Sour and Spicy Baby Napa Cabbage 酸辣娃娃菜

Baby napa cabbage, also known as "wawa choy," just like the name suggests, is the baby stage of napa cabbage. It's easier to prep with smaller and tender leaves, and usually sold in packages with four baby napa cabbages inside.

Due to baby napa cabbage's mild-tasting nature, it is often used in lighter seasoning dishes. However, let's give it a twist this time by making it sour and spicy, a good companion with steamed rice. 

Sour and spicy baby napa cabbage 酸辣娃娃菜 -

Ingredients?

• 8 baby napa cabbage
• 2 garlic cloves
• 2 red chilies
• 1 stalk scallion
• 1 teaspoon chopped ginger
• 2 tablespoons light-tasting oil
• Some corn starch and water mixture

Sauce:

• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 1/2 tablespoons black vinegar
• 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
• 1 teaspoon granulated sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon white pepper powder 

How?

Trim-off the very bottom stems for the baby napa cabbage. Separate to individual leaves.

Peel and chop the garlic cloves. Scrape then fine chop the ginger. Destem and chop the scallion. Destem, seeded, then chop the red chilies.

Mix all the ingredients under the "sauce" section. Prepare a small portion of corn starch and water mixture on the side.

Drizzle two tablespoons of oil to the pan and turn to medium heat. Add in garlic, ginger, scallion, and chilies. Give it a quick stir and cook till aromatic but not burning the garlic bits.

Add the baby napa cabbage and stir-fry till softened.

Pour in the sauce mixture. Cook for about couple more minutes.

Switch to low heat. Taste and adjust if needed. Stir the corn starch and water mixture again making sure its evenly blended. Gradually pour down the corn starch and water mixture to the pan while stirring the baby napa cabbage at the same time. 

The stirring action will prevent clumping. Continue to pour down the corn starch and water mixture till it reaches desired consistency. It has to be slightly thickened but not too gooey. 

Plate and serve as it is.

Try to scoop two big spoonful on top of steamed white rice, if you like sour and spicy flavor profile, this recipe should be a winner too. 

Extended reading:

• Braised Chinese cabbage with Jinhua ham 金華火腿煨白菜 
• Lemony mille feuille napa cabbage hot pot

 

4 Ingredients Only Melon Pan Toast

Have you tried melon pan メロンパン before? How about Mexican concha? These two share many similarities. Look-wise, you'll mostly find shell-like pattern on a Mexican concha and criss-cross pattern on melon pan. 

But we're not making bread here today. Instead, let's cut down the workload and use store bought milk toast to create 4 ingredients only melon pan toast.

4 ingredients only melon pan toast - 

Ingredients (for two thick slices)?

• 2 thick slices milk toast
• 40 grams unsalted butter
• 40 grams cake flour
• 40 grams granulated sugar

How?

Preheat the oven to 360 degrees Fahrenheit/180 degrees Celsius. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. 

Make sure to use better quality thick toast, milky flavor would be your best option. Usually you can find very good milk toast at an Asian, to be exact Japanese bakery.

Use room temperature softened butter, add that to a bowl. Use a fork to press it down and spread out a little bit.

Add in granulated sugar and mix till blended. You can simply use the same fork all the way through, which is much easier to clean compared to mini whisk. 

Add in the cake flour and mix till blended again.

Spread the mixture on one side of the toast. It's optional if you would like to make criss-cross pattern on the toast using the back of the knife.

Transfer the toast to the baking sheet and into the oven for 5 to 7 minutes, or till the top turned slightly golden or lightly browned. 

Once ready, remove from heat and wait till cool-off before serving.

I like my melon pan toast on the extra baked side, which gives me an even grainier texture and crunchier bite on the edges. However, that means I'll lose the scored pattern due to extended baking time.

If you would like to keep the criss-cross pattern, don't leave the toast under the heat for too long. That way, you'll get a nice golden/yellowish melon pan toast in the end.