Stir Fry Cabbage with Dried Shrimps

When I was young, my mom used to cook different cabbage meals for dinner main course meal.

There are various ingredients that you can add into the cabbage recipes, depending on your preference.

My mom is a creative person.

She could add in roast pork, char siew pork ( Sweet roasted pork , red in color ), dried shrimps, fresh prawns, scrambled eggs, chicken fillets, pork fillets and tofus.

My cousins hated cabbage very much and I understood why.

My aunt isn’t good at food creativity.

Her cabbage dish is just plain stir fry cabbage with chopped garlic.

Yes, it is simple and quick to cook but children get bored with the same old cabbage dish.

The best so far that my mom had cooked cabbage recipe is Stir Fry Cabbage with Dried Shrimps.

Taste and Flavor

It gives the crunchy bites, tasty and a little salty flavor that blended well with the dried shrimp.

Dried shrimps should be crispy and chewy not limp or soaked into the gravy.

You have to briefly wash dried shrimps before cooking them.

You can see the seashells and stones which are dried and salted together with the shrimps.

Do not soak them into a bowl of water because the shrimps would turn tasteless.

Quickly wash them under tap water and drain well.

You can either chop them or fry the whole dried shrimps for crispy flavor.

Cabbage leaves should be in bite size, crunchy and slurpy, not large leaves, hardly able to shove into your mouth.

The SECRETS

The technique of stir frying cabbage is to throw in the hard stems first in order to soften them before you throw in the dried shrimps and the cabbage leaves.

Cabbages leaves are easily cooked in minutes.

Here is the simple recipe of my mom’s Stir Fry Cabbage with Dried Shrimps.

Ingredients:

• Half head of medium cabbage
• 2 tbsp of dried shrimps
• 2 cloves garlic-chopped
• water
• a little salt and pepper to taste

Method:

1. Separate the cabbage leaves, soak into a basin of water for 1 hour to remove any dirt of pesticide sprays.
2. Meanwhile, briefly rinse the dried shrimps in a small bowl but DO NOT SOAK THEM.
3. Drain immediately. Keep the dried shrimp water for the gravy. Set aside.
4. Chop garlic.
5. Cut out the thick stems from the cabbage leaves.
6. Tear cabbage leaves into bite size.
7. Heat up wok with 1 tbsp Canola oil.
8. Saute garlic and shrimps until fragrant.
9. Toss in the stems, stir fry for 2 minutes.
10. Add in the cabbage leaves, stir fry for another 3 minutes.
11. Pour in the shrimp water and test out the flavor first
12. If it taste just right, dish up , transfer to a shallow plate.
13. If it is a little bland, add in a little light soy sauce with water and stir fry again.
14. Serve hot with white rice or porridge.

Yield: 3-4 persons

Glossary… what is  ….

Dried Shrimps

Dried shrimps are fresh shrimps that had been sun dried with salt.

Dried shrimps give a unique salty and seafood flavor which is different from fresh shrimps.

It is commonly used in Chinese stir fries such as vegetables ,  spicy sambal , glass noodles and vermicelli noodles ( bi hun )

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Recipe created by peachpurple

Photos by peachpurple