INTRODUCTION

Actually I have a hard time to name this dish. While I knew locally we called this xian cai (苋菜）as spinach but I do not know why it is called as such. It does cause some misunderstandings to overseas readers as spinach (菠菜 or bo cai) is the type of vegetable that Popeye loves to eat. But these two vegetables are totally different in terms of appearance and taste.  I have therefore decided to name it as Chinese spinach and it is a type of amaranth .

This vegetable is a common vegetable  for Chinese households. It is one of the very first vegetables that we served babies. This vegetable is believed to be very nutritional and suitable for all age groups. I remembered when my kids was 5 months old, we chopped this vegetables and boil with porridge and they like it very much. Of course, this recipe does not come into picture until very recently when they are more and more Cantonese restaurants are serving this dish.  Home cooked version is much simpler and my late mum usually just stir fry with garlic or anchovies or we make soup with pork ribs.

I knew this dish is common in Hong Kong restaurants but I can’t trace the origin of the dish. To me this dish is rather unusual  as it a vegetable dish served in a pool of meat broth.  Not many vegetables were cooked or braised with meat broth. Usually, vegetable dishes are much drier. One of the probable reasons may because of the need to stew the vegetable longer such that it is softer. In order to make it more appealing, century eggs and salted eggs are added to the dish and i am puzzling why these eggs were added. With all the queries in my mind, the eggs blends well with the dish.

To me, though it is a restaurant dish, it can easily  be replicated at home and therefore it also qualifies as a simple household dish. The tastiness of the dish will depends on the meat broth that you used. In this illustration, I neither boil my own meat broth nor used the store bought chicken stock. I think it make more sense in a house setting where the dishes are to be cooked and served quickly, chicken stock powder will be sufficient. Of course if you have stock up your own meat broth, that will be ideal.

WHAT IS REQUIRED

Servings: 3-4 adult servings

• 1 bundle of Chinese spinach
• 3-4 cloves of garlic
• 1 tablespoon of goji berries
• 1 century egg
• 1 salted egg, cooked
• 1 teaspoon of Chicken stock powder
• Dashes of white paper
• Pinches of salt

STEPS OF PREPARATION

• Cut the century eggs and salted eggs into small pieces.

• Separate the leaves and the stems of the Chinese spinach. Peel off the skin if it is too tough to break.

• In a wok, put 1 tablespoon of cooking oil, sauté the garlic cloves until light brown and aromatic. Add the stem of the Chinese spinach, stir fry for 1 minute before adding the leaves.

• Add about 1-2 cups of water (depending on the size of wok), bring the water to boil and once it boils, let it simmer for additional 3-4 minutes.

• Before dishing out, add salt, dashes of white pepper, chicken stock powder,  century eggs and salted eggs. Quick stir until well mixed.  Off the heat and the dish is ready to be served.

CONCLUSION

I honestly believed that not many readers will require this simple dish but I need to blog it for records. Hopefully it will benefit new house chefs.

Hope you like the post today. Cheers and have nice day. Should there be any imperfections in my blog layout, bear with me and I am trying hard to rectify it. In the event that you are a follower of Guaishushu at http://kwgls.wordpress.com, please do follow this new blog Guaishushu1 at https://www.guaishushu1.com.

You can follow me at PINTEREST or visit the blog’s FACEBOOK PAGE to keep abreast of my future posts. Also follow me at INSTAGRAM or TSU, a new social network for some more personal sharing other than recipes.

You can also join the FOOD BLOGGERS AND FOODIES UNITED FACEBOOK GROUP and FOOD PARADISE 美食天堂to see more recipes. I am posting my daily home cooked food in the above Facebook Group daily. I would be more than happy if you can  post in the Group for the recipes that you tried from my blog.

If you are a Pinterest user and you are interested to have more recipes, you can join or follow this Pinterest Board set up by me  where there are more than 2600 recipes worldwide and pinned by various bloggers: FOOD BLOGGERS AND FOODIES UNITED PINTEREST BOARD.