Hello Hive friends.
It's not often that I find certain things in the supermarket. In Canada everything is imported so when I see one of my favourite greens, I must purchase it. Snow pea leaves are something I discovered in restaurants, in recent years. They are not always available. I was fortunate to find some.
In restaurants they were usually stir fried by themselves, but I wanted the dish to have more in it.
I thought they would pair well with oyster mushrooms. In fact they kind of resemble the snow pea leaves.
Even though they have a nice look to them, I always give them a shred to spread them out more.
I like to use my hands to shred them, rather then a knife. It looks more natural somehow. It gives it a meaty texture.
To add some more texture I added pea protein chunks. These are like soy protein. I don't really know the difference. The brand I use is organic, so I feel better about it.
The pea protein chunks just need to soak for five minutes in hot water.
After this I strain them and give them a little squeeze to remove some of the water that was soaked up.
For this dish I started with the holy trinity of Asian style cooking. Garlic onion and ginger.
I usually mince ginger it with a knife, but I decided to use a grater instead.
I slammed the garlic with a knife to crush and remove the peel.
I really have to be in a mood to do it this way. It also makes it easier to mince, if I'm not putting in the blender.
I save the onions for last.
After chopping the onions I run to fix my eyes. There are tricks to avoid onion tears, but I do things the rough way.
Oyster mushroom and snow pea leaf stir fry
150g oyster mushrooms
275g snow peas
50g dried fava bean/pea protein
30g ginger
30g garlic
200g onion
Sauce for stir fry
3 tablespoons soy sauce
3 tablespoons vegan oyster sauce
2 cups vegetable broth
1 tablespoon sesame oil
2 tablespoons chili crunch or paste
1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon 5 spice
1/2 teaspoon sechuan pepper
Salt to taste if needed
2 tablespoons or more Chinese cooking wine (optional splash for deglazing)
The vegan oyster sauce was a homemade one but sometimes you can buy it. I find that vegan mushroom sauce, or stir fry sauce from the Asian market are not much different.
The chili crunch was store bought. It doesn't have much heat but the flavour is really good. It can be substituted with any chili paste or fresh chilies. I didn't want crazy heat this time.
I happened to have Shoaxing cooking wine in the fridge so I used a splash to deglaze after cooking the onions.
When the onions were translucent, I added the garlic, ginger and seasonings.
The pea protein was added stirred until mixed with the other items.
The mushrooms were added then the soy sauce, vegan oyster sauce, sesame oil, and rice vinegar.
The cornstarch was mixed in after the other items had cooked for 5 minutes or so.
After the cornstarch was mixed in, the vegetable broth was added.
The chili crunch was mixed in. I let everything simmer until the sauce thickened.
At the end I turned off the stove and folded in the snow pea leaves.
Snow pea leaves cook fast and I wanted them to stay green but cooked through.
With a garnish of bean sprouts, brown Jasmine rice and a cabbage and carrot salad on the side, dinner was complete.
The oyster mushrooms in combination with the pea protein chunks were really meaty.
Sadly there were no leftovers. I need to find more snow pea leaves.
Photos taken with a Nikon D7500