#ewew cooks Stir-Fry Organic Baby Pea Sprouts

We should include in our diet leafy green vegetables as much as possible since they're low in calories and very nutritious, and pea sprouts (or pea shoots) are just one of such vegetable.  

One may find stir-fry "dou miao" or "tau miu" (in Cantonese) on the menu of some Chinese restaurants and "dai chow" places.  I don't usually order stir-fry pea shoots when eating out because of the price.  It's not that it's expensive per se but because they wilt down easily, the resulting portion can be very little in relation to its price.  So, one way for me to enjoy this vegetable is to cook it myself at home.

So, when I spotted these Organic Baby Pea Sprouts at the supermarket recently, I got some immediately. Although they don't seem all that expensive at RM3.50 a box, one can easily eat 2 - 3 boxes (if one really wanted to) since they tend to loose like more than half its volume when cooked.

To make this, all you need are just three ingredients:

1 box of organic baby pea sprouts (150g), washed & drained

1 large clove of garlic, minced
3 cloves garlic, sliced and fried (optional)

1/2 tbsp Shao Hsing wine

1/4 tsp salt
1 tbsp oil

Though this stir-fry dish looks simple enough, it may not seem that simple to execute as it's very easy to overcook.  Since the stir-fry is over in a flash, it's very important that you have all the ingredients just next to you when you begin the frying process.

To start, it's key that you need high heat for this stir-fry to work.  And through my own experience, it doesn't necessarily work by getting your pan hot with oil before adding the chopped garlic as the garlic will burn as soon as it hits the pan even before you can add your vegetable.

So, what I do is I put in the oil with minced garlic and salt to taste into a cold pan or wok...and then turn on the heat to high.  That way, as soon as the pan gets hot and the garlic heats up simultaneously, you can throw in the pea shoots immediately.

Drizzle in the Shao Hsing wine and flash-fry the pea sprouts on high heat for just 1 minute....that's all it takes!  It's that fast, blink...and it's all over! ;P  If you're using a small pan, I'd suggest you cook them in batches (if you're cooking a large quantitiy) since they only need a minute to be done.

Once the leaves wilt down and the stems are just crisp-tender, they're done already.  You'd want to retain that crunchiness in the shoots and they should still be bright green, not yellowish.

You can add a bit of water (or stock) if you like a plate of more tenderly cooked pea shoots.  I didn't need to as I added Chinese wine + I prefer the shoots to be a little crunchy.

You can serve it topped with some garlic crisps (clearly optional, of course, and clearly understandable if you don't want to bother with an extra step).

The stir-fry pea shoots shouldn't be woody or have that green grass taste if cooked right.

As you can see, the sauteed pea sprouts shrink drastically when wilted down that it was good only as a small 'snack' for me....hehehe! ^_~  If you intend to cook this as your vegetable dish on your dinner table, you will need to buy at least 1 - 2 packs per person (and that's why I say it's expensive).

The sweet, delicate flavour of the shoots is the star of this incredibly fast to cook Stir-Fry Organic Baby Pea Sprouts.  It's such a healthy and delicious dish, there's no reason not to cook this super simple vegetable stir-fry at home! ^o^