Recipe: XO Stir Fry greens and scallop

My mom was very comforting over the phone. I love my mom. When there's a problem, the first person I look for would be my mom. Most people would find this cheesy. Kitschy even. But romantic never went out of fashion. It's evergreen.

Speaking of green, I hereby introduce to you one of my all time favorite dish, XO stir fry greens and scallop. The word "greens" may turn you off but there's a reason to the popularity of this classic Cantonese dish. It's delicious, in spite of the greens, thanks to the unique taste of the XO sauce. The words to describe XO sauce?

Piquant, exciting, fragrant, erring towards the sweet side, well-rounded and delicious.Sounds like I'm describing a hot girl eh? Haha.

Recipe: XO stir fry greens and scallops

Ingredients:

A:
-1 teaspoon of olive oil + 1 drop of sesame oil
-12 scallops

B:
-2 cloves of garlic, smashed

-2-3 tablespoon of XO sauce

-1 can of tinned straw mushrooms, halved.
-1 cup of frozen peas
-1 carrot, peeled and sliced
-1 red pepper, deseeded and cut into squares
-A dash of chinese rice wine
-1 teaspoon of raw sugar
-1 teaspoon of oyster sauce
-1 teaspoon of Lee Kum Kee premium chicken bouillon powder
-Generous amount of ground black pepper

Instructions:

1. Heat up pan and add oil. Place the scallops onto the pan. Sear each side for 20 seconds. Remove scallops and set aside.

2. In the same pan, add in 2 cloves of garlic and the XO sauce. Stir on low heat for 1 minute or until fragrant.

3. Add in carrot, red pepper and mushrooms. Stir for 3-4 minutes on medium heat. The carrots will soften a little.

4. Then, add in frozen peas, oyster sauce, sugar, chicken! powder and a dash of rice wine. Turn to high heat. Stir for 2 minutes.

5. Reduce heat to low. Introduce scallops into the pan. Stir gently for 2 minutes. Finish off with black pepper. Serve with rice.

The wonder of this dish is that you can choose the vegetables that you like. XO sauce works best with broccoli, mushrooms and asparagus.

If you wonder where I got my XO sauce from, I got it from City Super at Harbour City, Hong Kong. Haha. Initially, I wanted to get XO sauce from Chynna or Shang Palace...Both places make really good XO sauce. Wonder why I got it from Hong Kong in the end though. When I told my friend that I bought lots of food stuff from Hong Kong and shipped it back to Melbourne, she found it really strange. I mean, for food?

Well, I love good food and I want the good things to go into my belly. I guess that explains.