Tag Archives: napa

Bitter Melon Salad with Napa and Carrot

By | | Appetizer
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I talked with a friend right before I made this dish. He said he never had bitter melon salad before, and he didn’t even know bitter melon can eat raw. So I decided to make this salad to show him.

I love salad during the summer. The big difference between Chinese salad and American salad is the dressing. We make our salad dressing by mixing vinegar, soybean sauce, sesame oil, etc. 

Ingredients:

bitter melon, napa cabbage, carrot, seasoning.

Methods:

1. Slice bitter melon in the middle, clean all the white stuff, then slice into thin slices. 

2. Shred carrot and napa cabbage. Mix with sliced bitter melon.

3. Mix whatever seasoning you would like to use, or if you prefer store bought salad dressing.

I used salt, sugar, vinegar, soybean sauce and sesame oil.

4. Pour salad dressing over vegetables, mix well, let it sit for several minutes to have the salad well seasoned. 

5. Serve it cold. 

Stir Fried Napa with Shrimp and Black Fungus

By | | Vegetable
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Napa cabbage is one of my favorite vegetables. I guess it’s because I grew up with it.

When I was little, there were not too many fresh vegetables available in winter time. I think what we had was napa cabbage, carrot, and tunip. So we had to eat napa all winter.

Ingredients:

napa cabbage, shrimp, black fungus, onion, seasoning.

I left onion out when I took the picture.

Methods:

1. Soak black fungus in cold water for about 1 hour. Then clean real good, raise with water, drain well.

2.  Chop/slice napa into pieces, seperate leaves and the white leaf veins.

You can chop/slice napa any way you like.

3. Chop onion into pieces, peel shrimp.

4. Heat up the skillet on medium high heat, add cooking oil. Add chopped onion into skillet, cook for several minutes until it gets a little bit tender.

5. Add black fungus and white napa leaf veins into skillet, cook for several minutes.

6. Add napa leaves into skillet, cook for several minutes until leaves start getting tender.

                    

7. Add shrimp into skillet, cook until shrimp start turning into pink color.

8. Add seasoning into skillet, quickly stir it until all the seasoning is evenly spreaded.

For seasoning, I used venigar, salt, little bit sugar.

If you think this dish is too dry, you can add some water & corn startch mixture into the skillet at last minute, stir evernly, then you should have some sauce.

To view this recipe in Chinese, please click here.

Stir Fried Napa with Meatball and Woodear

By | | Vegetable
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Stir Fried Napa with Meatball and Woodear

Stir fried napa is one of my favorite dish, it’s quick and easy, and it tastes good. The change on this dish is other ingredients cooking with napa.

Stir Fried Napa with Meatball and WoodearIngredients:

napa, woodear, onion, meatball, seasoning

Methods:

Stir Fried Napa with Meatball and Woodear1. Soak woodears in cold water, then clean them up, tear big pieces into small pieces (about same size as napa and onion).

2. Chop napa and onion into pieces, chop meatball into half.

I prefer chop napa leaves and napa white separately. You can click the link to see details on chopping napa cabbage: How to Chop Napa Cabbage.

3. Heat up skillet, add cooking oil, saute onion on medium heat until tender.

Stir Fried Napa with Meatball and Woodear4. Add meatball into skillet, saute for several minutes, then add white parts of napa and woodear.

5. Saute napa white until tender, then add napa leaves, saute until leaves get tender.

6. Add seasoning, stir well, then serve.

I normally would use more vinegar when stir fry napa.

 

Stir Fried Napa with Meatball and Woodear

 

How to Chop Napa Cabbage

By | | Ingredient
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Chop Napa Cabbage

Chop Napa CabbageWhen I cook napa, I normally separate napa leaves and the white since they require different cooking time.

Napa leaves are easy to chop, most of the time, I don’t chop, I just tear them into pieces with fingers.

Chop Napa CabbageTo chop the white part, I normally lean the knife with an angle to chop, this way, when you chop it, it can thin the white part at same time.

When cooking, always cook the white part first, then cook the leaves, so they can be done at same time.

 

Chop Napa Cabbage

 

Napa Cabbage

By | | Ingredient
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Napa Cabbage

I love napa cabbage, much better than regular cabbage.

It’s cabbage, but doesn’t taste like cabbage, and it doesn’t smell like cabbage.

For more info., please check with wiki:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napa_cabbage

 

When I chop napa, I normally separate the leaf and the white part, since the white part is tougher and takes longer to cook.

The leaf can be torn into pieces by hand after you separate it from the white part. White part can be cut at an angle so the pieces won’t be too thick.

Napa Cabbage     Napa Cabbage     Napa Cabbage     Napa Cabbage

 

For dishes using napa cabbage, please check the following links:

Korean Kimchi with Napa Cabbage and Daikon

Kimchi with Napa and Daikon

 

 

Korean Kimchi with Napa Cabbage and Daikon

By | | Vegetable
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Korean Kimchi with Napa Cabbage and Daikon

 

Kimchi is a traditional Korean side dish made of vegetables. There are hundreds of different kimchi, in varieties of vegetables and flavors. This one is my favorite one, I make it several times every year.

Ingredients:Korean Kimchi with Napa Cabbage and Daikon

1 medium napa cabbage*, 1 medium daikon*, 1 whole garlic, 1 piece of ginger root*, 100-150g Korean chili pepper powder, 1-2 tbsp salt, 1 tbsp corn syrup.

Method:

Korean Kimchi with Napa Cabbage and Daikon1. Peel daikon, then slice it, chop to bite size.

2. Peel off two layers of napa cabbage from side, then chop rest to bite size.

3. Peel garlic and ginger root, mince well.

I used half of the ginger root shown in the picture.

4. Mix chili pepper powder, salt and syrup, and minced garlic and ginger, then add some cold water, mix together to get very thick seasoning batter.

Korean Kimchi with Napa Cabbage and DaikonDon’t be scared of the chili pepper powder, it’s not hot at all.

5. Mix the mixture and vegetables, set aside for about one hour to let the vegetable sweating a little bit.

Make sure you got gloves on, the chili pepper powder is not spicy, but does has some magic color which is hard to get rid of. So you might want to use glass or medal container instead of plastic one.

6. Put kimchi in a container, cover with lid then keep it refrigerated. Korean Kimchi with Napa Cabbage and Daikon

You can serve kimchi immediatly if you want to, but I recommend you wait for at least 24 hours to let it get richer on flavor. But don’t keep it too long. After several weeks, the flavor would turn too old, won’t be that good to serve as side item. If you don’t want to throw it away, you can cook with it.

Here are the pictures of Korean chili pepper powder:

Korean Chili Powder          Korean Chili Powder

 

*Below are some links from wiki, hopefully they’ll help you understand this dish better:

Kimchi: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kimchi

Napa: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napa_cabbage

Daikon: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daikon

Ginger: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ginger