garlic sprouts with shredded pork
A great discovery at my local supermarket. In fact, I couldn't believe my eyes. Between the packets of mushrooms and spring onions - lo and behold: real suantai, "garlic sprouts". This must be one of the commonest vegetables of Northern China, in fact, garlic sprouts are not highly esteemed at all. The simpelest of vegetables are usually stir fried with either pork of some kind of bacon, or they are eaten with scrambled eggs. A lovely combination. Suantai or garlic sprouts are quite long, about the length of spring onions, but they are not hollow, nor do they resemble chives. I must admit I am not sure if they come from a different kind of garlic bulb, because somehow I don't believe they will come up like this if you leave garlic unattended in a heap of earth to sprout. They are surprisingly hard and become very crunchy after stir-frying; they have a very nice bite and taste like garlic, but without its sharpness. In China, these almost not a vegetable-vegetable are so common they are not easily found in restaurants, but once eaten, you will become addicted to their flavour. So, can you believe it? Who else will buy this from my supermarket than me? I am sure in a couple of weeks they will have disappeared, so I stocked up on 3 packets (100 gram each) and made this simple stir fry. Take 100 grams of pork (I used pork chops) and cut into strips. Marinate in 2 tablespoons of soy, 1 tablespoon of cornstarch and 1 tablespoon of rice wine. Cut the stalks into 4 cm long strips and fry in 3 tablespoons of oil. Take out. Then fry the meat until done, then add the garlic sprouts, a bit of salt and more soy or even a drop of sesame oil and the end. I think this dish should have had double the amount of sprouts to meat, so my example here is not quite right... Try to find it near you and try it out! I found more pictures on Flickr of this lovely vegetable here, as you can see, most of the dishes have a bacon-garlic-sprout combination.
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Update: indeed, after two months or so, I spotted some dislocated packages of the garlic sprouts in the supermarket, and I realized they had lost their own shelf space. I bought the last 2 and haven't seen them since. However, I know the bigger Chinese supermarkets stock it by the name of suen sum, and I go there sometime when I get the urge of eating suantai!
This was one of my favorite dishes in Beijing. They would cook the pork twice, giving it a crispy texture. They would julienne the garlic shoots very thinly and serve the whole things with sheets of pressed tofu skins. We would use the tofu skins like a wrap and eat the pork and garlic shoots like little burritos. They were awesome.
The pressed tofu skins made me think of this dish, which I also had in Beijing. It was called 'pork strips with Peking sauce'. I loved it!
I had zhajiang rousi, like the picture, all over beijing, but only this one little restaurant at bei hang served it with garlic shoots instead of green onions. I liked both dishes immensely and ate way too much it (and everything else) while I was there.
You can buy these easily in shops in London in season and I love them sautéed with mushrooms. I've linked to this piece from my blog today LLG xx
Thanks libertygirl !
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