Cap Cay (Mixed-Vegetables Stir-Fry)

Cap Cay is an Indonesian mixed vegetables dish with a Chinese influence. It is basically a stir-fry of variety different kinds of vegetables. The name Cap Cay itself originates from a Chinese dialect, Fujian, and means “mixed vegetables”.

‘fraid not, meat lovers… You can also add your favorite meats into the dish, like I always do. It is not limited only to the Vegetarians. Not only, Cap Cay is a very delicious mixed vegetables dish served on top of hot steamed rice, it is also a practical meal to make in terms of cleaning up your fridge if you have bits and pieces of different veggies. You can “throw” any veggies in the wok to make Cap Cay.

Here is my version of Cap Cay for the day. Believe it or not, this is one of my comfort food, where I can eat at least two bowl of steaming hot rice topped with this delish without feeling guilty (well, cap cay is a kinda like cooked salad, right?). Also, I like to add my aunt’s chili garlic vinegar as a condiment to enhance the flavor (talking about the one who likes spicy stuff, lol). For vegetarian, you can substitute the pork with tofu (or can eliminate it altogether) and use mushroom sauce instead of oyster sauce.

Tips: Make sure that you put in the veggies that take longer to cook first since you do not want to overcook the other veggies. Also, in any type of stir-fry dish, always add the corn starch mixture the last.

Ingredients:

• 4 oz of pork – cut into bite sizes (optional: you can marinate it with salt and pepper. Then, leave it at least an hour in the fridge to tenderize the meat)
• 4 oz of baby carrots – sliced diagonally
• 1 broccoli stem – cut into small pieces
• 3 bunch of you choy/chinese broccoli – chopped roughly in 1 inch length
• 4 cabbage leaves – chopped roughly into small pieces
• 1 teaspoon of minced garlic
• 1 medium-sized onion – cut into wedges
• 2 teaspoon of chicken broth powder (can be substituted with soy sauce)
• 1 tablespoon of oyster sauce
• 1 tablespoon of rice wine
• 200 ml of water
• 2 tablespoons of oil
• 2 tablespoons of corn starch (more if you need thicker version) dissolved in 1 tbsp water
• Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

• Heat up oil in the wok. Add in garlic, onions and stir fry until they are a bit brownish
• Add rice wine, pork and stir-fry until it is cooked
• Then, add water, oyster sauce, chicken broth powder, mix them up. Then, broccoli, carrots, cook until they are soft. At this time, you might want to put the lid on your wok – it can reduce your cooking time.
• Add cabbage and you choy to the wok and let it simmer for about 1 minute. Season with salt and pepper
• Last, add the corn starch mixture and stir until the sauce is thickened. If it’s not thickened enough, you can add more of the corn starch mixture.
• Serve immediately with rice.