Hi Everyone!
So, I am going to introduce you to a dish that I actually crave in a really addictive way every month or so. To introduce you to it I have to give you the background on how I found it. I used to work for the New York Mets and spent almost all day everyday at Citi Field as that is where my office was, obviously. One day a friend and co-worker of mine asked if I wanted to go to a restaurant in Flushing, NY called Nan Xiang Xiao Long Bao, a restaurant I will tell you right now is worth the drive! Being the adventurous eater that I am I immediately said yes and 20 minutes later my eyes were opened to the best meal I may have ever eaten in my life. We ordered spicy bamboo shoots, marinated tofu, and stir-fried rice cakes. You may be asking yourself right now. ‘rice cakes, like the crunchy bland things people eat for breakfast?’, no, these are sticky, yummy, morsels of sticky white rice pressed into a cake shape that taste so delectable you will crave them just like I do! I continued to go back there with friends and co-workers until my last day with the Mets and crave going back there constantly ever since I left.
So, now you know the back story I am going to tell you my now story. A few months ago, like every other month or so, I had a craving for the rice cake dish at Nan Xiang Xiao Long Bao. I reached out to my friends and expressed my craving and we all sadly talked about how we need to go back to Nan Xiang soon. After that conversation I said to myself, I can’t wait any longer. I knew driving to Flushing. NY from where I live in New Jersey wasn’t plausible so I decided to google the recipe and make my own.
I found two recipes to this kind of rice cake dish and decided to mash up both recipes and make one of my own, I will link both recipes below. I found Korean rice cakes on Amazon, linked here, and vegan oyster sauce from Wegmans and was on my way! This recipe is the easiest recipe to make but the most satisfying one you can imagine! I will stop chatting now and let you get to the recipe because I promise you, you will want to make this dish! so with that, enjoy the recipe, go to the restaurant and make all the rice cake recipes you an imagine! You will be more than happy you did!
Recipe Inspiration:
Stir Fried Shanghai Rice Cakes
Servings: Approximately 6-8
Prep Time: Approximately 10 Minutes
Cook Time: 20 Minutes
Ingredients:
- 1 Lb. Korean Rice Cakes
- 1 Tbsp. Vegetable Oil
- 3 Garlic Cloves, Minced
- ½ Tsp. Ginger, Minced
- 4 Stalks Green Onion, cut into 1-inch pieces
- 15-17 Shiitake Mushrooms, sliced
- 2 ½ Cups Baby Bok Choy, cut into bitesize pieces
- ½ Cup water
- ¼ Cup White Wine
- 2 ½ Tbsp. Low Sodium Soy Sauce
- 2 ½ Tbsp. Regular Soy Sauce
- 2 Tbsp. Vegan Oyster Sauce
- ¾ Tsp Black Vinegar
- 2 Tsp. Brown Sugar
Instructions:
- In a bowl, soak the rice cakes in room temperature water until ready to cook them
- Add your oil to a large sauté pan and turn it onto medium high heat
- Once your pan gets hot add in your ginger, garlic, green onion, and shiitake mushrooms and cook for 2-3 minutes. Until the garlic is fragreant and the mushrooms are soft
- Drain the rice cakes and add them and the bok choy to the pan and mix together with the other ingredients
- after a minute, add in the water and white wine mix together so nothing is stuck to the bottom, cover the pan and cook for 2-3 minutes until the rice cakes get soft
- add in your sauce mixture to the pan, mix everything together and cook for 5 minutes until the sauce reduces and begins sticking to the rice cakes.
- Remove from heat and enjoy!
Notes
- If you don’t like ginger remove it from this recipe because even though not much is added you can definitely taste it
- The shiitake mushrooms add so much flavor to this dish, you can substitute them with another mushroom but it won’t be as good, believe me!
- You can substitute napa cabbage instead of bok choy but I think the bok choy is much better
- You can reheat this but it doesn’t come out nearly as good as it did when it was first cooked. If you are going to reheat this for leftovers add a small amount of water to it before heating and cover it with a lid or paper towel