Taiwanese Ingredient Braised "Sun-Dried Cauliflower" and Cabbage

The key is sun-dried cauliflower for this recipe, but I also want to point out how delicious cabbage is in Taiwan. 

It came to my attention that sometime when talked about cabbage, the reaction is often frowned upon from westerners, especially Europeans. Little do they know that the cabbage from Taiwan is soft and even carry a bit of sweet note.

So the deepened flavor from the sun-dried cauliflower paired with sweet and tender cabbage, these two are the key notes for this recipe. And if you're reading my post and had a bad experience with cabbage, please, please do give our Taiwan cabbage stir-fry a try when you get a chance. It'll definitely change your mind for good.

Taiwanese Braised sun-dried cauliflower and cabbage - 

Ingredients?

• 100 grams sun-dried cauliflower
• 1/2 medium cabbage
• 8 dried shiitake mushrooms
• 1 medium carrot
• 400 grams fried bean curd skin 炸豆皮
• 2 garlic cloves
• 2 tablespoons dried shrimps 蝦米
• 1 1/2 cups chicken stock (or chicken essence plus hot water)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• Some salt
• Some white pepper powder
• Some corn starch and water mixture

How?

Peel and julienne the carrot. Cut-off the stem for the cabbage then hand-tear to medium large pieces. Peel and chop the garlic cloves.

If using dry fried bean curd skin, use hot water to quickly give it a rinse. If using frozen kind, just need to defrost the day before cooking. Slice into medium size pieces if too big.

Rinse the sun-dried cauliflower then soak in room-temperature water. Should be around 15 minutes or so. Once ready, rinse and drain again.

Rinse the dried shiitake mushrooms then use 1 cup of room-temperature water to soak it. Once hydrated, take out the mushrooms but do save the water here. Destem the mushrooms and slice the caps to strips.

Rinse and soak the the dried shrimps. You should guess it now, use room-temperature water for the job, about 15 minutes too. After that, drain and pat dry with paper towel then fine chop the shrimps.

Bring out a pot and drizzle 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Switch to medium heat, add in dried shrimps and garlic. Stir-fry till aromatic but not burning the garlic bits. Add in the mushrooms and stir-fry till aromatic.

Transfer torn cabbage over along with cauliflower, fried bean curd skin, and carrot. Give it a quick stir-fry.

Pour in 1 1/2 cups of chicken stock, or I actually used 2 single-serving packs of chicken essence plus some hot water instead. Also pour in that 1 cup of mushroom-soaking water that we saved earlier.

Bring to a boil then adjust the heat to keep it at a light boiling stage. Put on the lid and cook for 15 minutes, or till the vegetables reach desired texture. 

Taste and adjust with additional seasonings if needed. I added 2 1/2 teaspoons of salt plus few dashes of white pepper powder. Mix till evenly blended.

Switch to lowest heat and wait till temperature drops a little. Have some corn starch and water mixture ready. Pour into the pot slowly while stirring all the ingredients at the same time. This slowly pouring and stirring motion can help preventing lumps while reaching a slightly gooey thickened consistency.

A somewhat heathy dish I would say. However, if you prefer some meat in it, you can always drop in pork belly slices before mixing in the corn starch and water mixture. 

Other recipes using sun-dried cauliflower:

• Sun-dried cauliflower and pork belly stew 白花椰菜干滷肉
• Sun-dried cauliflower and shredded pork stir-fry 白花椰菜乾炒肉絲