Chinese Style Chopsuey

Roasted Duck with mixed greens. Image by avlxyz

Chop suey (literally means "assorted pieces") is a Chinese dish consisting of meats (often chicken, fish, beef, shrimp (UK: prawns) or pork) and eggs, cooked quickly with vegetables such as bean sprouts, cabbage, and celery and bound in a starch-thickened sauce. It is typically served with rice but can become the Chinese-American form of chow mein with the addition of stir-fried noodles.

Chinese Style saucy Chopsuey. Image by SDeluz

Chop suey has become a prominent part of American Chinese cuisine, Filipino cuisine, Canadian Chinese cuisine, Indian Chinese cuisine, and Polynesian cuisine

I love chopsuey! This is my favorite dish of all time and I especially love the way my mom makes it. Unfortunately, it is so hard to do coz of the number of chopping. Here is a recipe that is basically a chinese variation due to the use of oyster sauce. 

Ingredients:

1 pound pork or beef 

Pork / Beef  Marinade:

1 teaspoon soy sauce

2 teaspoons oyster sauce

1 teaspoon salt

Pepper to taste

1 teaspoon Cornstarch

Sauce:

4 tablespoons water or chicken broth

2 teaspoons oyster sauce

3/4 to 1 teaspoon cornstarch

Vegetables:

2 small bunches broccoli

1 big carrot

1/2 cup bamboo shoots, rinsed

1/2 pound fresh mushrooms, washed and patted dry with a paper towel

1/2 cup water chestnuts 

1 large green pepper

2 stalks celery

1 onion

1/2 pound snow peas (optional)

Oil for stir-frying

Preparation:

1. Cut the pork into thin strips. 

• Add seasonings to pork
• Add the cornstarch last. 
• Marinate the pork for 10 - 15 minutes. 

2. While pork is marinating, prepare vegetables and sauce. 

3. For sauce: Whisk together the sauce ingredients and set aside.

4. For vegetables: 

• Cut bamboo shoots into thin strips. 
• Slice the mushrooms and water chestnuts. 
• Cut the green pepper in half, remove the seeds and slice diagonally. 
• For the broccoli, separate each stalk and leaves. 
• Cut the celery and carrot diagonally. 
• Cut the onion in half, peel, and slice thinly.

5. Place the vegetables on a large tray, being careful to keep each group separate, and set aside.

6. Heat wok and add oil. When oil is ready, add the pork. Stir-fry pork until rednes is gone. Remove and set aside.

7. Reheat wok and add more oil. When oil is ready, stir-fry each of the vegetables. The order doesn't matter, but you can stir-fry the onions and celery together, (if desired you can cook these with the pork), and the green pepper and snow peas together. 

8. Add salt to taste as desired while stir-frying each group of vegetables. Add water and cover wok, as it doesn't contain much moisture.

9. Reheat wok and add oil. Give the sauce a quick re-stir. Add and combine all the cooked ingredients in the wok. Make a "well" in the center and gradually add the sauce, stirring to thicken. Once it has boiled, remove the chop suey from the stove. 

10. Serve hot with rice.

There's a Pinoy version of this without the sauce. I will post that some time. Enjoy and stay healthy!