Thursday, November 15, 2012

Recipe: Stir Fried Tau Miu (豆苗) with Prawns

Tau miu (豆苗), also known as sweet pea sprout is a kind of crunchy vegetable which we enjoy eating. Many years ago when I was still a kid, we used to order this whenever we visited a Chinese restaurant. At that time, this vegetable was labelled as one of the more "expensive" dishes so it was a treat to have it.

Nowadays this vegetable is very readily available in  both restaurants and supermarkets. It has a crunchy texture alike to beansprouts. It requires very little cooking time and usually it is just stir fried with some garlic and seasoned. We like to dress ours up a little with some shitake mushrooms, fried shallots and sauteed king prawns. We always marinate our prawns with a little Chinese Shaoxing wine as it gives it a nicer, crunchier texture.

So, dear readers have you come across this vegetable before and how do you usually cook it?



Love the vibrant colours



Stir Fried Tau Miu (豆苗) with Prawns
Preparation time: 5-10 minutes
Cooking time: 5-6 minutes
Serves 4

Ingredients
1 shitake mushroom, thinly sliced
200g tau miu sprouts

8 prawns, deveined
1 tsp Shaoxing wine

1 shallot
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 small red cili (cili padi), whole
Salt and pepper
3 tbsp cooking oil


1. Marinate prawn with Shaoxing wine, salt and pepper for 5 minutes.

2. In a wok over medium high heat, heat the cooking oil and add shallots. Fry for 2 minutes until golden brown and remove shallot only and place in a small bowl. This will make your oil fragrant.

3. Using the same oil, fry your prawns for 1 minute or until cooked. The prawns will change to a bright orange hue when cooked. Remove from wok and set aside.

4. Over medium high heat, place the garlic, mushrooms and cili padi in the wok, and fry for 2 minutes until golden brown. Add the tau miu sprouts and stir fry for 1 minute, and season with salt and pepper. Tau miu sprouts do not require very much cooking. Remove from heat.

5. To serve, place tau mui sprouts and mushrooms on plate, then topped with prawns and deep fried shallots.





*This recipe was featured on Asian Food Channel's FB page on 22 November 2012.

49 comments:

  1. I love this veg, these days I can find the organic version at very reasonable prices at the supermarkets, so happy :)

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    1. COOL, organic ones should be sweeter right? :)

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  2. Not a fan of this veg. Will eat, but not really into it.

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  3. Tau miu is one of my favourite vegetables full stop! Sounds like a simple but satisfying recipe - will try! Shu x

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    1. I love it too! If we can find good ones, then we will buy it :)

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  4. I love pea sprouts, but sometimes its hard to find those tender young ones, the ones sold in the supermarkets tend to be quite old and stringy,,i tend to just fry this with some fish cakes, but using king prawns sounds great! Yum.

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    1. That's true, biting into those old ones are not pleasant. But my mum is good at choosing the tender ones. :)

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  5. Ooo I like ordering this vege at restaurants.

    But it always pisses me off cos half the time (even at pretty pricey places) the shoots that are served are tough and chewy instead of 'crunchy' and tender :(

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  6. Hi, Yen, I don't normally buy this to cook as my children don't like to eat! So when we go out to eat in the chinese restaurant, we will order it! It must be good to eat with mushroom & prawns!

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    1. My children will eat a little, cos it's a little like beansprouts.

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  7. i just cooked tau miu too, just stir fry with garlic. Your version better than mine, got big prawns, hehehe..

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  8. My granny usually just stir-fry this with garlic.

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  9. oh, i love this tau miu too, normally i do a simple stir fry just with garlic. Yen, this is a great and simple dish!

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  10. We love stir fried tou miu! Sometime will cook at home, but dont really know how to choose, bought those very old one before,then no so nice. hehehe.

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    1. Haha I also not sure how to choose, just ikut "feel" :P

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  11. i like tau miu too, though i must confess, somehow i can never remember the name of this veggie. but yeah, the crunch of it, the fresh, clean flavor, and the ease of chewing on it ... one of my favorite chinese veggies. am glad you featured it (and now i'll try to remember its name) :D

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  12. You know, I don't think I've ever tried this vegetable! I wonder why it used to be so expensive. Was it hard to grow? :)

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    1. I guess restaurants need to pick out the better (more tender) sprouts, not sure if it's hard to grow!

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  13. Love those pretty prawns lying so beautifully on the green bed..great job

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    1. Thanks Amrita! Killing two birds with one dish ;)

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  14. You are such a good cook Huey Yen! Yes I had this in Malaysia but usually just with vegetables, I didn't even know it was expensive then! We don't have it in Bermuda unfortunately.

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    1. Thanks Lynne! Happy to see you drop by my blog :)

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  15. Dear Baby Sumo,

    This vegetable is nice but I find people and restaurants just can't think outside the box and prepare it in a nicer way than the usual stir-frying. It would be such a beautiful cold salad that can go with orange wedges, grilled calamari or a simple apple cider dressing.

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  16. Love the contrast in colours between the crunchy Tai Miu and the succulent Prawns =)

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  17. Very nice color. I like this kind of Chinese style stir fry vege ;-)

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    1. Simple and nice! Can cook any day of the week.

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  18. I never order this vegetable when dine in at Tai Chow, with some unidentified reason :P

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  19. oo.. I love Tau Miu... I just lightly stir fry mine with garlic becos I like the flavor of the veggie already.. XD

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    1. Nice! My kids like to eat prawns so its a bonus.

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  20. Love this dish.. very simple and easy too cook! ;D

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