Xiao Bai Cai is my son's favourite vegetable. He likes it cooked in any way whether stir fried plain with a bit of Chinese cooking wine, stir fried with some prawns or stir fried with mushrooms or even blanched and topped with some minced pork fried with mushrooms, carrots, dried scallops and dried oysters or topped with some pork balls. To cook the latter, the steps are listed below.
Ingredients:
- 16 xiao bai cai leaves
- 150 g pork
- 75 g carrot
- 2 pieces Shiitake mushroom, soaked
- 5 g black moss
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tbsp light soy sauce
- 1/2 tsp pepper
- 1 tbsp corn flour
- For the sauce:
- 2 tbsp sesame oil
- 3 cloves garlic, chopped
- 3/4 cup water
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2 tbsp light soy sauce
- 1/2 tsp dark soy sauce
- 1/2 tsp pepper
- 1 tsp oyster sauce or abalone sauce
Method:
- Preparing the leaves.
- Remove 16 xiao bai cai leaves from the stalks. Try to have them of the same length.
- Wash them to remove any impurities like sand.
- Boil a pot of water and at the same time, get ready a pot of cold water.
- When the water has boiled, blanched the xiao bai cai for a few minutes.
- Remove them quickly and put them into the pot of water to stop them from cooking further.
- Then, take them out from the pot and arrange them on a serving plate in any style that you like.
- Set aside.
- Wash and mince the pork. When buying the pork, it is better to have a little fat so that the meat balls will not be hard.
- Wash, peel and chop up the carrots.
- Chop up or cut the soaked mushrooms into tiny cubes.
- Wash and soak the black moss. Cut them shorter so that they can be mixed easily with the other ingredients.
- Place the minced pork, chopped carrots, chopped mushrooms and black moss into a mixing bowl. Stir to mix them well.
- Add salt, light soy sauce and pepper to the mixture. Again, stir to ensure all are well mixed up.
- Finally, add in either the corn, tapioca or potato flour or starch into the mixture. Mix them up. The use of the flour or starch is to hold all the ingredients together so that they can be rolled into balls.
- Take some of the mixture and roll it into a ball, the size of the ball is discretionary. Repeat this until all the mixture is used up. Then set them aside.
- To make the sauce, saute some garlic with sesame oil. Add water and seasonings (I use light soy sauce, dark soy sauce and pepper only. However, you may add oyster sauce or abalone sauce if you like) and let it boil.
- Place the pork balls into the simmering sauce and let them cook. Turn the balls midway into cooking to ensure they are fully cooked.
- Let the sauce continue to simmer until the amount is reduced. There is no need to add corn, tapioca or potato flour or starch into the sauce as the flour or starch in the pork balls will thicken the sauce.
- Once the pork balls are cooked, dish them out onto the xiao bai cai.
- Serve.
