Fern Shoots with Hot and Sour Dressing ?????

I used to think that only south east Asians eat fern shoots�. How shallow was I until I saw in Jusco that the Japanese also eat these. And from either Discovery channel or NGE, I got to know that the Taiwanese also eat these.

So, it�s an Asian wild vege� Wonder if people from other parts of the world eat them as well�

This method is copycat of Taiwan�s Celebrity Chef Huang�s version which I saw on TV, he used black vinegar� and me being no black vinegar fan, except in the case of pig trotters�. replaced it with lime or calamansi juice.

Ever wonder why the Choy Sum on your bowl of wantan noodles looks so green??? Ever wonder why the Kangkung that comes with your Sotong looks so vividly green?? Wantan skins and noodles contain lye water, and the sotong kembang is alkaline.. So, when the water that is used to cook them is being used to cook vege, the vege remains green�
Fern shoots tend to brown (and I mean �uglily� brown) very quickly after being blanched.. maybe water in Malaysia is rather soft and more on the acidic side. To counter this, just add 1 drop of lye water into the boiling water.. or just put in 1 pc of wantan skin� And u�ll be blessed with green ferns�

When I was staying in Pahang during my early teaching stint, me and my housemate will go to the small market daily to buy our ingredients for that night's dinner, and once I bought 4 bunches of fern shoots and my neighbour who happened to be there asked , "Buat apa beli banyak macam tu?" (why are u buying so much?), his eyes looked shocked. LOL, he didn't know he happened to live infront of 2 cows.

Fern Shoots with Hot and Sour Dressing
4 cups of fern shoots (already trimmed)
1 or few drops of lye water or wantan skin
Pot of water

4 large cloves garlic
1 shallot
2 red chillies
� tsp salt
2 tbsp calamansi or lime or lemon juice
2 tbsp oil

1. Finely chop garlic, shallot and chillies.
2. Boil water and put in lye water (kan sui)
3. Blanch fern shoots for half a minute.
4. Drain well.
5. Heat wok and put in oil.
6. Saute garlic and shallot until almost golden, put in chillies.
7. Put in salt and saut� until golden. Dish up onto a separate bowl.
8. When ready to serve, place fern shoots onto a plate, drizzle lime juice and pour fragrant topping over fern shoots. Toss well.

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Chinese Cabbage with Pacific Clams ??????

I bought a can of pacific clams for Chinese New Year and I didn't use it that time.

Ingredients:

5 leaves of Yuan Siew Pak (Chinese long cabbage, imported from China, it does taste different than local long cabbage)
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 can pacific clams
1/2 cup of clam brine (from the can)
1/4 cup water
3/4 tsp corn starch
1 Tbsp cooking oil

Method:

1. Boil a pot of water. Add in salt.
2. Blanch Yuan Siew Pak for 1 minute. Drain and cut into desired length. Arrange on a serving plate.
3. Mix clam brine and water with cornstarch. Cook mixture until it boils.
4. Add in pacific clams, and simmer for few seconds. Off the fire and add in cooking oil.
5. Dish up clams with gravy onto Yuan Siew Pak.

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Amaranth Soup with Century Eggs ?????

What is amaranth? Some Malaysians may not know.

What is bayam? We know.

Bayam is edible Amaranth (Amaranthus tricolor, A. gangeticus, A. oleraceus, A. mangostanus ) lor! Hmmm..some may call it spinach, but spinach is Spinacia oleracea. Well, some call bayam as Chinese Spinach, but in Wikipedia, Chinese Spinach can also be Kangkung(Ipomoea aquatica) and Malabar Spinach or as Malaysian call it as Emperor's Shoots (Basella alba)

For those that can understand cantonese, what do u think is spinach then.....? In Cantonese Spinacia oleracea is Por Choy, and edible amaranth is Yeen Choy, Kangkung is Ong Choy and not forgetting Malabar Spinach is Charn Choy or Tai Wong Choy too.

For those that cannot understand cantonese, just a look at the scientific name and make ur verdict.

Ok, enough said about spinach. This page is about edible Amaranth.

So, here's a picture of my soup



It does look a bit murky, due to the century eggs. My hubby loves this soup.

Amaranth Soup with Century Eggs Recipe

Ingredients:
A bunch of Amaranth (about 150-200 gm before trimming)
A handful, abt half cup of cleaned anchovies (bilis, I used Terengganu large anchovies, really yummy)
1 tbsp oil
1 century egg (cut into 8 pcs)
3 cups water (water will be reduced when simmering bilis)
1/2 tsp salt

Method:
1. Heat a saucepan, put in oil and saute the anchovies for a while and put in water. Boil, cover and turn low heat simmer for at least 15 minutes.
2. Take out the boiled anchovies. (U can retain them if u want, but they're rather tasteless already)
3. Put in trimmed Amaranth and boil for a minute or 2 depending on size of plant, baby bayam will need less time. Add salt and taste.
4. Put in century egg and boil for another minute. (this makes it murky, but it taste better)
5. Place soup in a bowl and serve.

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