Chinese Celtuce Vegetable Cold Dish 薑汁萵筍

Recently we've been deep in the veggie zone, dipping through our cookbooks and trying out all kinds of Chinese ways of preparing vegetables,  a fabulously fun and delicious thing to do cuz Chinese cuisine kicks some serious veggie a**!   

One treasure we discovered was this recipe that goes all the way back to the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1368) when a hermit/poet named Lin Hong 林洪 compiled one of the earliest Chinese recipe books beautifully titled Simple Offerings of a Mountain Hermit 山家清供.  That makes this recipe around 800 years old!  

This Chinese Celtuce Vegetable Cold Dish 薑汁萵筍 is a simple yet elegant salad cold dish featuring the unusual crisp yet tender jade hued celtuce vegetable drizzled with a tasty tart and gingery dressing.

Fried Dace with Salted Black Bean Stir Fried with Indian Lettuce 豆豉鯪魚炒油麥菜

A classic Cantonese Chinese dish is the Fried Dace with Salted Black Bean Stir Fried with Indian Lettuce, or 豆豉鯪魚炒油麥菜.  Even our jolly wet market vegetable guy had to admit, chuckling, that there's no way around it: if you're going to cook Indian Lettuce, or 油麥菜, there's nothing better to go with it than the fabulous Fried Dace with Salted Black Bean, or 豆豉鯪魚.  

It's soooo easy to make this delicious dish cause you just open up a can of Fried Dace and stir fry it with the lettuce and Voila!  Classic, yummy, delicious Cantonese Chinese fish and vegetable dish!