Snow Peas and Chinese Sausage Stirfry (荷兰豆炒广式香肠)

Because my family loves snow peas, I seeded 20 snow peas in mid-September. Normally people grow snow peas in the Spring, when temperature is between 40° to 70° Fahrenheit (about 5° to 20° Celsius). But because of Texas’ mild winter, there are actually two growing seasons for snow peas here. Fall in Texas is a great time for snow peas.

It was my first time growing snow peas. It took a little more than two months for the snow peas to yield pods. But they are easy to grow. Besides providing a trellis and watering every so often, there wasn’t much work involved. I didn’t see any worms or bugs feeding on the pea shoots or the pea pods. But even with 20 snow pea plants, it still takes 2 to 3 harvests to collect enough peas to make a dish. Maybe that’s why they are expensive in the grocery store!

I digress. Today’s recipe is about snow peas. They are the flat unripe pods of snow pea plants. There are many ways to enjoy snow peas. I personally think they taste the best when stir fried, which makes the snow peas tender, sweet, yet crisp and a bit crunchy. You can stir fry them alone with garlic, but I like to include some Chinese sausages to add more color and make the dish even more flavorful. This dish goes especially well with rice and can even make a simple meal for one.

Young snow pea shoots are also edible and quite tasty too. I will cover the shoots in a future post.

Low Carb

Preparation Time:  15 minutes

Total Time:  20 minutes

Servings: 2 – 4 people

Ingredients:

• 1/2 lb snow peas
• 1 to 2 Chinese sausages ¹
• 3 to 5 garlic cloves
• 1/3 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil

Preparation:

1. Rinse the snow peas. Remove the strings (if any) by pulling the end all the way down.² Drain the snow peas well.

2. Cut the Chinese sausages diagonally into thin slices.

3. Peel and slice the garlic cloves.

4. Heat a well seasoned wok or skillet under medium heat. When the wok is getting warm, add the 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil and the sliced garlic. Stir the garlic for a few seconds until it releases its fragrance. Add the snow peas and immediately start stirring and tossing. Add the 1/3 teaspoon of kosher salt. Keep stirring until the snow peas change to a deeper green color.

5. When most of the snow peas have changed color but are still fairly raw, add the sliced Chinese sausages. Keep stirring and tossing for another two minutes or so until snow peas are cooked through but still crisp. Turn off the heat and transfer the snow peas and sausages out to a plate. Enjoy right away!

Bon Appétit

Notes:

1. You can find these Chinese sausages in pretty much any Asian grocery store. Some Costco locations even carry them. They taste sweet and savory at the same time.

2. Some of the younger snow peas have much shorter strings or no strings. Removing the strings make the snow peas more tender.

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