Baked Chinese Cabbage (Napa Cabbage)

This week's recipe is a modern Chinese dish. Two things set it apart from traditional Chinese cooking: baking and milk. Baked Chinese cabbage 烤kăo 白bái 菜cài is deliciously creamy and is great way to get kids to to eat their vegies and goes well with Western as well as Chinese food.



Ingredients for 4 to 6 people



1 Chinese Cabbage/Napa cabbage (about 2lbs or 1KG)
1 small onion
1t salt
1T oil for frying
2T olive oil and 3T butter for making white sauce
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 milk
2 dried scallops (available in most Asian stores)
1T dried shrimps (available in most Asian stores)
1T rice wine

Preparation of shrimp and scallop

1 In seperate bowls soak shrimp and scallop in about half a cup of water for at least half and hour.
2 Break the scallop up.

Procedure

1 Wash the cabbage and cut into pieces.

2 Fry the shrimp.



3 Add the cabbage and fry for 3 minutes.



4 Add the scallops and the juice from soaking.


5 Cover the pan and continue cooking unitl the cabbage is soft.



6 Take the cabbage out and put the juice in a seperate container. Set the juice aside until it is cool.

7 On a low heat melt the butter in the olive oil.

8 Lightly fry the onion.

9 Stir in the flour and keep stiring while cooking for a minute. Then slowly add the juice from the cabbage to make a paste, remembering to stir all time. Gradually add the milk and continually stir to to avoid getting a lumpy sauce. The texture should still be a paste. If the texture gets too thick to stir, just add some water or milk.



10 Remove 3/4 cup of the paste and set aside.

11. Add the cooked cabbage to the pan and mix well. Then pour the mixture into an oven-proof dish.

12. Spread the saved cup of paste over the mixture



13 Bake for 15 minutes at 180°C/350°F or until the top is light brown and crispy.

14 Serve hot and enjoy.