tbsp Xiaoxing rice wine
1 tbsp cornstarch
1/4-1/2 cup beef stock
2 tbsp vegetable or peanut oil (make sure it's an oil that can stand high, high heat...grapeseed and canola should do fine)
While the rice cakes are soaking in a bowl of tap water, start prepping your other ingredients. I'm sure after reading the ingredients list, you picked up the recurring theme of tiny or thin slivers.
* Cooking Tip 101: When you cut or slice things into similar sizes, they cook at the same rate and thus you end up eliminating having to cook things separately and at varying amounts of times.
Then put...
1 tsp finely ground white pepper
1 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tsp sugar
2 tbsp Xiaoxing rice wine
1 tbsp cornstarch
Liquid from reconstituted mushrooms
...together in a small bowl until the cornstarch has been mixed thoroughly. Add a few teaspoons of this mixture with the slivered pork and marinate for a few minutes.
Drain the rice cakes in a colander, which should now be somewhat bendable (but still breakable so don't apply too much pressure). Set all prepped items aside and heat oil on HIGH in wok.
Oil should glisten. Toss the pork in and it should sizzle and splatter. The pork should cook through almost immediately. Then, add the...
5 whole leaves napa cabbage (aka Chinese cabbage or celery cabbage), sliced into slivers
100 grams pork tenderloin with a little bit of fat, sliced into slivers
6 dried shitake mushrooms (reconstituted in hot water, save the water!), slivers
50 grams pickled cabbage (canned, Ma Ling brand), finely chopped
1 inch fresh ginger, very thin slivers
50 grams bamboo shoots, very thin slivers
...to the pork in the wok. Toss, stir, make sure it doesn't burn on the high HIGH heat.
Lastly, add the rice cakes and stir frequently. Add the beef broth and watch it sizzle some more while you stir-fry like master Chinese grandmother!
Once the sauce thickens, the rice cakes should soften and have a sticky/chewy consistency; turn off the heat and plate the dish.
I like to garnish with fried shallots, but others have put chopped spring onions or chopped coriander. Garnish to your own taste.
Xing nian quai le, and happy eating!
Hint:
Rice cakes can be found at most Asian grocers, but in Wellington, I found the best frozen rice cakes at the Korean shop Haere Mai, in the deep freezer. The pickled cabbage and the bamboo shoots are sold at Yans and a new grocer on Tennyson Road called Asiana.
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