Chinese Stew Recipe – Picture this: A cold winter evening or clouds looming outside. There is a chill in the air…the weather is cool and crisp. All you need to have a comforting meal. The recipe I bring to you today is just absolutely perfect for such times. A simple, yummy vegetable stew, that goes perfectly with rice or noodles. Grab a bowl, ladle the hot broth on and enjoy!
Ingredients for Chinese Vegetable Stew
- 2 Onions, cut into quarters
- 2 Chilies diagonally cut
- An inch of ginger (macerated)
- 2 stalks of Lemongrass cut into 2-inch sticks
- Chopped French Beans 1 Cup
- Chopped Carrots (1-inch sticks) 1 cup
- Chopped Button Mushrooms 1 cup
- Quartered Baby Corn Strips 1 cup
- Any other Vegetables of your Choice
- 5-6 Peppercorns freshly ground
- Olive/Canola Oil to cook
- Light Soy Sauce 1tbsp
- Cup Soup Mix-any Chinese soup Variant of Choice
- Salt to taste
Method of Preparing Chinese Style Vegetable Stew
To a heavy bottomed iron skillet, add 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil. Once the oil heats up add ginger and chilies.
Once the Chilies are crisped up, add all the vegetables except mushrooms. Avoid adding vegetables like mushroom, capsicum etc at this point. These vegetables release moisture and interfere with sauté of other vegetables. Cook on medium high heat all this while.
Add the lemongrass stalks after a while. Once the vegetables have withered and cooked down; add the mushrooms. Cook for 2-3 minutes on medium high. Add the salt and pepper, followed by soy sauce.
Continue to sauté for another 2-3 minutes. At this point mix the cup soup mix with 2 tablespoons of water, to form a paste.
Add this to the cooked vegetables. Mix well and keep stirring the mixture, so that the soup mix gets nicely incorporated and loses its flour like the taste. Take care that the mix does not stick to the bottom of the skillet.
Add 3 cups of water and bring to a boil. Cook covered for 10 minutes. By this time, the stew will be piping hot, nice and ready to be eaten: D
Garnish with chopped coriander to bring that pop of freshness. The stew is best enjoyed hot over steamed rice or noodles. Ummmhummm…take a moment, and savor the joy of wonderfully easy comfort food!!