Chinese Sausage with Green Garlic
蒜苗炒香腸 (Suan Miao Chao Xiang Chang)
Chinese sausage, 臘腸 (lap cheong) or 香腸 (xiang chang) [1], are cured pork sausages flavored with rice wine and sugar. These sausages can be found in many rice and noodle dishes, or wrapped inside buns. This rustic Taiwanese preparation, however, showcases the flavor of these sausages on their own.
Ingredients
4 Chinese sausages
2 stalks green garlic
1 tbsp Shaoxing rice wine
Chinese sausages are available at most Asian supermarkets, and are becoming more generally available in western stores as well. When shopping for high quality Chinese sausage, look for a relatively short ingredients list. This suggests that the sausages were air-dried and cured properly. There are regional variations on this sausage, with some versions going heavy on the wine, some versions sweeter, and some versions leaner or fattier, so find a brand that you like! Green garlic can be harder to find, but it is most widely available in the spring and summer months.
Prepare the sausage by slicing on the bias into pieces about ¼ inch thick. Add the sausage pieces to a cold pan, and place the pan on low heat. The sausage has plenty of fat, and a gentle cook over low heat gives the fat time to render. Cook for about 5 minutes, flipping the pieces once, until the sausage pieces are cooked through and begin to crisp.
While the sausage is cooking, prepare the green garlic, stripping off any tough outer leaves and washing thoroughly. Slice the stalks on the bias, and thinly slice the bulb.
When the sausage is fully cooked, turn the heat up to high. Add the green garlic to the pan, together with a tablespoon of rice wine, and stir immediately. Fry for 1 minute, tossing and stirring constantly, until the wine has evaporated and the green garlic and sausages are well mixed.
As traditionally prepared, the green garlic in this dish is just tender enough to eat, and still has a raw garlic edge to it. This can be a bit of an acquired taste, so if you prefer a more subtle garlic flavor, stir fry for an additional minute or two, until the green garlic is fully cooked.
Serve with rice or congee, or as a side dish for dumplings.
Substitutions
If you don’t eat pork, you can find Chinese sausages made from chicken. If you can’t find green garlic, you can substitute a combination of scallion and thinly sliced garlic.
[1] As with all culinary traditions, Chinese cuisine contains a great variety of sausages to make use of different parts of the animal. These include liver and blood sausages, as well as fresh, smoked, and air-dried varieties.
Recipe
Prep Time: 3 min Cook Time: 6 min Total Time: 9 min
Difficulty: 1/5
Heat Sources: 1 burner
Equipment: pan
Servings: 4
Ingredients
4 Chinese sausages
2 stalks green garlic
1 tbsp Shaoxing rice wine
Instructions
1. Slice the sausages on the bias into ¼ inch thick pieces, and add them to a cold pan. Cook over low heat until the fat renders and the sausage begins to crisp, about 5 minutes.
2. Slice the green garlic on the bias.
3. When the sausage is cooked, turn the heat up to high and add the green garlic and rice wine. Stir fry for about 1 minute, until the wine has evaporated and the green garlic is just tender.
