This morning I phoned back home to have a chat with my mother. Chats always inevitably end up in talking about food. She wanted to know what I am cooking today. When I told her, she excitedly told me how I should cook it. Yes there are some extra steps but after tasting it, mother is right.

Hubby and the gal totally enjoyed it! Actually I have bought a few packets of the Szechuan Preserved vegetables to try. I told my mother we can’t buy them in big brown jars anymore. We used to get them like that in the olden days. Nowadays they are all prepacked and sealed. I can’t read much Chinese. I have trouble picking which to buy. So I bought one of each of the lot. I tasted them all before using and only 1 packet went into the bin.

All these packets were were all right except for the seaweed one. Terrible especially when I am used to the Japanese wakame salad. This was the only packet I binned.







TIP1 – I have never done this stage before and my mother said ‘why are you not hygiene conscious?’ She said must do this stage to ‘clean’ them. Yup, that is my mother. She don’t mince her words! She then insisted I must fry shallots and garlic in oil. I should keep frying until I can smell them. Only then should I add in the drained preserved vegetables.
TIP2 – You must give the preserved vegetables a good toss. Adding the sugar is also essential. This gives the preserved vegetables a much nicer extra crunch!









Hi Julie
Thank you for posting all your wonderful recipes and cooking tips. Very much appreciated and son enjoys them too. I often buy my preserved vegetables in jar from Sous chef if I am unable to get them at our local Leeds Oriental supermarket. Here is the link to the one I usually buy.
https://www.souschef.co.uk/products/tianjin-preserved-vegetable
Hope this is what you are looking for.
Thank you.
I also buy this one.
https://www.orientalmart.co.uk/white-rabbit-brand-szechuen-preserved-mustard-stems-whole