Stir Fried Garlic Stem With Tofu 蒜苗炒豆腐

For the coming week I will be sharing with you some simple yet delicious Chinese dishes; be it good old classics, childhood favourites or my successful little experiments in my kitchen. I am wondering how many of you are familiar or heard of today's main ingredient, garlic stem (蒜苗, pronounced suan miao)? I first read about this delicious vegetable in Fushia Dunlop's "Sichuan Cookery" about 10 years ago and it started to appear on the markets here in Melbourne soon after. It has a strong pungent garlic taste when raw but turns into something sweet and fragrant when it is cooked. Think garlic, leek and Chinese chives. I will be sharing other recipes using this gem in the near future.

P.S This is also my second post using any type of tofu since we have a non tofu eater here but I will start posting some tasty tofu dishes from now on. Bo has since informed me that garlic stem is known as garlic scapes in the United States, thank you!

serves 2 to 4 as part of a Chinese meal
you'll need;
1 bunch of garlic stems, sliced at an angle
half a block of tofu, cut into 2 cm dices
dash of mushroom sauce*
dash of soy
small pinch of sugar
dash of Chinese cooking wine
* mushroom sauce is a substitute for oyster sauce for vegetarian cooking. It is available at Asian grocers.

Prepare the ingredients.

Fry tofu in batches til golden brown.

Fry garlic stems with a little oil in a hot wok for 30 second.

Immediately add in the tofu and seasonings and toss everything around for a further 30 seconds on high heat. Splash in the cooking wine and cook for another 30 seconds. The garlic stems should be ready but still retain the crispness and the tofu would have absorbed all the delicious flavour from the seasonings.

Serve immediately as part of a Chinese meal. Perfect with rice congee as well.