Cooking Mama: Kangkong In Oyster Sauce

10 March 2015

Since I decided to do meatless Fridays for Lent, I have been googling vegetable recipes using veggies that I don't normally eat. Take for instance kang kong. I never ate kangkong because I remember seeing them growing right beside my lola's pig pens with the pigs feeding on them. Kangkong for me was kaning baboy.

I only started eating vegetables when my eldest daughter could already talk. That's when she would tell me to eat MY vegetables. However, I only ate veggies with English names. Cabbage, potatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, string beans, etc etc. Kangkong, alugbati, tugabang? I don't know them. That's why on my first attempt to buy kangkong, I was tricked. I asked the market tindera if the bunch of leaves on her table were kangkong, she said yes. Since I don't know my green leafy Filipino veggies, I bought a bunch. When I got home, yaya told me they were alugbati and not kangkong. Grrrrr!

I finally bought the correct leaves at a supermarket where the veggies were clearly labeled. And kangkong is not Filipino, btw, it's Chinese! (Should've known by how the name sounded!) Price tag read: Chinese Kangkong P62 - 1kg.

So here's last meatless Friday's dinner. (My husband wanted adobong kangkong which I will eventually try to prepare soon.)

KANGKONG IN OYSTER SAUCE

Ingredients:
A large bunch of kangkong
2 tbsp cooking oil
2 tbsp garlic, finely minced
1/4c oyster sauce
2c chicken/beef broth
1.5 tbsp corn starch
Salt, pepper & sugar
1 tbsp cooking wine
Sesame seed oil

KANGKONG

1. Wash the kangkong well. Cut off the tough (lower) ends of the stalks.
2. Boil 6c of water. When water is boiling, blanch the kangkong for 3 minutes. Pour into a strainer and douse with cold water.
3. Let the excess water drip off then arrange the kangkong on a platter.

SAUCE

1. Turn the stove to medium and heat the cooking oil in a small pan. When hot but not smoking, toast the garlic.
2. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels. Pour off the oil.
3. Pour in a cup and a half of broth and bring to a boil.
4. In a mixing bowl, stir together the remaining broth, oyster sauce, corn starch, salt and pepper to taste, sugar, cooking wine, and a drizzle of sesame seed oil.
5. Pour #4 mixture into the boiling broth and cook. Stir until thick and clear.

6. Pour sauce over the kangkong and top with toasted garlic.

Thank God It's meatless Friday!