Stir Fried Crunchy Cabbage

I loved crunchy and sweet cabbage.  I finally found the way after all these years.  I saw it at the Chinese cooking show where the host said never to cut the cabbage but tear it with your fingers.  It will give you a different texture.  But I guess I always took the easier way out, that is to slice it with a knife and thinking that shredded cabbage will cook faster and soften easily.  Not sure why but my shredded cabbage never really gives me the sweetness of the cabbage and the crunch that I looked for.

But now with my new way of handling my cabbage, that is to tear it with my fingers, I found the crunch and the sweetness of the cabbage when stir-frying.  This dish is delicious, you can taste the sweetness of cabbage and the crunchiness.  If you read my recipes, you must have noticed that I have been using quite a lot of fish sauce recently.  I think I found the secret of fish sauce in stir-frying, it really give certain dishes a kick in taste.

Ingredients:

1/4 head of cabbage. washed and tear with hands

2-3 cloves of garlic, minced

1/8 cup of dried shrimps, soften

1 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes (optional)

6 extra large shrimps, shelled and cut into half

Fish sauce to taste

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. chicken powder (optional)

Extra virgin olive oil/ olive oil/ any cooking oil

Method:

1.  Heat the wok.  Add oil, when hot, add dried shrimps and garlic, stir-fry for a while.  Add shrimps and stir-fry until cooked.  Move the shrimps to the side of the wok, add in the crushed red pepper flakes and cabbage.

2.  Stir-fry well.  Add salt and stir-fry for a while.  Lastly add 1 tsp. chicken powder and fish salt to taste.  Add a little water (1/8 cup if needed). Serve hot.