Thai Style Stir Fry Chicken With Basil & Tomatoes

This is one of the most stir fry chicken dish opted to cook in my kitchen. It has slightly sharp flavor. It hot, sweet and sour with a hint of taste of basil. .

Ingredients:
300g ground chicken
2 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
1 or 2 birds eye red chili, chopped
1½ tbsp palm sugar or brown sugar
4 tbsp tamarind puree
½ squeeze of lime juice
4 tbsp fish sauce
1 tbsp red curry paste
20pcs red cherry tomatoes, halves
1 handful of Asean basil leaves
1 spring onion, chopped
grape seed oil or vegetable oil

Preparations:

1. Combine the sugar, tamarind puree, lime juice in mix bowl, still well until the sugar begin to dissolve in the liquid.

2. Heat the with 3 tbsp of cooking oil. When the oil is hot. Add the garlic then followed by curry paste. Stir fry over medium heat until fragrant. Add the chicken and stir fry until lightly cook.

3. Add the mix tamarind puree and stir, then followed by chili and stir once again.

4. Add the fish sauce and stir fry for a few seconds. Then cover with a lid and cooked until the chicken is totally cook for about 5 minutes.

5.Add the spring onion, tomatoes. Stir or stir the pan using your hands. Then stir with the basil leaves. Taste, then adjust the seasoning or add more fish sauce if desired.

6. Spoon into a serving dish and serve with plenty of rice.

Stir Fry Bitter Gourd With Salted Eggs

One of my favorite bitter melon dish and opt to order this dish in local Hakka Taiwanese Restaurant. This recipe is easy to cook and not bitter at all and is coated well with salted eggs that made it so tasty and very nutritious too.

Ingredients:
300g white bitter gourd/melon, cut into slices
2 garlic cloves, chopped coarsely
1 long red chili, sliced
1 spring onion, chopped
2 salted duck eggs, chopped coarsely or mashed into smaller pieces
grape seed oil or cooking oil
salt

Preparations:

1. Place a pot of water on the stove to boil. When water starts boiling, place the bitter gourd melon into the boiling water. Let them sit in the water for about 4 minutes.

2. Meanwhile; Heat up 2-3 tablespoon of oil in a wok pan. Saute the garlic, chili then follow by the spring onion and fry until aromatic but not brown.

3. Remove the gourd from the pot or scoop them out of the boiling water.

4. Add the bitter gourd immediately and stir-fry or shake the pan for a seconds. 

5. Then add the eggs and stir for another seconds. Then add around 5 tablespoon of hot boiling water from the pot that you blanched your bitter gourd. Season with salt if desired.

6. Add more 1 tablespoon of cooking oil if desired, continue to stir-fry for 1–2 minutes. Dish up and serve. If you prefer a softer bitter gourd, simmer the dish for a few more minutes.

Hakka Style Stir Fry Green Fern

As you probably all know, hart's tongue fern or bird’s nest fern is a wild plant. It can be found growing on the trees by the roadside, or in forested areas in countries. And we might think it is strange and not fit to eat!. I even grow this plant on my own balcony. But this plant is very popular in many  Taiwanese Hakka restaurants. It taste delicious and it has health benefit. I love ordering and eating this we called vegetable here in Taiwan in many Hakka restaurants. So I try to cook at home for my lunch, it was really good! So tomorrow guys its Earth Day try to cook this green in your kitchen.
Ingredients:
200g hart's tongue fern, cut into bite sized pieces
2 cloves garlic, sliced
1 red chili, sliced
1 tbsp shredded ginger
1 tbsp small silver dried anchovy
1 tbsp dried preserved salted black beans
1 tbsp small dried Chinese red dates or goji berries soaked in water then drain.

7 tbsp water
2-3 tbsp green seed or vegetable oil
salt to taste
Preparation:

1. Wash the fern and drain in colander. Heat oil in wok over medium heat. Add the garlic, dried fish,  ginger, goji berries and chili. Fry until the fish cook lightly brown. Then add dried bean and fry until fragrant.

2. Add the green fern increase heat to high, immediately.

3. Stir fry for 2 minutes or more until semi-soft or until leaves start to wilt. You might need to add more water to prevent drying the bottom of the wok pan.

4. Season with salt for extra taste if desire. Remove from the heat, dish up and serve with rice.

Stir Fry Shrimp in Tamarind Sauce

This zesty stir fry savory seafood dish its combination of sweet, sour, and spicy will satisfy for a quick weeknight dinner. Served with hot steaming fragrant jasmine rice or any white rice.
Ingredients:
500g king prawn
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 red chili, deseeded and finely chopped
50g shallots, finely chopped
10 tbsp water
30g tamarind paste
1½ tbsp sugar
vegetable oil
spring of cilantro
Preparation:

1. Rinse the prawns, remove and discard the shell and de-vein the black part of the prawm using a sharp knife. Heat a wok over high or medium-high heat.  Drizzle in 2 tbsp. oil, then saute the garlic and shallots, stir for about 2 minutes or until fragrant.

2. Add the shrimp into the wok.

3. Now add the chili, sugar and tamarind, then stir gently for awhile.

4. Then pour the water immediately, bring to the boil. Lower the heat and simmer until pink. Remove from the heat, transfer to a serving plate and  garnish with fresh cilantro.

