There’s a lot to love about this quick dish. Done right, not to mention the pea shoots will taste sweet but also stay crunch. Plus, simple and straight forward are its variations.
Pea shoots, also known as pea sprouts, are the tender tips of snow peas. Because of their delicate texture, they don’t like to be cooked for too long. Apart from stir-frying them fast in a wok (which is always a good vessel for doing quick flipping and turning), I’d always try to drain dry the pea shoots first thus enabling them to have maximum contact with the oil as soon as they hit the well-heated wok.
About 150 to 200 grams of pea shoots shall make a good side for two. Their volume may expand quite a bit when ‘drinking up’ water during rinsing. But they may also shrink several times in less than a minute when being heated.
Pea shoots are best during winter and when the weather is dry. If you are permitted to touch the vegetable during your purchase, check if that pair of small leaves at the tip (often enclosed in larger leaves) are green and vibrant. If they are not fresh or spoiled by rain (or high humidity), the color may turn yellowed or even bruised.
To have pea shoots cooked with garlic is already a lovely stir-fry, but when I really want to get my taste buds excited, I would spend just a couple minutes more to make this different version, with or without the add of cured ham.
To impress your guests further, you may even add crab meat to the sauce, which is what most gourmet-style restaurants will do – but you may also be surprised by the bill too!
- Ingredients
- 150g pea shoots 豆苗 (dou miao or dou miu)
- 1/2 tbsp coarsely chopped Jin Hwa cured ham, tossed
- 5-6 cloves peeled garlic, lightly crushed
- 1-2 tsp of yellow wine
- 1 1/2 tbsp cooking oil
- ~1/4 tsp fine sea salt
- Sauce
- 1/2 tsp fish sauce
- 1/2 tsp sugar
- 1/2 cup water or stock
- 1 egg white, beaten
- 1 tsp corn starch, mixed with 2 tsp water
Method
Rinse pea shoots well in several changes of water. Drain dry in a colander, or you may also use a salad spinner to spin dry.
Heat wok and oil over medium heat. When hot, lower heat a bit, add garlic and sauté until lightly brown. Then, adjust heat to high, throw in pea shoots, flipping and turning to coat evenly with the oil, about one minute. Splash in wine on side of wok in between.
As soon as the pea shoots start to wilt, remove heat and add salt to taste. Dish up pea shoots.
With same wok on medium heat, mix and pour in ingredients (except egg white and corn starch) for sauce. Bring it to a boil; add in corn starch mixture little by little, stirring well with a turner to avoid any lumps, until it form a lightly thickened consistency.
Turn heat to low, gradually pour in beaten egg with one hand and stirring the sauce with the turner in another.
As soon as the egg white is set (more or less like this), heat off. Pour the sauce over the pea shoots in dish and top it with tossed ham. Serve hot.
Note: To toss the ham, I used the same way as this recipe.
Enjoy!
- Category: Featured . Vegetable .
- 15 comments
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I love pea shoots and this is just the kind of dish my family and I would order eating out. Thanks for reminding me that I can pretty easily make it at home. It looks delicious!
This looks light yet so flavourful. Exactly what I would love for the dinner.
Pea shoots are my favorite vegetables. Unfortunately, it is not easy to find. Once I find them, I need to try this. Thanks for sharing.
You are taken wok-fry pea shoots to a new level! Love the egg white sauce for the pea-shoots. Brilliant!
Beautifully captured on camera 😀
I love pea shoots, but do not buy it often since it is not available in the neighborhood store…I like the egg white as a sauce with the fish sauce…yum!
Hope you are enjoying your week…and yes, I am very happy with my new blog 😀
This looks so simple and good! I love dow miu but it;s hard to get in UK and quite expensive!
hi maureen, i love dou miu too ..the ones that we get from here is usually the tiny ones with mostly stems..yes, it is good with a simple sti fry with garlic and love your idea of making an egg white sauce.
I’ve been looking for that egg white sauce for SO LONG. THANKS!
can see the “wok hei” in this dish. the egg white goes well with the greens. the pea shoots you have are different from the ones here.
Hi there! Your recipe certainly makes me feel so homesick of Hong Kong! I am half Chinese and grew up in HK and always had this dish, (without the ham addition) and it was always my favourite! I used to look forward to Winter time in HK just so we could eat this and my mother would cook it very nice. I live in Europe now and sadly I cannot get Do Mui, so I guess I need to go for a trip back home 🙂 Thank you for posting one of my all time favourite vegetable dishes!
@Lovefoodies,
Hope you’ll very soon enjoy this again.
Hello – Can you please specify what is “yellow wine”? Is this a drinking wine like pinot noir? Or do you mean the chinese cooking wine like shaoxing?
@Maria,
Yes, I used Shaoxing wine as mentioned here. Enjoy!