Sauteed Snow Pea Leaves

 This year, I am thankful for having no work and no school for the entire week. In celebration of this rare event, I am going to study everyday this week! yay. Such is the life of a grad student but my grades will thank me later, I know it. I hope to also do alot of cooking this week but I'm not sure if I will get to post my cooking adventures. Expect to see alot of posts next week though. For now I leave you with my latest foray into dim sum.

snow pea leaves . Aka dai dou miao is quickly sauteed with oil and garlic for a delicious but expensive dim sum dish. My family has recently discovered that these are sold at the farmer's market and also at the Asian grocery store. Mom has always made this well but it's my turn to try.

Bag of about 1lb snow pea leaves for $2.99 at the market. Here I am plucking off the tough parts of the shoots and breaking them into smaller sections before washing.

(image from mainstreet) This is how I wanted it to turn out. When I have this at a restaurant, the leaves are tender and have a watercress-texture. No seasoning is required since they have a nice sweetish, mild flavor. But they do tend to drench it in oil so I used much less oil.

This is how mine turned out. :( sadness a little bit. I overcooked it and instead of being tender, they were a little stringy and maybe not using as much oil was a bad idea as it turned out more steamed than sauteed. I also added some cayenne pepper and chili garlic sauce because life needs to be HOT. Still, it's hard to really mess up snow pea leaves because they're so delicious and this was still yummy despite not matching up to restaurant quality. mmm I want some more already.