Sauteed Pea Shoots with Garlic

This is one dish that I make fairly often whenever I cook at home. It's not limited to pea shoots either; feel free to substitute with whatever Chinese veggie you like. I'm a personal fan of making this dish with baby bok choy. When you see how easy (and cheap) this dish is to make, you'll hate having to pay so much at a Chinese restaurant for it. Ugh. :) Candace's recipe below.

INGREDIENTS:
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
1 lb pea shoots (dou miao), washed and drained

Salt, optional

METHOD:
1- Saute garlic until fragrant, about 30 sec.
2- Add pea shoots and stir fry until cooked through. Pea shoots will reduce greatly in size.
3- Add salt, if desired.

Ma Po Tofu

One of my favorite comfort foods of all time is ma po tofu over rice. I've always made ma po tofu using the store-bought seasoning packages from Asian supermarkets. I was under the impression that the sauce required a lot of work. However, Candace proves me wrong with this tasty ma po tofu recipe. Fast, quick, and easy - I'll never buy that pre-packaged seasoning again! Candace's recipe below.

INGREDIENTS (amounts are approximate):
3/8 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup rice wine
2 tsp sugar
1 tbsp chili sauce
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp minced ginger
3 stalks of green onion, chopped
1 lb ground pork
2 packages of tofu, drained and cubed
1 tsp corn starch

METHOD:
1- Mix together soy sauce, rice wine, sugar, and chili sauce in a bowl and set aside.
2- Saute garlic, ginger, and green onions until fragrant, about 30 sec.
3- Add pork and stir fry until almost cooked through.
4- Add soy sauce mixture.
5- Add tofu.
6- Simmer and add corn starch to thicken sauce.

Savory Sticky Rice

This was one of my favorite dishes growing up. I can't believe I haven't asked my mom for her recipe before we made this at Dinner Meet. The recipe turned out to be fairly easy to execute. The one catch is that there are a couple of things that require pre-soaking, like the dried shrimp and the mushrooms. However, if you don't have time for that, you could always buy fresh shrimp and shiitake mushrooms instead! Candace's recipe is below.

INGREDIENTS (amounts are approximate):

1 1/2 tbsp fried shallots
~15 black Chinese mushrooms, sliced
3/4 cup dried baby shrimp, soaked in water until tender (at least a few hours) and then drained

1 lb pork, sliced
3 cup sticky (glutinous) rice
soy sauce
sesame oil
pepper
corn starch

METHOD:
1- Marinate pork with soy sauce, sesame oil, pepper, and corn starch.

2- Cook rice until almost done, about 30 min.
3- Cook pork, remove from heat.

4- Cook shrimp, remove from heat.
5- Saute shallots until fragrant, about 20 sec. Add mushrooms and stir fry for 30 sec.

6- Add back in shrimp and pork (including juices). Stir fry 20 sec.
7- Add soy sauce (~1 tbsp).
8- Add rice and approximately 1/2 cup water and 2 tbsp soy sauce.

9- Cover and cook over low heat for 30 min, stirring occasionally.