How To Make Stir Fried Morning Glory- Chinese Style

Ready for another Chinese style recipe? This is one of my favorite dishes. As a kid, I did not like eating vegetables, but this was one exception. I always ate this vegetable, although of course, we could not have this everyday, could we?

And, during my first few years of working in Hong Kong, I was introduced to so many kinds of vegetables, and, after I got used to them, I loved everything!

The Chinese eat with vegetables everyday, and stir frying is one of the most common ways they cook their veggies.

First off, what, in the world, is morning glory? I don't know where they got this name, but it is actually kangkong for us Filipinos. That's what they call it in English in Chinese restaurants, and they also have another term for it in Cantonese, although as I am writing my mind goes blank as to what it is called. So we'll just call it morning glory, shall we?

In this recipe I used:

4 bundles of Chinese kangkong- the variety with roots, trimmed and washed, and drained

4-5 garlic cloves, crushed and chopped into small pieces

2-3 pieces of red chili (siling labuyo) optional

Again, here is the finished product, and they also have a variation where in they add a cube of fermented beancurd, which is not available here, or shrimp paste, which is like our bagoong alamang here, which has a very pungent smell.

When you're ready to cook, heat up your wok, (that's what they call a pan they use for stir frying), with 2-3 tablespoons of cooking oil. The trick to stir frying is to make your pan very hot- you should see a little bit of smoke in the pan. Add your chopped garlic and chiles. Stir for a few seconds, and add your morning glory.

Add about a teaspoon of salt. Stir your veggies until they become wilted. 

The more you turn them around with your spatula, the more wilted they become. Keep doing that until the color of the greens has changed into somewhat darker shade and everything has wilted.

Do that for another minute or so, taking care not to overcook the greens. If they are overcooked, they lose all their nutrition, plus, its definitely not good to eat mushy greens.

Transfer your greens to a serving plate. Now, if you don't like it spicy, you can forego the chiles altogether and just use garlic. It is now ready to serve. Perfect to go with our roast chicken recipe if you are feeding fellow Filipinos. Enjoy! :-)

Tip: Eating garlic lowers  cholesterol, because of the antioxidant properties of Allicin. It is also immensely beneficial in regulating blood pressure and blood sugar levels, so don't put the garlic aside, eat them as well!

For more recipes, please go to this page.