Chinese New Year is a good cause for having plenty of meats and luxury dishes. We had enough for last week's CNY celebration. It’s a time to get back with more vegan dishes to balance our digestive system, even though we’re not vegan eaters. I’m glad that the meat-lover in the family didn’t complain when I served this stir fried dish, 炒三絲 (literally means stir fried three shredded ingredients – vegetables often used). You can easily find this dish from any Chinese restaurants. Different restaurants might offer different combinations of vegetables though. Some might even add a kind of meat into their own version. So, feel free to tweak the recipe here, pick any kinds of vegetables to your liking. This dish is simple, inexpensive, with high fiber and very refreshing.
As for my version, there are some eye-catching black strips mixing with the white bean sprouts and red carrots. They are cut from a very special ingredient, often used in Chinese cooking, called wood ear – a kind of black fungus. Many people overlook its nutritional value because wood ear hasn’t got an attractive looking, sold at a cheap price, and in black. Actually, wood ear has more protein, iron and vitamins than white fungus. Due to their tasteless flesh, it’s seldom cooked or eaten on its own. If they are cooked with meats or stir fried with other vegetables, they’d absorb all the flavours and tastes in sauce, then become a highlight in that dish, giving you an amazingly surprise.
