Restaurant-style Chinese Greens with Oyster Sauce

Chinese greens with oyster sauce is an easy dish to prepare but not many can make it right. I have seen too many overcooked vegetable dishes served—at homes and even at restaurants. Once you grasp the basic techniques and skills of making this dish, you can pretty much cook any vegetables or Chinese greens you want—choy sum, kai lan (Chinese mustard greens), bok choy/baby bok choy, or any green leafy vegetables.

Yield:

Serves 2-4

Ingredients

1. Your favorite Chinese greens
2. 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
3. 1 tablespoon water
4. 1/4 teaspoon cooking oil
5. 1/2 teaspoon sugar
6. 2 dashes of white pepper powder
7. .
8. For the garlic oil:
9. ==============
10. 2 cloves garlic (finely chopped)
11. 1 teaspoon oil

Directions

1. Prepare the garlic oil first by heating up your wok and stir fry the minced garlic until they turn light brown. Dish out and set aside.
2. Heat up a pot of water and bring it to boil. Add two small drops of cooking oil into the water. Drop your vegetables into the boiling water and quickly blanch them for about 20-30 seconds (depends on the quantity). As soon as they turn slightly wilted, transfer them out and drain the excess water off the vegetables. Arrange the vegetables on a plate.
3. In a wok, heat up the cooking oil, and then add the oyster sauce, water, sugar, and white pepper powder. As soon as the sauce heats up and blends well, transfer and drench it over the blanced vegetables. Top the vegetables with the garlic oil and serve immediately.

Notes

Discard excess water from the vegetables before plating/serving – Drain the water from the vegetables so it doesn’t dilute the sauce. Excess water in the vegetables will make your vegetable dish watery.Buy fresh vegetables – select the freshest greens available in your market.Don’t kill your vegetables, they are already dead! – Don’t overcook your vegetables by leaving them too long in the boiling water. Perfectly blanched vegetables should be somewhat crunchy, not limp and wilted.Use cooking oil wisely – Add a drop or two cooking oil into the water before blanching the vegetables. The cooking oil coats the vegetables so they look fresh and green, not purple.Use garlic oil – I use a lot of garlic oil in my Chinese cooking. It adds a lot of depth to simple dishes and infuses the veggie with garlicky flavor and aroma.For the garlic oil, the garlic will continue to cook in the oil so as soon as they turn light brown in the wok, you should dish it out. Eventually, they will turn golden brown.