Luffa (絲瓜) with prawns and egg

I was at the market a couple of days ago when this old lady brought a luffa to the vegetable stall owner and asked her how to cook it. And that was when I recalled how long I've not cooked this dish, and how much I miss it, really. It also brought to mind one of my mil's comments. She said (roughly translated from Mandarin) that "the zi char stall downstairs doesn't have good tasting food because they employed young cooks and young people can't cook." Of course I beg to differ. Not on the point that the food sold downstairs isn't good, but that young people know nuts about cooking. Well, I definitely can cook - and I'm young. So there. :D And obviously, we know that not all old people can cook well either. But I didn't bother to contest her statement with her. Some old people just have the deep-set notion that the young are too inexperienced to be able to cook well.

Anyway, here's the recipe to one of my favourite vegetable dishes.


Luffa (絲瓜) with prawns and egg

Ingredients:

• 1 luffa (skinned, the fluffy stuff within removed, then sliced thinly at an angle)
• 4 prawns (washed, shelled (keep the tail) and deveined)
• 1 egg (beaten)
• 1-2 cloves garlic (minced)
• Stock/ water
• salt to taste

Method:

1. Prepare the luffa and the rest of the ingredients as stated above.
2. Saute the garlic in a wok.
3. Add the prawns in and cook till they are 80% cooked. Remove prawns from wok.
4. Add in the luffa and fry for awhile. Add stock/water (I used water from parboiling the broccoli and carrot yesterday) and simmer till the luffa is cooked (just pick one slice up to try when you think the luffa maybe ready).
5. Add in the prawns and simmer till the prawns are cooked through (not allowing the prawns to over-simmer will prevent them from becoming overcooked)
6. Swirl in the beaten egg slowly, bit by bit.
7. Add salt to taste.
8. Dish and serve.

Yesterday's luffa dish was so flavourful and gosh, so sweet that my hubby actually thought I added sugar! Even though this time round I used only the water which was used to parboil the broccoli and carrots for another dish, the luffa still turned out so marvellously delish. Ooh, I can't wait to cook this again soon! Btw, I love luffa soup too!

For toddler's consumption:

• Serve as it is if you have sliced the luffa thinly enough.