Thanks to @qurator; this is a whole new level of food photography contest; not just a wonderful food post but with a specific ingredient and recipe as well! To find out more about this contest, check out HIVE TOP CHEF!
This week's Hive Top Chef Ingredient is PICKLED.
And I have the right dish for it!
I call this dish Stewed Salted Cabbage with Pork & Beancurd. Now, salted vegetables is a common ingredient in many Chinese cuisines. I guess it's because there's 4 seasons in China and in order to preserve their provisions to last during winter, the best way is to season it with salt and store in the cool pantry. That way, at anytime, one can just dish it out, cook and serve or just serve it as it is.
For the choice of vegetable, one can use anything though I would prefer green leafy ones. Anyhow, since I'm in a foreign country, there is very limited choices of vegetables to choose from. Thankfully, at the local wet market near my home, they do sell salted cabbage - the best form of Chinese pickle one can find. Unlike in the western countries, pickles for the Chinese are usually served after cooking with other ingredients and ate with warm rice. That's our version of best combination.
For this dish, we need a mixture of ingredients which I've shared here. Chopped garlic is a must in any Chinese cuisine, adding with sliced well-seasoned pork with salt & pepper and small cubes of fried beancurd. To add in some crunchiness to the dish, I decided to add in a packet of instant jelly fish. You can find this in any Asian supermarket since most of these ingredients are imported from China.
Simply, lightly fry the garlic and add in the pork and cook until the meat turn white which means it's cooked. Add in the sliced salted cabbage into the pan and stir well. Take note to lightly rinse the salted cabbage over cool cooked water in order to wash out the access salt away. Even after rinsing the salted cabbage, it will still be salty due to the long preservation. Last but not least, add in the jelly fish & beancurd and stir well. Let the dish simmer for 5 minutes after adding some water. The amount of water is up to your preference - as I like my dish with more sauce, I would add a bit more than normal so it becomes somewhat like a soup.
Oh yes.. I almost forgot to share the photo of the salted cabbage which I bought from the local wet market. This is the Chinese version of pickled vegetable 😁 Very affordable indeed. If I recalled correctly, this cost me only VND8,000 = USD0.34 = MYR1.43
Like I said, we usually enjoy this dish with a plate of hot steamed white rice. A perfect combination to enjoy if you're felling a bit under the weather or that you need to spice up your taste buds. This is my dinner, time to indulge 😘
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