Stir-Fry Vegetables With Chicken

This colorful nutritious blend of crisp-tender vegetables requires a fair amount of chopping, but the cooking takes only minutes. It was simplest recipe to cook; all that is needed is to choose a lot of fresh vegetables, add some basic protein and it is great for healthy balanced meal.
Ingredients:
3 garlic cloves, chopped coarsely
1 medium size red onion, cut into cubes
half portion of skinless chicken breast, cut into cubes
80g red bell peppers, roughly chopped or cut into cubes
80g asparagus, cut into one-inch lengths
400g yellow cauliflower, separated into small florets
120g mokum carrot, sliced ¼  diagonally
100g white button mushrooms, halved
75ml chicken broth
1 tbsp plain flour mix in water
1-2 tbsp grapeseed oil
salt and black ground pepper to taste
fish sauce
Preparation:

1. Heat 1-2 tbsp of the oil in wok on medium-high heat. Saute garlic until just fragrant then add the chicken and stir fry until slightly cooked, add the onion and stir for a minutes. 

2. Add the chopped vegetables; stir fry for a minute.

3. Add the broth into the vegetables.

4. Season with salt and ground black pepper.

5. Add the fish sauce and stir again for a seconds.

6. Cover with lid and bring to boil on medium heat and simmer until vegetables are tender-crisp and not over cooked.

7. Pour the flour mixture to the vegetables.

8. Stirring constantly to avoid over-toasting. Taste and adjust salt or msg as needed. Transfer to a warmed serving dish and serve over rice, if desired. 

Hakka Style Stir Fry Eggplant

This Taiwanese Hakka style stir-fry eggplants (九層塔茄子) with pork and basil it taste better than what I get at the Chinese Restaurant. We enjoyed this dish quite a bit during we dine in a Hakka Restaurant in Neiwan. It was very rich and flavorful. Deep frying the eggplant will help a quick stir and cooking time consume and it keep the skin of the eggplant a bright purple colour.
Ingredients:
3-4cups tea polyphenol grapessed oil, or any cooking oil
400g long eggplant, slice and cut diagonally
3 garlic cloves, chopped coarsely
45g spring onion, sliced lengthwise
150g ground pork
15g asean basil leaves
1 red chili pepper, seeded and chopped coarsely
1 tbsp pickle soy bean
2 tbsp grapeseed oil
2 tbsp oyster sauce
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp rice wine
½ tbsp sugar
1 tbsp sesame oil
2 tbsp water
Preparation:

1. At first combine oyster sauce, soy sauce, wine, sugar, sesame oil, water and stir to dissolve the sugar.

2. Heat oil to medium heat in a deep fryer. Soak or blanch eggplant in oil for 2 minutes.

3. Then drain well and discard the heavy oil.

4. Heat a wok or skillet over medium-high flame. Add the 2 tbsp grapeseed oil or vegetable oil, saute garlic until fragrant, add the ground pork and sir fry until cooked through.

5. Add the spring onions and stir for a few seconds.

6. Then add the pickle soy bean, then give a quick stir.

7. Add the eggplant and basil continue to stir for a few seconds. Pour the sauce mixture into the wok, tossing quickly, until the sauce is absorbed.

8. Stir in chili and season with a little bit of msg if desired, turn off the gas. Transfer to a warmed serving dish and garnish with the fresh basil leaves, if desired. Serve immediately with hot steaming plain rice.

薑絲大腸 Stir-Fry Pig Intestine with Ginger & Vinegar

I always order this dish when we dine in a Hakka restaurant in Beipu or Neiwan and Miaoli. I normally order this stir fry pig intestines almost twice a month at Inner Bay Tea House-內灣茶堂 in Neiwan. Seems like I've never get bored to order this dish on our table. So one day, I tried to prepare this delicious Hakka Taiwanese dishes in my kitchen and it came quite similar in a restaurant. This pig intestine is boil in a water and sliced then stir fry and cooked with shredded ginger, vinegar and preserved vegetable. You either like it or hate it and definitely not your cup of tea. For me it was dead and simple but delicious.
Ingredients:
2-3 tbsp cooking oil
415g prepared and clean pig intestine,
6 garlic cloves, minced
½ cup rice vinegar
4 tbsp chinese black vinegar
60g ginger, peel and shred
300g mustard green sour, shred
2 tbsp pickle soy bean sauce
1 chili, thinly sliced
Preparation:

1. Boil pig intestine in water and simmer until they're tender, remove from the boiling water, let it cool for a couple of minutes then cut into chunks, set aside

2. Heat the wok over medium to high heat. Add oil, when the oil is hot, add garlic stir-fry until it turns brown, then add the ginger and stir fry until aromatic.

3. Add the intestine then stir.

4. Add the mustard green sour and stir fry for a couple seconds. Then follow by rice and black vinegar, stir-fry briefly.

5. Cover and simmer for 5 minutes or until it turns cooked.

6. Add the soybean to the wok, stir fry and bring boil for another 2 minutes.

7. Season with salt and msg if desired to make it more tasty. Remove from the heat and serve while still hot. For an added touch, try garnishing with sliced chili before serving.