Chinese Recipes | Cooking Tips | Good Eats

I did my best to come up with a creative title for this post, but sometimes it’s quite difficult to have a funny title and at the same time make sure that key words (or what I think are key words) are in the title. Don’t ask me how the Kai Lan was frolicking with the Pork and Prawns but they sure look merry and happy waiting to be eaten.

I prefer Baby Kai Lan to Adult Kai Lan. Baby Kai Lan are smaller in size and more leafy and probably not as bitter as the Adult Kai Lan. However, all I could get in the US are Giant Kai Lan with huge GIANT stems.

What I had done previously was steam the Kai Lan, add some oyster sauce and dried shallots to make a simple vegetable dish. At that time, I did not know that the layer of skin from the stem is quite fibrous and because the USA Giant Kai Lan have such thick stems, that made the dish quite inedible.

I was dejected and disappointed … until I came across a post in PabloPabla’s blog that gave me hope! He tip (in his words) was to “lightly scrape the layer of skin from the stem and slice diagonally”. Then suddenly … ding! EUREKA!

Like an obedient student, I did as told, and with a slight variation to his ingredient list, I whipped up a very delicious Kai Lan dish.

I also had a secret ingredient - the prawn stock from yesterday’s recipe. (By the way, “shrimp” and “prawns” can be used interchangeably.)

Ingredients (Serves 2):

- 4-5 medium prawns, shelled and deveined (keep the shells for adding to yesterday’s prawn stock)
- 1/4 lb pork, cut into bite sized slices
- 6 stalks of Kai Lan
- 2 cloves garlic, sliced
- 1 tbsp oyster sauce
- 1 tbsp rice wine
- 1 slightly heaped tbsp corn starch, dissolved in room temperature water
- salt and pepper to taste

Seasoning for pork and prawns:

- 1 tsp light soy sauce
- 1/2 tsp corn starch
- a few dashes of white pepper

Preparation and Cooking Method:

1. Peel head and shells off prawns, keeping the tail end (for aesthetic purposes). Devein prawns and set aside. Add the head and shells to the existing prawn stock and bring to a boil. Add 1/2 - 1 cup of hot water if there is not much prawn stock left over.

2. Season pork and prawns separately.

3. Wash Kai Lan. Lightly scrape the layer of skin from the stem and slice diagonally (meaning on the bias).

4. Heat up 2 tbsp vegetable oil in wok. Medium heat. When oil is hot enough, add garlic and stir fry until fragrant. Add pork and stir fry and its color changes then add prawn. Once the pork and prawn are cooked, remove them from the wok and set them aside. Leave the pork and prawn “juice” in the wok.

5. Transfer Kai Lan stems to wok. Since the stems are harder, they take slightly longer to cook. Add a bit of vegetable oil if necessary. Stir fry for about a minute or so then add the leaves and stir fry for another minute or so. Add all the prawn stock (without the heads and shells of course!), then cover wok for about 1 minute to allow the Kai Lan to steam and cook thoroughly.

6. Add cooked pork and prawn. Add oyster sauce, rice wine and mix well. Add corn starch solution bit by bit and stir well until the gravy thickens to your liking.

7. Served with plain steamed white rice. Gravy tastes great with rice because of the prawn stock!

Stir Fried Kai Lan Frolicking With Pork And Prawns - Don’t you love the “Pork” and “Prawn” alliteration too? Hahaha!