Stir Fry Bean Sprouts with Chives and Salted Fish

My Bean Sprouts Days

When I was young, my mom used to bring me to the local wet market to but fresh bean sprouts and blocks of tofus.

I never really understood why she would buy this troublesome bean sprouts because I hated when she told me to sit down , spread out the bean sprouts on the plastic bag and started to break off the tails apart from the stems.

It was a BORING and tedious task, just to remove the whole bag of sprout of tails in order to cook a bowl of bean sprouts!

Locally, bean sprouts are fondly known as “tau geh” in Hokkien dialects, which coincidentally, has the same pronunciation for the Muslims too.

In Mandarin ( chinese), it is called “Dou yah”.

There are 2 types of bean sprouts favorites among Chinese families;

1. bean sprouts with block of tofus, chives and garlic
2. bean sprouts with chives, garlic and salted fish

My mom’s favorite is the one with the tofus but I rather have the salted fish that goes well with plain boring porridge!

Now I know why she bought bean sprouts often!

They are:

• extremely cheap, 20 cents for a bag that could yield 4 person per meal
• easily to stir fry and cook in just 5-8 minutes
• a great vegetable dish to consume with white porridge during rainy weather
• a versatile vegetable dish that you can combine with fresh shrimps, tofu cubes , chicken fillets , chives or salted fish

Nutrition benefits

Aside from my mother’s reason for buying bean sprouts, I had just found out that these tiny little seedlings are nutritious

• vitamin K- reduce blot clots
• vitamin C- protect our body cells from free radicals damages
• iron- hard to get this nutrient from other foods. Build up our immune system
• folate- important for mom to be- to prevent from baby’s birth defect, create new blood cells

How to cook Stir Fry Bean Sprouts with Chives and Salted Fish

Ingredients:

• 1 bag of bean sprouts- remove tails ( root) and black shells
• 1 piece of salted fish ( ikan masin-locally known)- don’t wash it, just cut into thin slices
• 1 stalk chives- washed and cut into sections
• 1 red chilli- remove seeds, cut into match sticks
• 1 small carrot-peeled and sliced into match sticks
• 3 slices of ginger
• 1 clove garlic-peeled and chopped
• 1 tsp light soy sauce
• dash of black pepper
• 1/2 cube of Knorr chicken stock or granules
• water

Cooking steps

1. Bring the wok to low heat with 1 tbsp of oil.
2. Toss in the salted fish, keep flipping in order not to burn it. Smells fishy but great. Remove and set aside.
3. With the remainder salted oil, saute chopped garlic and ginger until fragrant.
4. Add in carrots, red chilli, chives and bean sprouts, stir fry for 5 minutes
5. Pour in the light soy sauce and chicken cubes, keep stir frying until the ingredients are well blended.
6. If too dry, pour in a little water.
7. Lastly, toss in dash of black pepper and turn off heat.
8. Dish up, serve hot with porridge or rice

Yield: 3-4 persons

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