Veggies with Wood Ear Fungus

Wood ear fungus, Clouds Ear, Tree Ear or Black fungus are the same thing.  It is used widely in Chinese cuisine and recently had been known to provide lots of health benefits.  It is high in vitamins and minerals, improve blood circulation, lower cholesterol, anti-viral, etc.  Its texture is crunchy even after stir-frying and take the flavor of the sauce, as it is tasteless by itself.  Usually sold in dried form in the Asian supermarket.  Again, very affordable and I would suggest to eat this often, at least once a week would be nice. I even made this into a very healthy veggie dish with color super food from celery, carrot, garlic and red bell pepper.
 

Ingredients:

• 4 sticks of celery, washed and thinly diagonally sliced
• 1/2 red bell pepper, washed thoroughly and cut into strips
• 1 small or 1/2 large carrot, peeled and sliced thinly
• 4-5 wood ear fungus (black fungus), soaked in room-temperature water until expanded and soft, rinsed and cut into pieces
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 small piece of ginger (about 1 inch), minced
• White rice cooking wine (about 1.5 Tbsp.)
• Lee Kum Kee oyster sauce, to taste  (about 1.5 Tbsp.)  Use vegetarian oyster sauce for vegetarian or vegan.

Method:

1.  Heat up your wok.  When heated, add in cooking oil of your choice.  When warm, add in ginger, stir-fry until fragrant.  Add in garlic, stir-fry a little.  Add in celery, stir-fry well.

2.  Then, add in red bell pepper and carrot.  Stir-fry well.  After that, add in the black fungus.  Mix well.  Add white rice wine around the wok.  Mix well.  Season to taste with oyster sauce.  Mix well and serve hot.