The big guy at home loves his plate of garlic chives and he can have it any time (I think). I used to wonder why, but after eating this vegetable very frequently after I got married to him – almost every other week because his mum would cook it for him every other week. I gradually got used to eating this dish after a while; by and by, I actually grew to like it too. The crunchiness and freshness and its naturally sweet stems – I’ve never noticed they tasted so good when I was young. The best thing of all is that it is very easy and fast to cook.
This dish of garlic chives with pork liver is a very typical Chinese stir-fry, more commonly eaten at home than outside as it is not easy to keep the livers tasty and soft to the bite for a long duration, that is, if hawkers were to sell this as a dish at their stalls. Given its unavailability outside, it is hence a dish that I like to cook once in a while as a comfort food for everyone at home.
Ingredients:
- Oil: 2 tbsp
- Garlic: 2 cloves, finely chopped
- Pork liver: 200g, sliced
- Sugar: 1 tsp
- Fish sauce: 1 tbsp
- Oyster sauce: 2 tbsp
- Water: 1/2 cup
- Garlic chive: 300g, sliced into 3″ lengths
Method:
- Heat oil in wok.
- Add garlic. Stir-fry till fragrant.
- Add pork liver, sugar, fish sauce, oyster sauce and water. Stir over low heat for 1min.
- Stir in garlic chives. Cover the wok with lid and leave to cook over low heat for 1min.
- Serve hot with rice.
Tricks:
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You can also use pork kidney (sliced, fat trimmed away, scored diagonally) as a substitute for the liver, or a mixture of both in the same dish.
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Make sure that you don’t leave the pork liver to cook for too long in the wok, lest they turn tough and hard to bite through. Cook them over low heat so that the liver can be cooked evenly within and without.
Serving:
2 – 3 persons as side dish
