Stir-fried Ricecake (Nian-gao) with XO Sauce
XO醬炒雜菜年糕
I have been in low GI diet for a month and badly wanted to have ricecake which is considered high GI food, so I bought a small package from supermarket thinking I could make stir-fried ricecake for breakfast or lunch the other day. I am a huge fan of ricecake, no matter Chinese, Japanese or Korean. I love the chewy, sticky and soft texture from pounding of rice or glutinous rice.
What is Chinese ricecake (nian-gao)
Nian-gao is a general term of cakes that Chinese have during Chinese New Year. ‘Nian’ means ‘year’ in Chinese. There are a large variety of nian-gao in different Chinese cuisines, though most of them are usually prepared from glutinous rice or white long grain or medium grain rice. For a more convenient home-cooking version, they can also be made with rice flour. The ricecake used for Stir-fried Ricecake has to be one particular ricecake, which is white ricecake made with white rice and usually sliced. Such type of ricecake can be easily obtained in any Asian grocery stores in vacuum package. You can also find them in Korean grocery store, yes, Korean have similar ricecake.
Chinese stir-fried ricecake is a famous home-cooking Shanghainese dish. But I season it with XO sauce, a luxurious Cantonese seafood sauce invented in Hong Kong. It’s made from dried shrimp, dried scallop, Jinhua ham, shallot, garlic, red chili, etc. You know it would be super tasty with such combination of ingredients. You can buy XO sauce in Chinese grocery store. My jar was obtained in Tai O, a beautiful fishing village in Hong Kong.
XO sauce is so delicious that it can’t go wrong with almost anything, such as stir-fried green leafy vegetable, stir-fried noodles and rice noodles, steamed meat pie or pork ribs. My favourite is pan-fried radish cake, the very famous Cantonese nian-gao, with XO sauce as dipping sauce.
The recipe
In this recipe, I simply do the stir-fry with leftover vegetable in my fridge. Choose whatever you have or you like or how many you want to have. You could also add slice pork, beef, or chicken breast. Don’t worry if you don’t want to have XO sauce. Just simply replace it with soy sauce or oyster sauce, or both. For vegetarian, use vegetarian oyster sauce.
More of my nian-gao recipe –
Ingredients – for one serving
- Sliced Chinese ricecake, 150g
- Shiitake mushroom
- Baby sweetcorn
- Carrot
- Cabbage
- Bok-choy
- Garlic sprout
- Garlic, 1 clove
- XO sauce, 1tsp
- Light soy sauce, 1tbsp
- Dark soy sauce, 1tsp
- Sugar, 1/2tsp
- Chinese cooking wine, 2tbsp
How to do –
- All ingredients washed, sliced, or torn to small pieces. Ricecake might stick together so carefully tear them apart;
2. Bring a small pot of water to boil, put in ricecake, poach them till float to water top, drained, set aside;
3. Heat a wok in medium-high heat, add in generous amount of oil, about 2tbsp, stir-fry garlic slice till fragrant. Then stir-fry carrot and baby sweetcorn for 10 seconds. I prefer these two tenderer, so I would cook them first. If you like them crunchier, just stir-fry them with other vegetable at last;
4. Put in ricecake, toss and stir-fry till them turn slightly golden;
5. Now season with a generous teaspoon of XO sauce. it’s not very salty so I would also add in 1tbsp of light soy sauce, 1tsp of dark soy sauce for better colour, half tsp of sugar, and 2tbsp of cooking wine, toss and mix them well;
6. Put in all vegetable, toss the wok or flip with stirring spoon. Add 1 or 2 tablespoons of water or cooking wine to the wok from the edges, lid on and cook in high heat for 1 or 2 minutes. Lid off, toss the wok again then it’s good to serve. Drizzle some sesame oil or toasted sesame seeds on top would be even better.
用料
- 片状年糕 150克（1人份）
- 鲜冬菇 适量
- 小玉米 适量
- 胡萝卜 适量
- 椰菜 适量
- 小白菜 适量
- 蒜苗 1根
- 蒜 1颗
- XO酱 1茶匙
- 生抽 1汤匙
- 老抽 1茶匙
- 糖 半茶匙
- 料酒 2汤匙
做法
- 材料按自己喜好搭配，基本上冰箱里有什么都可以切一切下去炒，也可以加一些肉片；粘在一起的年糕轻轻掰开；所有材料洗净，冬菇、胡萝卜、蒜切片，蒜苗切段，小玉米斜刀切段，小白菜撕开，椰菜切块；
- 煮开一小锅水，放入年糕，煮至浮上水面即可关火；
- 热一炒锅，倒2汤匙油，用中大火，先放蒜片炒香，再放入胡萝卜和小玉米，这两种蔬菜比较耐火，炒几十秒，我喜欢吃软一点，不在意的朋友也可以最后和其他菜一起放；
- 放入年糕，颠锅，炒至年糕微微金黄；
- 放入一大茶匙XO酱，XO酱不咸，再放一点生抽和糖调味，一点老抽上色，再放料酒增香，颠锅炒均匀；
- 放入剩下的蔬菜，冬菇、蒜苗、椰菜、小白菜，颠锅炒匀，锅边撒一两汤匙水或料酒，盖锅盖大火煮1分钟，开锅盖，颠锅，即可出锅, 撒上一点熟芝麻。
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