#ewew cooks Stir-Fried Celery Two Ways

Growing up, there were certain vegetables I wouldn't be caught dead eating...in whatever form.  Among them were bitter gourd, celery, leeks and tong ho (garland chrysanthemum).  They were all stinky vegetables to me...and, in this illustrious group, some may even add gao choy (Chinese chives), yin sai (Chinese coriander), chung (spring or green onions) and daun sup (coriander leaves, parsley leaves, celery leaves or Chinese celery...I've no idea which is the right translation in English as it's called by many names!).

I still wouldn't be caught dead eating tong ho today coz it's still stinky, no matter what.  I've loved gao choy, yin sai and chung from the beginning but still haven't come round to liking daun sup but can tolerate it now. In later years, I've grown to like bitter gourd and celery.  It's interesting how our tastebuds change as we age.  I'm sure none of these vegetables will make it to any children's (even some adults) to-eat list.  It's already difficult to get children to eat their greens, let alone these strongly flavoured ones (or smelly would be a better term).

And that's what I'm sharing with you today, one of my hated vegetables growing up....my Stir-Fried Celery Two Ways...and you only need just three ingredients for these two stir-fries.

Of course, I also like (and use) them in tomato-based vegetable soups, meat stews, cottage pie filling and sauces for pasta.

In my first of two ways, you could call this the Chinese-style of stir-frying celery.  And with any Chinese style of cooking, you have to cut the celery in a Chinese way as well...haha! ;)  And that way would be to cut it on a diagonal.  Cutting it at an angle like this is synonymous with the Chinese way of cutting many vegetables.

For this recipe, I used 4 ribs of celery, 1 large clove of minced garlic and a small handful of dried cuttlefish shreds.  Chinese stir fry is like speed dating...it's over in a jiffy! :P  So, it's best you have everything ready at arm's length.  So, I put corn oil, salt (just a pinch), garlic and cuttlefish into a cold pan.  That way, as soon as the pan heats up, I don't have to frantically throw in my ingredients quickly.

Stir fry the ingredients and once they start to brown, add in the celery.

The stir fry should only take a minute or so (there's no hard and fast rule).  It depends on how you like the texture of the celery.  If you like it crunchier, cook it for a lesser time.

If you like it softer, cook it longer.  The best thing is that you can taste test one to see if it has reached the desired texture you want and adjust your cooking time from there.

When you're absolutely happy with the texture, dish it up and serve.  And that's my Stir-Fried Celery One Way.  I like it best with the celery having a bit of a nice crunch.

The slightly crisp dried cuttlefish shreds give the dish its aromatic fragrance and saltiness. ^.^

The saltiness of the cuttlefish makes this simple stir-fry a great dish to go with plain rice.  Stir-fry celery is seen on menus of Chinese restaurants all the time in a vegetable dish together with other stuff like prawns, carrots, lotus root, mushrooms, wood ear fungus and cashew nuts.

The second method leans more towards a western-style, I'd say.  So, in line with a western style cook, I cut 6 ribs of celery into approximately 3-inch match sticks.

Just like before, I added 3 cloves of minced garlic and 1 tsp of chilli flakes into a cold pan with some olive oil and salt.  That's when I realised that the chilli flakes would burn before the garlic could brown.  Luckily, they were in a separate pile, so removing them was easy.  I had to put in a fresh tsp of chilli flakes.  So, you might want to take note that the chilli flakes should be added in later.  I'm a noob cook, I make boo-boos just like any cook but cooking is all about going through such experiences...practice makes perfect!

Once the garlic starts to brown, add in the chilli flakes to saute for a few seconds before adding the celery.

As this is a western take on stir-fry celery, it should be cooked only briefly to retain its crunchy texture.  Again, it only takes a minute or so for the celery to be cooked.

And that's my Stir-Fried Celery Another Way.  It can be served as a side dish to your main...but pair it with a main with bolder flavours (like spice marinated chicken).  It probably won't do as well with something as delicate tasting as baked fish.

If you can take the heat, you can also treat this as a cooked salad and eat it as it is (like I do). ^o^

This may look like a very simple stir-fry but the chopped garlic (lots of it, please) and chilli flakes (adjust spiciness level to your liking) give it that 'oomph' factor.

Add this two super easy recipes into your stir-fry vegetables list.....but only if you truly love celery....like I do now after all these years! ^_~